Sandinista

Supporter of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN, Sandinista National Liberation Front), revolutionary movement founded in Nicaragua on July 23, 1961 to oppose the dictatorship (1936-1979) of the Somoza family, and in power under Daniel Ortega from 19 July 1979 until its defeat in the elections of 25 February 1990. The FSLN's founders chose as their inspiration Augusto C. Sandino[?] (1895-1934), leader of the 1927-1933 resistance to local conservative forces and their U.S. allies.

Combining a broad spectrum of ideological opinion from revolutionary Marxism to Liberation theology and reformist agendas of broadened peasant proprietorship, Sandinismo commanded widespread support within Nicaragua and overseas, though its challenge to powerful economic interests and United States influence in the region, as well as its support from the Soviet sphere, made its period in government an occasion for U.S. sponsorship of enemy "Contra" (counter-revolutionary) terrorist groups supported from bases in neighbouring Honduras (see also Iran-Contra Affair) ostensibly on the grounds of FSLN friendship with communist Cuba and support for leftist revolutionaries in war-torn El Salvador.

The Sandinistas were defeated in Nicaraguan elections on February 26, 1990.