Nicaragua

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Republic of Nicaragua
Republic of Nicaragua
Flag of Nicaragua
Nicaraguan coat of arms
flag coat of arms
Motto : En Dios confiamos
( Latin for " In God we trust ")
Official language Spanish
capital city Managua
State and form of government presidential republic
Head of state , also head of government President Daniel Ortega
area 120,254 km²
population 6.5 million ( 108th ) (2019; estimate)
Population density 54 inhabitants per km²
Population development + 1.2% (estimate for 2019)
gross domestic product
  • Total (nominal)
  • Total ( PPP )
  • GDP / inh. (nom.)
  • GDP / inh. (KKP)
2019
Human Development Index 0.66 ( 128th ) (2019)
currency Cordoba Oro (NIO)
independence Recognized September 15, 1821
(by Spain )
April 30, 1838
National anthem Salve a ti, Nicaragua
National holiday September 15th
Time zone UTC − 6
License Plate NIC
ISO 3166 NI , NIC, 558
Internet TLD .ni
Phone code +505
Antarktika Vereinigtes Königreich (Südgeorgien und die Südlichen Sandwichinseln) Chile Uruguay Argentinien Paraguay Peru Bolivien Brasilien Ecuador Panama Venezuela Guyana Suriname Kolumbien Trinidad und Tobago Vereinigtes Königreich (Falklandinseln) Frankreich (Französisch-Guayana) Niederlande (ABC-Inseln) Costa Rica Honduras El Salvador Guatemala Belize Mexiko Jamaika Kuba Haiti Dominikanische Republik Bahamas Nicaragua Vereinigte Staaten Kanada Inseln über dem Winde (multinational) Puerto Rico (zu Vereinigte Staaten) Vereinigtes Königreich (Kaimaninseln) Vereinigtes Königreich (Turks- and Caicosinseln) Vereinigtes Königreich (Bermuda) Frankreich (St.-Pierre und Miquelon) Dänemark (Grönland) Russland Island Norwegen Irland Vereinigtes Königreich Deutschland Dänemark Belgien Frankreich Spanien Portugal Spanien (Kanarische Inseln) Marokko Libyen Kap Verde Mauretanien Mali Burkina Faso Elfenbeinküste Ghana Liberia Sierra Leone Guinea Guinea-Bissau Gambia Senegal Tunesien Niger Schweiz ItalienNicaragua on the globe (Americas centered) .svg
About this picture
Template: Infobox State / Maintenance / NAME-GERMAN

Nicaragua (Spanish pronunciation [ nikɑˈɾɑɣwɑ ]; German more rarely also Nicaragua ) is a state in Central America . It is bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south, the Pacific to the west and the Caribbean to the east .

The country name is derived from Nahuatl ( nican 'here', aráhuac 'people'). Other authors attribute the country name to the meeting of the Spanish conquistador Gil González Dávila with the cacique Nicarao , which took place on October 15, 1523 near San Jorge / Rivas .

geography

Landscapes

The Momotombo volcano

Nicaragua is crossed by a chain of active volcanoes parallel to the Pacific coast , which is why it is also called the land of a thousand volcanoes . The crater lake Laguna de Apoyo recently gained fame. Here it could be demonstrated in cichlids that a species can develop into two different species even without their spatial isolation (so-called sympatric speciation ).

The centers and most important settlements of the country are also located on the Pacific coast, while the eastern and southern parts of the country are sparsely populated. Two large inland lakes shape the geography - the larger Lake Nicaragua (Lago Cocibolca) in the southwest with several islands and the smaller Lake Managua in the west. The Río San Juan , which forms the southern border of the country and flows into the Caribbean, rises from Lake Nicaragua .

The east of the country to the Caribbean coast is a large rainforest region. The northern part of the Caribbean coast is also called the Miskito coast .

The highest point is the Pico Mogotón on the northern border with 2438 meters.

Nicaragua has two neighboring states: in the north Honduras with 922 km border length and in the south Costa Rica with 309 km border length. The total length of the national borders is 1231 kilometers.

Cities

View of Managua

The largest cities are (as of June 30, 2016): Managua 1,033,622 inhabitants, León 169,362 inhabitants, Tipitapa 127,618 inhabitants, Masaya 125,824 inhabitants, Chinandega 111,256 inhabitants, Ciudad Sandino 110,083 inhabitants, Estelí 105,709 inhabitants, Matagalpa 103,860 inhabitants and Granada 100,496 Resident.

climate

Managua climate diagram
Satellite image of Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch

At the end of October 1998, Hurricane Mitch raged in Central America and also wreaked havoc in Nicaragua. More than 4,000 people died as a result of the floods and landslides caused by continuous rain. There was an outbreak of epidemics.

After the disaster, there was a wide range of international aid and aid pledges. However, the then government under Alemán used part of the money to give itself and the groups close to it an advantage.

Wildlife

The national bird of Nicaragua: Guardabarranco (turquoise brow motmot, Eumomota superciliosa)

The biodiversity in Nicaragua is great. Jaguars, pumas, ocelots, as well as various species of monkeys and reptiles such as alligators and snakes live in the rainforests. There are also a variety of bird species, including parrots, toucans, pelicans and hummingbirds.

population

Demographics

Population development
year population
1950 1,295,000
1960 1,775,000
1970 2,398,000
1980 3,250,000
1990 4,145,000
2000 5,027,000
2010 5,738,000
2019 6,546,000
Population development in millions of inhabitants
Population pyramid Nicaragua 2016

About 6.5 million people live in Nicaragua (as of 2019), of which about 90% live in the Pacific region and the Managua area. The population consists of 69.7% mestizos , 17.6% are white (mostly of Spanish descent). 9.2% are of African origin, 95% of whom live in the Atlantic region, although mestizos and whites now make up the majority there too, with almost 59%. 3.2% are indigenous, mostly Miskito and the smaller ethnic groups Sumo (Mayangna) and Rama , whose settlement areas are inland and on the Atlantic coast. There are also around 30,000 Arabs (mainly Syrians , Lebanese and Palestinians ). There is a community of around 8,000 Chinese immigrants in Managua  .

languages

Spanish is the official language of Nicaragua and is spoken by over 97% of the population as their mother tongue. Other languages ​​are Creole (Caribbean English), which is particularly widespread on the east coast of Nicaragua, and the Indian languages Miskito . The Miskito language is the most widely spoken indigenous language in Nicaragua. This is because the Miskito population also has the highest number of indigenous people in the country. Other indigenous languages ​​are Sumu (Mayangna), Rama and Garífuna (Igñeri).

religion

Leon Cathedral

Immediately after the Spanish conquered the country of Nicaragua (around 1530), Spanish missionaries came to the country. With a few exceptions, the indigenous population was converted to the Catholic faith, but there were repeated uprisings against the Spaniards; For this reason, numerous Nicaraguans were deported to Peru, where they had to work in mines and mines under inhumane conditions and most of them died. A Spanish monk estimated at the time that hardly more than 5000 people should live in the country.

Only around 47 percent of Nicaraguans are Roman Catholics today. The Catholic Church comprises eight dioceses. Protestant free churches have gained increasing influence in recent years, but the religiously free have also increased by around 8 to 12 percent. The Moravian Brethren came from Germany in the 19th century to begin their mission on the English-speaking Miskito coast . Almost all Miskito and Rama Indians belong to this evangelical church. It is called Iglesia Morava in Spanish and Moravian Church in English . Another Christian church in the country is the New Apostolic Church , which claims to have around 2000 members there. Other faith communities such as Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses (20,000 members) are also active.

The Catholic Church has played an important role in all of the country's recent history. In the early 1970s, the then Archbishop Obando y Bravo ( Archdiocese of Managua ) turned against the Somoza dictatorship. The democratic resistance found strong support in the Catholic Church. During the Sandinista reign in the 1980s, however, Obando y Bravo became a leading figure in the opposition. Believers and priests who were politically active in the spirit of the revolution were exposed to severe repression by the church. At the same time, the government under Daniel Ortega tried to justify its own politics in a Christian way and to support it with propaganda by installing a so-called “people's church” ( iglesia popular ). Its most prominent representative was Ernesto Cardenal . This movement was supported by representatives of liberation theology and by the governments of Cuba , the German Democratic Republic and the Soviet Union . Pope John Paul II publicly reprimanded them during his much-noticed visit to Nicaragua in 1983 and in 1985 made Obando y Bravo the first cardinal of Nicaragua.

Land question

When the Sandinista carried out their land reform in 1979 and distributed the land to smallholders , cooperatives and state-owned companies, they had neglected to officially register the new owners in the land register. It is said that the Sandinista forgot, but more likely they did not want to lose control of so many lands. These circumstances led to the great land question in the 1990s.

One of the first goals pursued after 1990 was to reverse the Sandinista land reform. First of all, state-owned companies were divided up to 25% each between the former large landowners , farm workers , former members of the Sandinista army and the former Contras . But with the end of the revolution, the rich people who had fled with Somoza came back from their exile in Miami and claimed “their” country. In contrast to the farmers and cooperatives, they still had their title of property. Some cases could be “resolved” through legal channels, whereby the judges were often bribed in order to decide in favor of the original owner. Hard arguments followed, because the people, politicized by the revolution, did not allow their land to be taken away from them. There were numerous protests in the population, which also led to some successes. Alemán had to revise the planned reorganization of land ownership in 1997 after major demonstrations and blockades.

In many cases, however, the question of ownership remains unresolved, and the courts are pushing Klagenberg ahead of them. In order to finally clarify the situation, special agricultural courts have long been called for, but these have not yet been established. One consequence of this unclear ownership structure is rural exodus .

migration

Due to the high unemployment, there is a pronounced rural exodus in Nicaragua . The capital Managua is the most important destination. However, here, too, the economic situation is not much better and urbanization brings its own problems. Many are drawn further abroad, where they are looking for work. It is estimated that around every fifth citizen of Nicaragua lives abroad, mainly in Costa Rica and the United States . Most of them live and work illegally there and, thanks to their transfers to friends and relatives, are the main foreign currency collectors in the country.

story

Colonial times

On his fourth voyage, Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Guanaja , which belongs to the Honduran Islas de la Bahía , in July 1502 . From the mouth of the Río Coco , the Cabo Gracias a Dios , he followed the coast of Nicaragua and anchored at the mouth of the Río San Juan to withstand heavy storms.

From Panama , the conquistador Pedrarias Dávila undertook raids to Costa Rica and Nicaragua in 1519 . Although the immediate booty was relatively high, it became clear in the course of the conquest that in the long run the source of wealth lay in the people. In the 1520s the area was Spain as a colony settled to the Encomienda to set in motion. The first Spanish colonial cities were founded in Nicaragua near the Pacific coast: Granada (1523), León (1524) and Bruselas, which became deserted again after a few years. While the Kazike Nicarao had his land requisitioned for the Castilian king, converted to Christianity and made valuable gifts to the Spaniards, the Kazike Diriangén lulled the Spaniards with his baptism in order to then attack them on the battlefield with a few thousand indigenous people.

Any resistance to submission was viewed by the conquistadors as a rebellion, which in principle was answered with war and enslavement. The economically and culturally highly developed peoples of the Pipil , Nicarao and Choroteguas were abducted and enslaved, Nicaragua was depopulated. The monk Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote in 1552: “Today there should be 4,000 to 5,000 inhabitants in all of Nicaragua. It used to be one of the most densely populated provinces in the world. "

The captain Francisco Hernández de Córdoba founded Granada in 1523 on the north bank of Lake Nicaragua and advanced through Nicaragua to Honduras on behalf of Pedrarias . When he met people from Hernán Cortés there , in 1526 Pedrarias sensed betrayal in his close confidante, the head of his governor's guard, and beheaded de Córdoba - just as he had already killed his son-in-law Vasco Núñez de Balboa . The body was uncovered during excavations in the spring of 2000.

Cortés' captain Pedro de Alvarado conquered Guatemala and El Salvador from 1523 to 1535 . In 1524 they reached San Salvador . The two domains of Cortés on the one hand and Pedrarias on the other came together in the Nicaragua / Honduras region. Gil González Dávila and Andrés Niño conquered Honduras in 1524. When the Capitán Dávila, sent by Pedrarias, landed on the Caribbean coast with his own Capitulación acquired in Spain, he was sent back to Spain in chains by Corté's people. Since governors were directly installed by the Spanish crown because of the indigenous resistance in Honduras and Panamá, Nicaragua was left to Pedrarias. A significant part of the population of today's Nicaragua was enslaved in 1538 and deported to the silver mines of Peru and Bolivia.

The Caribbean at the end of the 19th century

As early as 1539, Diego Machuca discovered the Río San Juan as a waterway between the Caribbean and Lake Nicaragua . As early as 1551, the Spanish chronicler Francisco López de Gómara said: “You only have to make a firm decision to make the passage [to the Pacific] and it can be carried out. As soon as there is no lack of will, there will also be no lack of funds ”. But the Spanish King Felipe II saw God's creation in the land bridge between the two oceans, which man is not entitled to improve. Therefore the plan for an interoceanic Nicaragua Canal has not been pursued any further for the time being.

For a long time, Spanish colonial rule was limited to the Pacific coast and its hinterland on Lake Nicaragua and the smaller Lake Managua. The Caribbean coast ( Miskito coast ), which remained separated from the rest of the country by mountainous and impassable regions and was inhabited by the Miskito Indígenas, came under the influence of Great Britain for a long time from Jamaica with the territory of today's Belize .

In 1725 an uprising of the indigenous people against the Spaniards broke out in León. In 1777 the Boaco indigenous people rose against the Spaniards under the leadership of their Kaziken Yarince . Popular uprisings as a result of the French Revolution and Napoléon I's occupation of Spain culminated in the beginning of the War of Independence in the entire Pacific region of Central and South America in 1811/12, and the first demands for the impeachment of the Spanish governor were made.

independence

On September 15, 1821, the general captainate of Guatemala, to which Nicaragua belonged, proclaimed its independence from the Spanish crown. The Jacobin cap of the French Revolution still adorns his flag over the five volcanoes of the country. Two years later, it became the United Provinces of Central America, from which the Central American Federation emerged , which, along with Nicaragua, included Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and El Salvador.

The history of Nicaragua is marked by the long antagonism between the liberal elite from León and the conservative elite from Granada. It is no coincidence that Managua as the capital lies in between. When the differences within the Nicaraguan oligarchy turned into civil war in 1856 , the “liberals” called on the North American adventurer William Walker with a small private army against their conservative opponents. However, Walker strove for the submission of all of Central America, proclaimed himself President of Nicaragua, and reintroduced slavery , which was abolished in 1824 . It was not until 1857 that he was defeated by the United Army of Central American States and fled.

German squadron in front of Corinto, March 1878. (Drawing by H. Penner. Illustrirte Zeitung of July 13, 1878)

In 1878 there was a German military intervention in Nicaragua after an attack on the consul in León, the so-called Eisenstuck affair .

Beginning in the city of Matagalpa , there was an uprising of the indigenous population in the Pacific region in 1881. The trigger was the privatization of the previously common property, as a result of which they were forced into wage or forced labor, mostly on the expanding coffee plantations.

With the regime of General José Santos Zelaya in 1893, the economically important coffee oligarchy of the "liberals" came to power. Zelaya enforced the separation of church and state and centralized control of the whole country, promoted the cultivation of coffee and had the traffic routes expanded. With the decree of the reintegration of the Miskito coast in 1894, his government had the Miskito coast militarily occupied by General Cabezas . The Miskitos were promised the maintenance of a number of tax privileges. A military rebellion on the Caribbean coast and US pressure forced General Zelaya to resign in 1909.

The new Conservative President Adolfo Díaz , until his election the accountant of a North American mining company in Nicaragua, took out millions in loans from US banks in 1911 and, as security, left the US government with direct control of the Nicaraguan customs revenue. A year later, the Díaz government had to be rescued from an insurgent army of the previous Minister of War Luís Mena by US marines, who landed in Nicaragua on August 14, 1912 and occupied the cities of Managua, Granada and León. The Marines stayed in the country until 1933 and mostly supported the conservative government against liberal rebels (see also Guerra Constitucionalista ).

Rise of the Somozas

Chinandega: US troops on the march
The flag of General Sandino in 1932

In 1927 civil war flared up again between the conservative government and the liberals , whose generals included Augusto César Sandino . After US President Calvin Coolidge's personal envoy had promised the Liberal leader General José María Moncada the presidency, he enforced the Espino Negro Pact , which codified the disarmament of the Liberals. Only Sandino and 30 of his soldiers did not allow themselves to be disarmed, but withdrew to the mountains in the north of the country. There Sandino again raised a small force, fought against the government and inflicted a number of serious defeats over the course of six years on the US Marines , who had been stationed in the country since 1927 .

Somoza (left) and Sandino 1933

In 1932/33 the USA withdrew their troops after they had set up and trained a Nicaraguan National Guard , the command of which lay with their confidante, Anastasio Somoza García . This National Guard, for which there was formally a (actually inactive) conscription , exercised both the army and the police function at the same time. His uncle, the liberal Juan Bautista Sacasa, was elected president . He was inducted into office on January 1, 1933. A day later, the last units of the US Marines left the country. After the US withdrew, Sandino and his troops laid down their arms. Somoza invited Sandino and his closest officers to a solemn banquet, at which they were murdered at his instigation on February 21, 1934 (Sandino himself was shot in the back).

Three years later , Somoza launched a coup against Sacasa and was elected president. Until 1979, the Somoza family no longer gave up command of the National Guard, but instead established one of the largest economic empires in Latin America. She constantly expanded her economic influence in the modernizing economy, suppressed civil unrest and initiated the reconstruction of the country, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931, in such a way that she was able to increase her property considerably on this occasion. A major fire that destroyed the capital Managua in 1936 also provided another reason for this.

Despite his previous sympathy for German and Italian fascists , Anastasio Somoza García immediately sided with the United States during World War II and declared war on Japan on December 9, and Germany and Italy on December 11, 1941. As a result, he used the opportunity to intern and expropriate the German-born residents of Nicaragua and to usurp most of their fortune and their coffee plantations.

Anastasio Somoza Garcia's younger son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle , was appointed by his father in 1946 to command the National Guard, which was fully committed to the interests of the family. Border conflicts with Costa Rica in 1948/49 and 1955 and with Honduras in 1957 were overcome with the backing of the USA. In this context there is an operation by former National Guards who tried in 1948 from Costa Rica with the help of parts of the Caribbean Legion to end the Somoza rule, but the operation already failed in Costa Rica itself.

From February to June 1954, the mercenaries required by the CIA as part of Operation PBSUCCESS against Guatemala were trained in Nicaragua; i.a. on a private estate in Somoza, El Tamarindo.

The constitutions of 1939, 1948 and 1950 tied the introduction of women's suffrage to a qualified majority in the legislature. The active and passive right to vote for women was introduced on April 21, 1955. In the elections of 1957, women were allowed to vote for the first time under the same age requirements as men. After the 1979 revolution, all Nicaraguan citizens over the age of 16 were given the right to vote.

The poet Rigoberto López Pérez murdered the dictator Anastasio Somoza García at a banquet in 1956 , after which he himself was shot by Somoza's bodyguards. Somoza's son, Colonel Luís Somoza Debayle , became president and held the post until 1963. An attempt by the Conservative Party to overthrow Somoza in May 1959 with the guerrillas of Olama and Mollejones failed.

While cotton growing on the Pacific coast became the country's main source of foreign exchange, US firms gradually withdrew from the Caribbean region. Their banana plantations, the depleted gold and silver mines and the overexploitation of precious woods left deep traces and a huge, deforested jungle area in the northeast as a barren steppe. Formerly 933 km of railway network (with a road network of 350 km at that time) of the banana and timber companies fell into disrepair, not least because Somoza gave "earned" officers licenses for bus routes parallel to the railway, who then buy buses from him, the general agent of Mercedes-Benz could. Today there are only small remnants of this network in a deplorable condition that are hardly used any more.

In 1961 an invading army of Cubans in exile and Latin American mercenaries was set up under the direction of the CIA in Puerto Cabezas on the Atlantic coast, which landed in the Bay of Pigs in Cuba and was defeated by the Cuban troops.

In 1967, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, until then head of the National Guard, came to the presidency as a candidate of the Liberals through electoral fraud . His methods of government contradicted liberal principles, but he enjoyed generous US economic, financial, and military aid. After drafting a new constitution with special powers for the president and the interim government of a junta from 1972 to 1974, he was re-elected president.

When a strong earthquake destroyed the capital Managua on December 23, 1972 and claimed around 10,000 lives, the Somoza family used the disaster for their own enrichment: they diverted large parts of the international aid money to their accounts, and donated aid goods were sold by their companies and they seized the construction and banking industry that had flourished as a result of the catastrophe. Even today, large parts of the city center and the cathedral have not been restored.

Despite the maintenance of a formal multi-party system, any genuine opposition was suppressed by the National Guard, trade unionists harassed, and smallholders driven by the use of force from their parcels to the deserted areas of the north-east or the remote areas of the south-west with no access to traffic. The opposition conservatives turned out to be inactive and powerless. Her interest was focused solely on the needs of her clientele.

The Sandinista

Triggered by corruption and state abuse of power by the dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle , violent clashes broke out in 1977, which resulted in civil war and the whole country. On July 17, 1979, Somoza fled to Florida; on July 19 of that year the guerrillas entered Managua; the Nicaraguan Revolution had triumphed.

After gaining power, the Sandinista led a widespread educational campaign under Daniel Ortega . This led to a significant reduction in the illiteracy rate among adults, and indigenous and rural art and culture were fostered. The expression of this was the appointment of the world-famous poet and priest Ernesto Cardenal as Minister of Culture. Schools were established across the country, often housed in simple huts; Teachers were trained in crash courses because under Somoza insufficient funds had been made available for teacher training. The health system was developed, and here, too, it was possible to establish hospital wards in the country, which for the first time distributed an at least makeshift hygiene program.

Another domestic political project was the development of women's rights. This program built on the popularity of Sandinista heroines - a remarkable process in Nicaragua, which may also have contributed to the later electoral success of Violeta Chamorro . But the worldwide success of the books by Gioconda Belli ( Inhabited Woman ) should also be mentioned in this context.

In 1982, under Sandinista rule, 8,500 Miskito Indians were forced to resettle . They had to leave the coastal region and were deported inland. About 10,000 Miskito fled to neighboring Honduras.

Compañía BLI Sócrates Sandino

In the 1980s, US President Ronald Reagan attempted to overthrow the Sandinista government, which has been described as communist in much of the Western media. Under the guidance and participation of the CIA , the only Nicaraguan Pacific port of Corinto was mined and the Contras were financially and militarily supported, paramilitary groups that mainly operated from Honduras and which included soldiers from the former Somozi National Guard. The money for support came from secret arms sales by the USA to Iran (see also Iran-Contra affair ). The Contras tried to destroy the infrastructure , carried out terrorist attacks on the rural population, laid mines, burned the crops, stole cattle in order to destabilize the situation in the country and unsettle the population. Reagan called these groups "freedom fighters". At the same time, the United States fueled clashes between the Sandinista government and the Miskito indigenous people on the Caribbean coast. The first free elections in Nicaragua in 1984 resulted in confirmation from the Sandinista government. International election observers, including the former US President Jimmy Carter , attested that the event was fair. The contra war resulted in an extreme militarization of the country. In October 1983, general conscription was introduced, which had to be served in the Sandinista People's Army . There were also special units of the MINT Interior Ministry and voluntary service in the Sandinista People's Militia, in which tens of thousands of women and men served. The abolition of the extremely unpopular conscription was therefore a central campaign topic in the 1990 presidential election.

Postage stamp of the GDR from 1983, MiNr 2834

The support of the Sandinista revolution by left movements in the western world reached its peak in these years, so that at times several hundred mostly young adults volunteered to help with the construction and harvest.

The United States was sentenced to a payment of 2.4 billion US dollars by the International Court of Justice in The Hague for military and paramilitary actions in and against Nicaragua . However, they declared the court unauthorized to judge the USA, even though they themselves had sent judges to the court. In a resolution, the UN General Assembly called on the USA to comply with the judgment. Only the US, Israel and El Salvador voted against the resolution. However, the US has so far refused to make the payment to Nicaragua. Instead, they topped up aid to the Contras .

In 1988, as a result of the peace negotiations between the Central American states, the Esquipulas II Agreement was signed by the Central American presidents. In this agreement, the presidents agreed on the demobilization of all irregular troops, the conversion and downsizing of the Sandinista army and free and secret elections. Nicaragua, which was still under Sandinista rule, was the only participating state that fulfilled the agreements. The subsequent 1990 elections were monitored by the United Nations with the consent of the Sandinista government.

Nicaragua after 1990

Satellite image

In the elections on February 25, 1990, the anti-Scandinavian electoral alliance UNO (Unión Nacional Opositora) surprisingly won with 55.2% of the vote; the Sandinista party, the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional), received 40.8%. The UN consisted of 14 conservative and anti-Scandinavian parties; with the support of the USA, it promised peace, prosperity and the end of the US embargo. The UN candidate was the newspaper publisher Violeta Chamorro , widow of the newspaper publisher Pedro Chamorro, who was murdered under Somoza, and a member of the politically influential Chamorro family .

backgrounds

At the time of the election, the war against the US-funded Contras had claimed more than 29,000 deaths. The economic blockade imposed by the USA has paralyzed the development of Nicaragua since 1980. The government tried to save the economy from the collapse through a strict austerity policy, which was emerging through the war-related armaments and the economic sanctions of Western countries, especially the USA. In the meantime, inflation had peaked at 3,000 percent a year. Unemployment was high and the standard of living was low. Nevertheless, great progress has been made in education, health and land reform.

The economic situation, the open threat of the USA to continue the boycott and the war, as well as the losses in the population are generally regarded as reasons for the UN election victory. Although this ended the war and the blockade, western industrialized countries also acted as lenders, albeit far less than the Nicaraguans wanted.

Economic and political development

In the new government, the moderate forces on both sides cooperated with each other. In the same year the contra was incorporated into political and constitutional life. However, the situation after the end of the revolution was extremely tense. The radical forces formed. There were rearmament, the disappointed Contras called themselves Recontras , the disappointed Sandinista Recompas .

Two factors played a key role in preventing the situation in Nicaragua from exploding. On the one hand, Violeta Chamorro named Humberto Ortega ( Daniel Ortega's brother ) as supreme commander. In this way she succeeded in bringing the vast Sandinista army under one, albeit Sandinista, control. On the other hand, she was in a weekly continuous dialogue with the Sandinista for months, thus avoiding an armed uprising. In doing so, she certainly benefited from the fact that she was the representative of an influential family that owned almost the entire press (especially La Prensa).

Members of the Chamorro family included both sympathizers of the Sandinista and staunch supporters of the Contra. This is typical of Nicaraguan society, which, despite bitter armed conflicts, especially during the revolution, is much less divided into clearly separated groups (or parties) than it would appear from Europe.

The new government, in which the FSLN held many important posts, decided on a comprehensive stabilization and austerity program: a capitalist private economy was introduced, the currency was devalued, the prices of basic food rose, the army was drastically reduced, the state apparatus downsized, social institutions such as kindergartens were closed, the health system was privatized, school fees were raised, agricultural reform and nationalization in the economic sector were reversed, etc.

To curb this development, a multi-year agreement was concluded with the IMF and the World Bank in 1995 , which, among other things, includes further layoffs in the public sector, increases in taxes and fees, reduction in agricultural loans, privatization of banks and companies such as the post office, telephone company, water supply. and energy institutes continued to reduce social spending and liberalize the entire economy.

Piñata

The political word piñata describes the fact that between February 25, 1990 (election day) and April 25, 1990 (handover) some Sandinista leadership cadre issued a number of property titles, privatized company cars and transferred state assets to private individuals. In part, it was property transfers from eleven years ago that had not been carried out at the time. However, in at least 200 cases, state assets and individual operations were transferred to the party. The FSLN avoided resolving these cases, which led to a deep crisis of confidence and a loss of credibility.

In 1994 four parties left the UN, which from then on called itself APO (Alianza Política Opositora). In 1996, however, the same groups reunited to form the Alianza Liberal, which won the 1996 elections with Arnoldo Alemán as a presidential candidate. Overall, the political system in Nicaragua is characterized by many divisions and new foundations.

Inglés and corruption

In the 1996 presidential election, Arnoldo Alemán from the Alianza Liberal (AL) prevailed. The Alemán government has been accused of massive corruption and nepotism . For example, after his term in office ended in December 2003, Alemán was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, which he has not yet had to serve. However, he is under house arrest and is not allowed to leave the Department of Managua.

Together with Daniel Ortega from the FSLN , Alemán promoted the cooperation between their two parties ( el pacto ). This went so far that they tried to establish a two-party state through changes to the law and the constitution, by making access to new parties more difficult and by forbidding free lists of citizens. They also had and still have a great influence on the composition of the most important bodies (Supreme Electoral Council, State Audit Office, Supreme Court) in the country. Furthermore, the President and the Vice-President receive parliamentary status for life after their departure. The associated immunity benefited Alemán in his corruption proceedings.

Election 2001

Despite the success of the Sandinista party in the local elections in 2000, the FSLN lost again in 2001. Daniel Ortega ran again as a presidential candidate, although many in the party had opposed his candidacy. In the end, the Liberal Conservative Party (PLC) with Enrique Bolaños prevailed with 53% of the vote against 45% of the FSLN. The Sandinista justified their renewed defeat with a campaign of fear that Bolaños waged against Daniel Ortega. Bolaños, supported by the USA, portrayed Ortega as a terrorist friend and sowed fear that if the FSLN won, Nicaragua would be isolated and no more aid would be received.

The new president had taken up the fight against corruption. He called for the immunity of the former President Alemán to be lifted and for an end to the corruption that he had witnessed himself as Vice-President under Alemán. Internationally, the USA and the IMF put pressure on and demanded transparency of public funds and the punishment of corruption as a prerequisite for further funds. However, Bolaños' anti-corruption campaign used in the media was also viewed with suspicion. The government's new privatization plans, in which state goods were once again to be sold at a fraction of their value, suggested new corruption.

In July 2005, the presidents of the states of Central America and Mexico condemned the actions of the left Sandinista to weaken the president. The opposition, which has a majority in parliament, passed a series of laws that should lead to the disempowerment of President Enrique Bolaños.

2006 elections

The candidate of the left, former guerrilla leader and former first head of state after the Sandinista revolution, Daniel Ortega, was able to prevail with 38.1% against 30% of the vote against the conservative candidate (Eduardo Montealegre), and was back after 16 years the power returned. The election was observed by the EU, the OAS and delegations from other states (with a total of 11,000 election observers). While the US election observers spoke of unspecified "anomalies", the head of the EU mission, Claudio Fava, said his organization had not found any election fraud or attempts to do so. Overall, the election was calm and uneventful.

Daniel Ortega was President of Nicaragua from January 10, 2007. Several parties tried to object to the appointment of his wife Rosario Murillo as government spokeswoman, chairwoman of the Council for Communication and Citizens' Affairs and coordinator of all so-called people's councils: According to the constitution, it was forbidden to hold government offices by people who are blood relatives or blood relatives of the president have a close family relationship. The couple was not impressed by this and jokes were circulating among the people that Daniel Ortega was by no means the chairman of the state. Several ministers were fired for breaking the strict rule that only Ortega or Murillo were allowed to make official statements.

Zero hunger program

In a zero hunger program, hundreds of thousands of school children receive a free meal every day. Health care and education are free again. In order to reduce Nicaragua's dependence on food imports, small and medium-sized producers also receive farmland from the government at very low interest rates.

After the 2011 elections

According to the constitution, Ortega should not have been allowed to run for the presidential election again in 2011, but due to a controversial court decision, his candidacy was still allowed. He won the election with 62.6% of the vote, although observers complained about irregularities.

Ortega was re-elected President in November 2016 and sworn in on January 10, 2017. Ortega's wife, Rosario Murillo , became vice-president . The couple's seven children also hold important positions in politics, business and the media in Nicaragua.

For Frédéric Coppens from Swiss Development Cooperation, Nicaragua was a typical example of unsustainable development: Nicaragua's economic growth since 2008 has been enviable. But year after year the balance in the area of ​​human rights and the environment has become imbalanced.

Protests against the Ortega government in 2018

In April 2018, following demands from the IMF, the government of President Ortega decided by decree to relieve the social security bill with a five percent cut in pensions, which promptly sparked demonstrations in practically every city in the country. The police used live ammunition to keep them down, and nocturnal troublemakers and free shooters took action. At least 26 people were killed in April. The students of the state universities, which are held to be a domain of the FSLN, also turned against the government. The “People's President” then wanted to negotiate (exclusively) with the country's entrepreneurs, which they refused due to the repression. There were also increasing demonstrations against the corrupt clan surrounding the president. There were also protests against arbitrary expropriations in preparation for the Nicaragua Canal . The announced social security reform was withdrawn. The regime banned independent television broadcasters from broadcasting during the unrest, and journalists were also among the fatalities. The demonstrations lasted for weeks and resulted in more deaths in the attack by pro-government activists on universities occupied by protesting students. According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) , the number of fatalities reached 76 after just under a month . Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in various cities on May 30th and for the first time Ortega spoke about their concerns when he ruled out his resignation. Again there were deaths, this in the cities of La Trinidad and Masaya . Amnesty International accused the government of using a “shoot to kill” strategy, that is, consciously accepting the dead.

By mid-June the number of deaths had risen to 180. The Bishops' Conference had proposed early elections as a solution to the crisis and announced that the government had "surprisingly" started an independent investigation at its suggestion to determine who was responsible for the acts of violence. The bishops broke off the talks, however, because Ortega had not kept the important promise of the invitation to international organizations, for which Foreign Minister Denis Moncada cited "bureaucratic" reasons. By June 22nd, the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights of the OAS stated the number of people killed as over 200. On July 8th alone, 38 people died in the city of Carazo.

When, according to the OAS, 250 people had already been killed, UN Secretary-General Guterres called for the first time on July 11 and again a week later to call for an end to the violence. The "disappeared" were not included in these numbers of victims, so the number of those killed was plausibly estimated at around 400. As a matter of urgency, the regime pushed through a new law with which, according to the protest note of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights ( UNHCHR ), “peaceful protest can be punished as terrorism”.On July 28, 2018, thousands of people took part in a 6.6-kilometer protest march to the cathedral in Managua to express their solidarity with church representatives who had previously got caught up in mediating the conflict between the fronts. For the first time, not only Catholics but also evangelicals and atheists took part in the protest.

During the entire period of the popular uprising from April to July, the indigenous district of Monimbó in Masaya was barricaded . According to writer and ex-Sandinista Gioconda Belli , Ortega's wife Rosario Murillo's propaganda was “more Goebbels than Orwell ” (“This is more Goebbels than Orwell”) when she spoke of peace and reconciliation on July 17, 2018 while the police were at the same time and paramilitaries attacked Monimbó with Kalashnikovs , sniper rifles and artillery.

The church of la Divina Misericordia with its dozen of bullet holes became a symbol of resistance after security forces used live ammunition to attack unarmed students, and there were reports around the world of hospital staff who had apparently been fired for caring for demonstrators. Members of the Sandinista youth organization formed paramilitary groups that supported the police - the government directly denied the existence of such groups.

A working group of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights with a mandate from the UN General Assembly kicked Ortega out of the country at the end of August for alleging the “disproportionate use of force”, sometimes extrajudicial executions, the “disappearance” of people and “torture and ill-treatment” during the Had denounced protests. According to a local human rights organization, 512 people died during the political crisis from mid-April to the end of September and 103 of the 4,000 injured suffered long-term consequential damage. Over 1400 people have disappeared. The government put the number of deaths at 199. An alliance of 40 opposition groups, the Unidad Nacional Azul y Blanco , founded at the beginning of October 2018 , planned joint actions to exert pressure and bring about early elections and a reformation of the judicial system. Conversely, representatives of the alliance became targets of repression. Ortega shows no interest in a peaceful way out, he is pursuing a "strategy of terror and intimidation," said Juan Sebastián Chamorro, the representative of the business community in the alliance. Vilma Núñez, a Supreme Court judge after the 1979 revolution and now director of the Center for Human Rights, called Nicaragua a police state in 2018.

In exchange for the lifting of sanctions by the US and the EU, the government wanted to commit itself in March 2019 to the release of all political prisoners.According to human rights organizations, over 700 people were illegally detained; in May 2019 there were more than 800.

politics

Political system

Nicaragua has been a presidential republic since the constitution of 1987 . The 93 members of the National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional) are elected for five years. The president is also directly elected for five years.

Enrique Bolaños Geyer (Partido Liberal Constitucionalista) was President of the country between January 10, 2002 and January 10, 2007. The current president has been the Sandinista boss Daniel Ortega since January 10, 2007.

Political indices

Political indices published by non-governmental organizations
Name of the index Index value Worldwide rank Interpretation aid year
Fragile States Index 77.1 out of 120 62 of 178 Stability of the country: increased warning
0 = very sustainable / 120 = very alarming
2020
Democracy index 3.6 out of 10 120 of 167 Authoritarian regime
0 = authoritarian regime / 10 = complete democracy
2020
Freedom in the World Index 31 of 100 --- Freedom status: unfree
0 = unfree / 100 = free
2020
Freedom of the press ranking 39.98 out of 100 121 of 180 Difficult situation for freedom of the press
0 = good situation / 100 = very serious situation
2021
Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 22 of 100 159 of 180 0 = very corrupt / 100 = very clean 2020

Administrative structure

Nicaragua is divided into 15 administrative districts ( Departamentos ) and two autonomous regions (Regiones Autónomas del Atlántico) . The departments are in turn subdivided into Municipios .

location Department capital city Population
estimate June 30, 2019
Area
in km²
Inhabitants
per km²
Boaco Department, Nicaragua.svg Boaco Boaco 183,736 4,244 43
Carazo Department, Nicaragua.svg Carazo Jinotepe 195.873 1,050 187
Chinandega Department, Nicaragua.svg Chinandega Chinandega 437,888 4,926 89
Chontales Department, Nicaragua.svg Chontales Juigalpa 189,871 6,378 30th
Esteli Department, Nicaragua.svg Estelí Estelí 228.766 2,335 98
Granada Department, Nicaragua.svg Granada Granada 212,663 929 229
Jinotega Department, Nicaragua.svg Jinotega Jinotega 467.969 9,755 48
Leon Department, Nicaragua.svg Leon Leon 419.065 5.107 82
Madriz Department, Nicaragua.svg Madriz Somoto 172,587 1,602 108
Managua Department, Nicaragua.svg Managua Managua 1,534,218 3,672 418
Masaya Department, Nicaragua.svg Masaya Masaya 386.237 590 655
Matagalpa Department, Nicaragua.svg Matagalpa Matagalpa 586,986 8,523 69
Nueva Segovia Department, Nicaragua.svg Nueva Segovia Ocotal 267,900 3.123 86
Rio San Juan Department, Nicaragua.svg Río San Juan San Carlos 133,737 7,473 18th
Rivas Department, Nicaragua.svg Rivas Rivas 181,665 2,155 84
RAAN, Nicaragua.svg Autonomous Region of the Costa Caribe Norte Puerto Cabezas 520.204 32,195 16
RAAS, Nicaragua.svg Autonomous Region of the Costa Caribe Sur Bluefields 408.326 27,407 15th

military

The Fuerzas Armadas de Nicaragua are the armed forces of Nicaragua that emerged from the Sandinista people's army through a process of transformation .

The armed forces are divided into

  • Land Forces ( Fuerza Terrestre ),
  • Naval forces ( Fuerza Naval ),
  • Air Force ( Fuerza Aérea ).

The current commander in chief is Daniel Ortega Saavedra. Comandante en Jefe is General de Ejército Julio César Avilés Castillo.

The defense budget is currently the equivalent of 000000085000000.0000000000US $ 85,000,000, which corresponds to 0.7% of the national budget. There were around 000000000012000.000000000012,000 soldiers in total in 2019 .

Up until the 2010s, both equipment and armament mainly came from arms deliveries from the Eastern Bloc for the Sandinista People's Army . Incomprehension called accordingly, the purchase of T-72 - battle tanks emerge from Russia in 2016th Costa Rica Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzales called the tanks a "cause for concern".

Russian President Putin and his defense minister have expressed an interest in a naval base in their loyal ally's land. The Russian Navy should help fight crime and provide training.

Human rights

Nicaraguan women at a rally on International Women's Day in the capital , March 1988

Homosexuality , which was criminalized in Section 204 of the Nicaraguan Criminal Code from 1992 , was again exempted from punishment in the course of a criminal law reform in March 2008.

Nicaragua is one of the few countries in the world where abortion is prohibited even if the fetus is not viable, the mother's life is in danger, or the pregnancy is the result of rape. So far, according to estimates by aid organizations, over 80 women have died as a result.

Economy and Infrastructure

Generally

A Nicaraguan street vendor with her grocery stall in Granada

Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, the per capita income in 2016 was $ 2,120 below the poverty line as defined by the WHO , but Nicaragua does not belong to the group of Least Developed Countries (LDC) of the WHO, as the (Not -) Fulfillment of further criteria is required. In addition, Nicaragua is considered a developing country . In the Global Competitiveness Index , which measures a country's competitiveness, Nicaragua ranks 93rd out of 137 countries (as of 2017-2018). In 2017, the country ranks 98th out of 180 countries in the index for economic freedom .

50% of the population live in poverty , in the rural population this proportion rises to 70%. In Latin America , Nicaragua is now the second poorest country after Haiti . The reasons for the poor economic situation are manifold, in addition to historical factors, a one-sided economic structure and decades of oligarchic economy , frequent natural disasters ( earthquakes , volcanic eruptions and hurricanes ) also play an important role. Corruption is also a problem.

The previous government under Bolaños tried to drive market reforms and to increase economic growth . In doing so, Nicaragua was to be made more attractive as a business location, but above all for foreign investors , which was not only met with approval. An ambitious three-year agreement was signed with the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ) in December 2002 . Real growth in gross domestic product , at 2.3%, was also below the rate of population growth of 2.6% in 2003 . In 2016 economic growth was 4.7% and in previous years had been constant between 4 and 5 percent, which enabled a slight reduction in poverty.

Almost 80% of the Nicaraguan population lived on less than US $ 2 a day in 2005, around 45% on US $ 1 or less. The north-west of the country went through a famine in 2005 that is still not over. In 2015, 17.0% of the population was malnourished. In 2000 the rate was still 32.6%.

The country's energy industry is 70% dependent on oil imports. As a member of the Bolivarian Alliance for America , Nicaragua received oil from Venezuela below the world market price on credit with a deferred payment of up to 25 years; the income from the resale of this oil was ultimately greater than that of its own export economy. According to Günther Maihold, this income brought the country an average economic growth of four to five percent. Venezuela had to stop these deliveries in 2015.

Key figures

All GDP values ​​are given in US dollars ( purchasing power parity ).

year 1990 1995 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
GDP
(purchasing power parity)
7.92 billion 9.91 billion 14.94 billion 18.07 billion 19.33 billion 20.85 billion 21.99 billion 21.43 billion 22.65 billion 24.58 billion 26.65 billion 28.42 billion 30.31 billion 32.12 billion 34.07 billion 36.28 billion
GDP per capita
(purchasing power parity)
... 2.149 2,739 3,358 3,547 3,776 3,931 3,782 3,947 4.231 4,535 4,779 5,041 5,282 5,540 5,849
GDP growth
(real)
−0.1% 5.9% 4.1% 4.3% 3.8% 5.1% 3.4% −3.3% 4.4% 6.3% 6.5% 4.9% 4.8% 4.9% 4.7% 4.9%
Inflation
(in percent)
3,004.1% 11.1% 11.5% 9.6% 9.1% 11.1% 19.8% 3.7% 5.5% 8.1% 7.2% 7.1% 6.0% 4.0% 3.5% 3.9%
Unemployment
(in percent)
15.5% 16.9% 9.8% 5.6% 5.3% 5.0% 6.2% 7.0% 8.0% 7.5% 6.8% 5.3% 5.6% 6.0% 6.2% 6.1%
Public debt
(as a percentage of GDP)
... ... 95% 67% 51% 31% 26% 29% 30% 29% 28% 29% 29% 29% 31% 34%

Important commercial goods

Nicaragua is a member of the International Cocoa Organization .

State budget

The state budget in 2009 comprised expenditures equivalent to US $ 1.5 billion , which was offset by income equivalent to US $ 1.3 billion. This results in a budget deficit of 2.2% of GDP .
The national debt in 2009 was $ 4.0 billion, or 63.1% of GDP.

In 2006 the share of government expenditure (as a percentage of GDP) was in the following areas:

traffic

In 2014, the entire road network covered around 23,897 km, of which 3,346 km were paved.

The Panamericana runs through Nicaragua, including the cities of Managua , Granada and Rivas . At the Penas Blancas border crossing , it meets the national territory of Costa Rica. The road network is relatively well developed in the southwest. The road from Lovago / Acoyapa to San Carlos and from Leon to Poneloya on the Pacific coast is newly developed and in very good condition.

A domestic airline operates between Managua, Bluefields, Puerto Cabezas, San Carlos and the Corn Islands . There are regular boat connections on the Caribbean coast, in Lake Nicaragua and on the Río San Juan . The former railway line from Chinandega via the capital Managua to Granada on Lake Nicaragua, as well as a branch line from Masaya to Diriamba and from León to El Sauce is no longer in operation. In Granada you can still visit the former train station and a steam locomotive including some wagons (museum).

For centuries there have been plans to build a canal through Nicaragua. These have been up to date again since the late 1990s, as the Panama Canal is no longer suitable for all ships (see Nicaragua Canal ) . In 2013, parliament granted a Chinese entrepreneur the construction rights. In his speech to Parliament, the President spoke of a “promised land” instead of a desert. The company HKND should be able to expropriate land for the canal for the 100-year concession, as well as an airport, a free trade zone and even holiday resorts. Thirty parties and civic organizations said the treaty violated the constitution, but the Supreme Court is controlled by the executive branch. The state representative on the commission monitoring the progress of the project is the President's son, Laureano Ortega.

Culture

The Nicaraguan public school system still does not provide for classes in creative and arts subjects.

Due to the deficit structures in the field of culture, Ernesto Cardenal and Dietmar Schönherr initiated the Casa de los tres mundos foundation in the early 1990s . This is a cultural and development institution for the promotion of socially accentuated cultural projects in Nicaragua and Central America based in Granada, Nicaragua. In addition to the artistic and musical education for children and young people, the foundation finances and coordinates an integrated village development project in Malacatoya.

Other projects are the German-Nicaraguan Library with the Bertolt Brecht book bus and Música en los Barrios , both of which give children and young people access to art and culture in Managua.

These projects are financially supported by the German non-governmental organization Pan y Arte , based in Münster.

literature

media

According to Radio SRF 1, Nicaragua was the “big relegation” on the list of media freedom from Reporters Without Borders in the April 2019 report.

music

Nicaragua's music is based on indigenous traditions such as Spanish and American influences. She takes up suggestions from all over Central America and uses the instruments commonly used in neighboring countries, especially the marimba . Chichero and mariachi groups that perform at many festivals are also typical . On the Caribbean coast, the African influence is very pronounced, e.g. B. in the form of the ritual dance Palo de Mayo .

Well-known musicians include:

Arts

In painting, colorful, naive, often socially critical, ambitious wall paintings, the so-called murales, dominate . The Casa de los tres mundos cultural center promotes amateur painting, as did Ernesto Cardenal in the Christian cooperative Solentiname he founded . A well-known representative of naive painting is Manuel García Moia (* 1936), who also created murals in Ingelheim , Dietzenbach and Berlin-Rummelsburg .

Sports

The national sport of Nicaragua is baseball . Important leagues are the professional league Liga Nicaragüense de Béisbol Profesional , a winter league that plays from October to January and the amateur league Campeonato Nacional de Beisbol Superior , whose season runs from February to July.

As early as the 19th century, attempts were made to introduce baseball in Nicaragua. On the Caribbean coast, locals were taught to play baseball by Albert Addlesberg, a US retailer. But it was never really popular on the coast. It did not get much attention until 1891 when a group of college students from the United States founded the “Sociedad de Recreo”, in which various sports were practiced. Baseball quickly became the most popular sport there.

Personalities

Cinematic reception

See also

Portal: Nicaragua  - Overview of Wikipedia content on the topic of Nicaragua

literature

  • Erika Harzer, Willi Volks: Departure to Nicaragua - German-German solidarity in system competition . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-525-6 .
  • Florence E. Babb: After Revolution: Mapping Gender and Cultural Politics in Neoliberal Nicaragua . University of Texas Press, Austin 2001, ISBN 0-292-70900-5 .
  • Thomas Fischer: The limits of the “American Dream”. Hans Sitarz as a 'money doctor' in Nicaragua 1930–1934 . In: Thomas Fischer / Anneliese Sitarz (ed.): Latin America Studies . tape 50 . Iberoamericana / Vervuert, Frankfurt a. M. 2008, ISBN 978-3-86527-420-5 .
  • Monika Höhn: Fancy Nicaragua - Culinary Travel Sketches . Gronenburg, Wiehl 2003, ISBN 3-88265-245-4 .
  • Katherine Isbester: Still Fighting: The Nicaraguan Women's Movement, 1977-2000 . University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh 2001, ISBN 0-8229-4155-4 .
  • Matthias Schindler: From the Triumph of the Sandinista to a democratic uprising. Nicaragua 1979–2019 , Berlin: Die Buchmacherei, 2019, ISBN 978-3-9820783-0-4

Web links

Wiktionary: Nicaragua  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Nicaragua  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikimedia Atlas: Nicaragua  - geographical and historical maps
Wikivoyage: Nicaragua  Travel Guide

Official

General information

Individual evidence

  1. population, total. In: World Economic Outlook Database. World Bank , 2020, accessed January 31, 2021 .
  2. Population growth (annual%). In: World Economic Outlook Database. World Bank , 2020, accessed January 31, 2021 .
  3. ^ World Economic Outlook Database October 2020. In: World Economic Outlook Database. International Monetary Fund , 2020, accessed January 31, 2021 .
  4. Table: Human Development Index and its components . In: United Nations Development Program (ed.): Human Development Report 2020 . United Nations Development Program, New York 2020, ISBN 978-92-1126442-5 , pp. 345 (English, undp.org [PDF]).
  5. World Population Prospects - Population Division - United Nations. Retrieved July 27, 2017 .
  6. a b population, total. In: World Economic Outlook Database. World Bank , 2020, accessed January 31, 2021 .
  7. World Population Prospects - Population Division - United Nations. Retrieved October 4, 2017 .
  8. inide.gob.ni VIII Censo de Población y IV de Vivienda. Resumen Censal. Nicaragua 2006.
  9. ^ Report Latinobarómetro 2013/2014
  10. Our Family - Calendar 2005, p. 81.
  11. Annual Report 2007 Jehovah's Witnesses ( Memento of August 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  12. The Chronicle of Coffee , José Luis Rocha, 2001. (English)
  13. Julie A. Charlip: Cultivating Coffee: The Farmers of Carazo, Nicaragua, 1880-1930 . Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 2003, ISBN 0-89680-227-2 (see review ).
  14. Elizabeth Dore: Debt Peonage in Granada, Nicaragua, 1870-1930: Labor in a Noncapitalist Transition. In: Hispanic American Historical Review. Volume 83, 2003, pp. 521-559.
  15. Bernard C. Nalty: The United States Marines in Nicaragua. US Marine Corps, Washington 1968 (digitized version) .
  16. Bernard C. Nalty: The United States Marines in Nicaragua. US Marine Corps, Washington 1968, "The End of Intervention," p. 34.
  17. La Gaceta, diario oficial. Vol. 45, No. 269 of December 11, 1941 and No. 270 of December 12, 1941.
  18. El asalto de Somoza a los alemanes. In: El Nuevo Diario . January 6, 2005, archived from the original on October 12, 2007 ; accessed on June 15, 2019 (Spanish).
  19. a b Michael Krennerich: Nicaragua. In: Dieter Nohlen (Ed.): Handbook of the election data of Latin America and the Caribbean (= political organization and representation in America. Volume 1). Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1993, ISBN 3-8100-1028-6 , pp. 577-603, pp. 581-582.
  20. Christine Pintat: Women's Representation in Parliaments and Political Parties in Europe and North America In: Christine Fauré (Ed.): Political and Historical Encyclopedia of Women: Routledge New York, London, 2003, pp. 481-502, p. 491.
  21. ^ Case of Nicaragua v. United States of America
  22. Noam Chomsky: "The Evil Scourge of Terrorism": Reality, Construction, Remedy. In: Junge Welt. March 30, 2010, accessed April 4, 2010 .
  23. ^ Wilhelm Kempf: Voting decision or surrender? in: Das Argument (1990), No. 180, pp. 243–247 , accessed on February 25, 2010
  24. Carlos Alberto Ampié: If necessary , the Virgin of Guadelupe helps
  25. HERNANDO CALVO OSPINA: Once upon a time in Nicaragua , taz / Le Monde diplomatique, July 16, 2009.
  26. a b Ortega wins controversial election in Nicaragua. ( Memento of February 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on: Zeit-online. November 7, 2011.
  27. ^ "Elections in Nicaragua: Fourth Term of Office for Ortega - and his Clan | tagesschau.de ". Accessed January 11, 2017. http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/ortega-vierte-amtszeit-101.html
  28. ^ Presidential election in Nicaragua: Victory for the Ortega family business ( Memento from November 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Tagesschau.de , November 7, 2016.
  29. "Our programs in Nicaragua have practically come to a standstill," swissinfo, August 30, 2018.
  30. Nicaragua has discovered a vaccine for fake news , fusion.tv, May 9, 2018.
  31. a b Why the protests escalated in Nicaragua , NZZ, April 23, 2018.
  32. Jump up in Nicaragua , NZZ, April 24, 2018, p. 13.
  33. NZZ, May 12, 2018, p. 2.
  34. Human Rights Commission Charges Serious Violations, 76 Deaths In Nicaragua , todaynicaragua.com , The Q Media, May 22, 2018.
  35. Hundreds of thousands demand the resignation of President Ortega , SRF, May 31, 2018.
  36. NICARAGUA: SHOOT TO KILL: NICARAGUA'S STRATEGY TO REPRESS PROTEST , Amnesty, May 29, 2018.
  37. ^ Agreement on Truth Commission , NZZ , June 18, 2018.
  38. ^ Mediation by the Church in Nicaragua failed , NZZ, June 20, 2018, p. 2
  39. SRF Nachrichten, June 23, 2018.
  40. Canada condemns Nicaragua killings of unarmed protestors . June 23, 2018.
  41. a b 'Everyone is an enemy who's deserving of death, rape and jail': Death squads have returned to Nicaragua , Public Radio International, July 18, 2018.
  42. SRF News, July 12, 2018.
  43. Act now to end violence, Zeid urges Nicaraguan authorities , UN News, July 5, 2018.
  44. Thousands demonstrate in solidarity with church representatives in Nicaragua . In: nzz.ch, July 29, 2018 (accessed July 30, 2018).
  45. Police in Nicaragua take part of government opponents , Die Zeit, July 18, 2018.
  46. 'Everyone is an enemy who's deserving of death, rape and jail': Death squads have returned to Nicaragua , Public Radio International, July 18, 2018.
  47. La parroquia que resistió contra las huestes de Ortega , El Pais, July 22, 2018; « El sacerdote no entiende cómo es posible que se ordene el ataque contra un templo lleno de gente desarmada. »
  48. Medical staff in Nicaragua sacked for treating protesters , AlJazeera, July 28, 2018.
  49. Doctors sacked in Nicaragua for treating wounded protesters: medic , instant.com.pk, July 29, 2018.
  50. The Nicaraguan government targets doctors who treat demonstrators , NZZ , July 30, 2018.
  51. Nicaragua is sliding into chaos , NZZ, June 13, 2018.
  52. Nicaragua's President Ortega rejects UN report on his country - derStandard.at. Retrieved October 6, 2018 .
  53. NZZ, September 25, 2018, p. 2
  54. ^ The opposition in Nicaragua forms an alliance , NZZ , October 6, 2018, p. 2
  55. ↑ There is no end to the repression in Nicaragua , NZZ, December 12, 2015, p. 5.
  56. Nicaragua's government wants to release all political prisoners , SRF, March 21, 2019
  57. Agustín Jarquín Anaya: La construcción de la Patria Grande cuenta con herroes cívicos fortalecidos en la cárcel . In: Testimonio. Revista del Instituto de Estudios Social Cristianos , year 2019, issue 2, no. 128, p. 28.
  58. ^ Fragile States Index: Global Data. Fund for Peace , 2020, accessed January 16, 2021 .
  59. ^ The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index. The Economist Intelligence Unit, accessed February 18, 2021 .
  60. ^ Countries and Territories. Freedom House , 2020, accessed January 16, 2021 .
  61. 2021 World Press Freedom Index. Reporters Without Borders , 2021, accessed April 30, 2021 .
  62. ^ Transparency International (Ed.): Corruption Perceptions Index . Transparency International, Berlin 2021, ISBN 978-3-96076-157-0 (English, transparencycdn.org [PDF]).
  63. City Population , figures based on Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos, Nicaragua. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  64. 2021 Nicaragua Military Strength. Accessed February 5, 2021 .
  65. a b Nicaragua - The World Factbook. Accessed February 5, 2021 .
  66. Nicaragua Invests $ 80 Million in 50 Russian Tanks , HavanaTimes, May 4, 2016
  67. Nicaragua receives a batch of Russian T-72B1 tanks , RBTH, August 4, 2016
  68. Nicaragua is about to buy Russian tanks Nicaragua-Forum Heidelberg, May 3, 2016
  69. ^ Nicaragua Canal - A Chinese man opens the excavators , FAZ, June 30, 2015
  70. Navy base in Central America? - Moscow is heading for Nicaragua , n-tv, February 14, 2015
  71. Nicaragua legalizes homosexuality , Queer.de, November 15, 2007
  72. At a Glance: Global Competitiveness Index 2017–2018 Rankings . In: Global Competitiveness Index 2017–2018 . ( Online [accessed December 6, 2017]).
  73. heritage.org
  74. GDP growth (annual%) | Data. Retrieved April 4, 2018 (American English).
  75. Prevalence of undernourishment (% of population) | Data. Retrieved March 10, 2018 (American English).
  76. a b German Energy Agency, March 2008  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.exportinitiative.de  
  77. ^ Nicaragua - the troubled empire of the Ortegas , SWP, July 24, 2018.
  78. ^ Report for Selected Countries and Subjects. Retrieved September 8, 2018 (American English).
  79. a b c d The World Factbook
  80. ^ The Fischer World Almanac 2010: Figures Data Facts, Fischer, Frankfurt, September 8, 2009, ISBN 978-3-596-72910-4
  81. Nicaragua experiences its Chinese fairy tale , NZZ, September 19, 2017
  82. New report: An increasing climate of fear among media professionals, SRF1, April 18, 2019

Coordinates: 13 °  N , 85 °  W