User:LilyWhites1882/sandbox

Testing the sandbox.

ARTICLE DRAFT

Background

Following the United States occupation of Nicaragua in 1912 during the Banana Wars, the Somoza family political dynasty came to power, and would rule Nicaragua from 1937 until their ouster in 1979 during the Nicaraguan Revolution. The Somoza dynasty consisted of Anastasio Somoza García, his eldest son Luis Somoza Debayle, and finally Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The era of Somoza family rule was characterized by rising inequality and political corruption, strong US support for the government and its military, as well as a reliance on US-based multinational corporations.

Rise of the FSLN

In 1961 Carlos Fonseca Amador, Silvio Mayorga, and Tomás Borge Martínez formed the FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) with other student activists at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua (UNAN) in Managua. For the founding members of the FSLN, this was not their first experience with political activism. Amador, first General Secretary of the organization, had worked with others on newspaper “broadly critical” of the Somoza reign titled Segovia.

Consisting of approximately 20 members during the 1960s, with the help of students, the organization gathered support from peasants and anti-Somoza elements within Nicaraguan society, as well as from the Communist Cuban government, the leftist Panamanian government of Omar Torrijos, and the Venezuelan government of Carlos Andrés Pérez. By the 1970s the coalition of students, farmers, businesses, churches, and a small percentage of Marxists was strong enough to launch a military effort against the regime of longtime dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle.

The FSLN focused on guerrilla tactics almost immediately, inspired by the campaigns of Fidel Castro and Ché Guevara. Penetrating the Northern coast of Nicaragua, the Río Coco/Bocay-Raití campaign was largely a failure: “when guerrillas did encounter the National Guard, they had to retreat…with heavy losses.” Further operations included a devastating loss near the city of Matagalpa, during which Mayorga was killed, which led Amador to a “prolonged period of reflection, self-criticism and ideological debate.” During this time, the FSLN reduced attacks, instead focusing on solidifying the organization as a whole. 

Final Wikipedia Article Choice

Nicaraguan Revolution

By Wikipedia's own standards, the article "Nicaraguan Revolution" possesses "multiple issues." I'm hoping I'll be able to expand multiple sections in need of more information such as "Background," "Rise of the FSLN," and "Overthrow of the Somoza regime." Of course, these expansions will be accompanied by verifying citations, something this article is in dire need of. The focus of the article is massively important, attempting to describe the revolutionary force's (FSLN) violent overthrow of the Somoza regime in search of a more equitable Nicaragua, before the eventual election defeats ten years later in 1990. The issue is also filled with U.S. involvement, who militarily supported the Somoza family up until the inhumane crimes of the 1970s.

Preliminary Bibliography for Research

- Conge, Patrick J. "The Emergence of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, 1982–90." In From Revolution to War: State Relations in a World of Change, 89-112. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.14577.12.

- Gorman, Stephen M. "Power and Consolidation in the Nicaraguan Revolution." Journal of Latin American Studies 13, no. 1 (1981): 133-49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/156342.

- Henighan, Stephen. "Nicaraguan History, 1979–90." In Sandino's Nation: Ernesto Cardenal and Sergio Ramírez Writing Nicaragua, 1940-2012, 225-38. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2014.

- López, Fred A. "The Nature of the Sandinista Revolution." Latin American Perspectives 14, no. 1 (1987): 126-28. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2633678.

- Peace, Roger. "U.S.-Nicaragua Relations, the Sandinista Revolution, and the Contra War." In A Call to Conscience: The AntiContra War Campaign, 7-28. University of Massachusetts Press, 2012.

- Regan, Richard J. "Revolution and Civil War in Nicaragua (1978-90)." In Just War, Second Edition, 163-68. Catholic University of America Press, 2013.

- Rodgers, Dennis. "Searching for the Time of Beautiful Madness: Of Ruins and Revolution in Post-Sandinista Nicaragua." In Enduring Socialism: Explorations of Revolution and Transformation, Restoration and Continuation, edited by West Harry G. and Raman Parvathi, 77-102. Berghahn Books, 2010.

Thoughtfully curated set of sources that meet Wikipedia's community standards for evidence. Katherine.Holt (talk) 02:56, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

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