Sandinista people's army

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Compañía BLI Sócrates Sandino
The cockade of the Fuerza Aérea Sandinista aircraft

The Sandinista People's Army ( Spanish : Ejército Popular Sandinista , EPS), often referred to in German translations as the Sandinista People's Army , formed the armed forces of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1994 and played a decisive role in the Contra War from 1980 to 1990. Humberto was the commander in chief for the entire period Ortega Saavedra . Contrary to the term " Army ", the EPS also comprised the Navy ( Marina de Guerra Sandinista = Sandinista Navy) and the Air Force or Air Defense Force of Nicaragua ( Fuerza Aérea Sandinista = Sandinista Air Force / Defensa Anti-Aérea = Air Defense) which did not form independent armed forces . In 1994 the EPS was converted into the Ejército de Nicaragua , and in 1995 Ortega handed over the command to Joaquín Cuadra Lacayo .

founding

The EPS was founded a few weeks after the victory of the Nicaraguan Revolution on August 22, 1979 on the basis of Decree No. 53 of the Revolutionary Government Junta. It replaced Nicaragua's previous armed forces, the Guardia Nacional (GN). Shortly afterwards, the Policía Sandinista was founded, which was subordinate to the newly founded Ministry of the Interior (Ministerio del Interior = MINT) under Tomás Borge . The establishment of its own police force had become necessary because the Guardia had a dual function as military and police .

Until the introduction of compulsory military service in 1983, the EPS was recruited exclusively from volunteers; his officer corps initially consisted almost exclusively of military cadres of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), a small minority of whom already received military or paramilitary training in socialist countries such as B. had graduated in North Korea and Cuba , says Humberto Ortega himself.

The establishment of the EPS or the PS had become necessary because some of the irregular revolutionary forces were not subject to any military and / or political control and posed a threat to public safety. Counter-revolutionary actions by former members of the Guardia Nacional were also expected. The model of the EPS was the Cuban armed forces, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (FAR).

Introduction of general conscription

On September 13, 1983, the government junta introduced the general conscription ( Servicio Militar Patriótico = patriotic military service, SMP) for all male citizens from 18 to 40 years of age with decree No. 1327 . Women could serve voluntarily, but were usually deployed in the militia to protect property . The conscription lasted two years, plus a one-year reserve service.

Conscription was extremely unpopular and de facto unknown in Nicaragua, as the Guardia Nacional, founded in 1928, had been a purely voluntary force and the party armies of the 19th and early 20th centuries of the Liberal and Conservative Party had only applied the formal conscription very selectively. The Sandinista leadership therefore set up a special police department ( Fuerzas de Prevención ) to recruit young people in schools, universities or at festivals. As a result, many young people, mostly with their families, fled abroad or in institutions of the Catholic Church, universities or companies.

The question of compulsory military service was one of the decisive factors for the outcome of the 1990 election. After her election victory in February, the new President, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro , abolished it immediately with Decree 2-90.

structure

Territorial division

EPS Military regions map by Col. Alden Cunningham

At the end of the 1980s, Nicaragua was divided into seven military regions:

I. Estelí

II. Chinandega

III. Managua

IV. Matagalpa

V. Puerto Cabezas

VI. Granada

VII. Bluefields

Milicias Populares Sandinistas (MPS)

The Sandinista People's Militias were formed on February 15, 1980 based on Decree No. 313 of the government junta. Its first commanding officer was Comandante de Brigada Edén Pastora Gómez . As in the EPS, the service was voluntary. In the 1980s there were at times 28 MPS brigades with 150 battalions . Their function was mainly to protect property , e.g. B. factories, agricultural cooperatives and transport routes.

Batallones de Lucha Irregular (BLI)

BLI en operación 01

The BLI (= battalions for irregular combat) were set up in 1983 due to the increasing number of contra attacks and used as infantry . Their task was to track down the contra units operating in the form of guerrillas , to encircle them, to put them to battle and to destroy their bases and supply depots, also on foreign territory in Honduras and Costa Rica , i. H. Carry out counterinsurgency operations.

Before the BLI was founded, this was the task of the Batallones de Infantería de Reserva (BIR), but due to their age structure (outdated staff with only rudimentary military training) they were overwhelmed by the demands of warfare in rough terrain far away from supply bases. A total of 13 BLI and a reconnaissance company or company for special operations existed:

1. BLI " Simón Bolívar "

2. BLI " Germán Pomares "

3. BLI "General Francisco Estrada"

4. BLI "Coronel Santos López"

5th BLI "General Miguel Ángel Ortez"

6. BLI "Coronel Rufo Marín"

7. BLI "General Juan Pablo Umanzor"

8. BLI "Farabundo Martí"

9. BLI "Coronel Sócrates Sandino"

10th BLI "Coronel Ramón Raudales"

11th BLI "General Juan Gregorio Colindres"

12. BLI "General Pedro Altamirano"

13th BLI "Heriberto Reyes"

14. COE "Companía de Exploración" or "Companía de Operaciones Especiales"

Batallones Ligeros de Cazadores (BLC)

The light hunter battalions , at times 19 of 250 men in two companies , were used to track down and encircle contra units until the BLI were brought up, which were then to carry out the actual battle with great firepower.

Armored troops, artillery, engineers, airborne troops

According to Jurado / Thomas, the EPS had four tank battalions , a mechanized battalion, a field artillery brigade with four battalions and four engineer battalions at the end of the 1980s . At the core of the armored troops were 150 T-55 battle tanks , which, however, could hardly be used in the Contras operational area.

From 1982 the EPS also had an airborne battalion , which probably only operated with helicopters , as the FAS did not have transport aircraft that could drop paratroopers .

Border troops

The Tropas Guardiafronteras (TGF) had a total of 7,000 members at the end of the 1980s and were organized along the lines of border troops of the Eastern Bloc .

Special units, cooperation between EPS and MINT

The EPS had a special unit , the Tropas Pedro Altamirano (TPA, internally called Los Pedrinos ) , founded around 1982 . They were named after a former general Augusto César Sandinos , Pedro Altamirano . The TPA were converted into more flexible small units in 1986, the Pequeñas Unidades de Fuerzas Especiales (PUFE = Small Units of the Special Forces).

The TPA had a kind of competition in the MINT's paramilitary Tropas Pablo Úbeda (TPU) founded in 1979 . The MINT carried out operations against the contras independently; The TPU therefore worked closely with the secret service DGSE ( Directorio General para la Seguridad del Estado = General Directorate for State Security), which was also subordinate to the MINT and did not form a separate ministry like the Ministry for State Security of the GDR . The model of the MINT was the Cuban MININT.

The TPU operated in the Contra area partially as so-called bandas fantasmas (" ghost gangs "), i. i.e., as alleged counter groups. They made contact with real contra units and attacked them in camps set up together. Allegedly this tactic was adopted by units of the MININT. In one such operation in the Boaco Department in November 1984, the then leader of the force, Enrique Schmidt , was killed; the details have not yet been clarified. The TPU of the MINT were apparently dissolved in 1986 and partially incorporated into the TPA / PUFE.

The MINT also had its own department for combating contraband, the Lucha Contra Bandas (LCB = fight against gangs or fight against gangs), which in turn worked closely with the EPS and the TPU and related to their tasks, among other things. a. the disinformation and infiltration of contra units. The MINT was also responsible for the Dirección Quinta (Fifth Department, internally referred to as La V ), which was responsible for counter-espionage and the infiltration and disinformation, especially of the Contra. It operated mainly abroad, where contrabases or liaison personnel of the Contra were located, de facto throughout Central America . The MINT was dissolved after the Sandinista election defeat in 1990; in its place came the Ministerio de Gobierno.

With the SIM ( Servio de Inteligencia Militar ), the EPS had its own military intelligence service.

Equipment and armament, uniforms, ranks

Equipment and armament

Both equipment as armament consisted in the construction phase of the EPS of a conglomeration of various weapons and vehicles pp, some of which dated back from the Guardia Nacional shown. Israeli Galil - guns , the American M16 -Gewehr or small aircraft. They were gradually supplemented or replaced by arms deliveries from the Eastern Bloc .

Punta Huete Airfield, Nicaragua - CIA IMINT

Although pilots of the Fuerza Aérea Sandinista had been trained in Bulgaria for use on MiG-21 interceptors as early as 1984 , they were finally not purchased because they were tactically useless in the Contra War and were viewed by the USA as a threat to the Panama Canal . An airfield with a 3000 m long and 40 m wide runway made of reinforced concrete was specially constructed for the MiGs in Punta Huete on the northeast bank of Lake Managua . For almost 25 years one of the largest building ruins in Central America, the area was in 2010 as Punta Huete commissioned to the airport Managua to relieve.

Trucks of the Soviet type ZIL , East German IFA W50 and UAZ-469 jeeps were used for the transport .

Uniformity

Basically, the EPS was equipped with an olive green uniform based on the Cuban model . The BLI often wore camouflage clothing of various origins. Characteristic for many units of the EPS was a hat modeled on the Soviet tropical hat , as it was also worn in Afghanistan . The steel helmets hardly used in front service were of Soviet and Bulgarian origin.

Ranks

From 1979 to 1986:

- Comandante de la Revolución (Humberto Ortega)

- Comandante de Brigada

- Comandante ( Major )

- Subcommander

- Capitán ( captain )

- Teniente Primero ( First Lieutenant )

- Teniente ( lieutenant )

- Subteniente ( subordinate )

- Sargento Primero ( Sergeant 1st class)

- Sargento Secundo (Sergeant 2nd class)

- Sargento Tercero (Sergeant 3rd class)

- Soldado de Primera ( private )

- Soldado ( soldier )

On August 22, 1986, new ranks analogous to the Cuban FAR were introduced from the captain upwards:

- General de Ejército (Army General = General , only Humberto Ortega as Commander-in-Chief and Minister of Defense )

- General de Cuerpo (Corps General = Lieutenant General )

- General de División (division general = major general )

- General de Brigada ( Brigadier General )

- Coronel ( Colonel )

- Teniente Coronel ( Lieutenant Colonel )

- Mayor (Major)

Training, military missions

The training of the EPS was initially carried out mainly by Cuban instructors in Nicaragua itself, supported by Vietnamese and Palestinians . Apparently from the middle of 1980, EPS officers and NCOs were trained in the Eastern Bloc , including by the National People's Army in the GDR; In July 1990 there were still 85 officer candidates in the officers' college for foreign military cadre "Otto Winzer" in Prora on Rügen .

From 1984 to 1986 the Cuban general Arnaldo Ochoa worked as a military advisor in Managua and developed a special tactic for counterinsurgency against the Contras. As far as is known, the BLI was founded on his initiative; Ochoa had already visited Nicaragua several times in 1983. In 1985 there were still a good 1250 Cuban military advisors in the country. Contrary to contemporary press reports, active foreign troops from Cuba or the USSR were never stationed in Nicaragua during the Contra War.

Transformation 1994/95

After the Sandinista electoral defeat in February 1990, the Nicaraguan state apparatus was completely restructured under the Chamorro government. The MINT and its subordinate Policía Sandinista were dissolved, the PS replaced by the Policía Nacional .

The only exception in the restructuring was the EPS under Humberto Ortega, who was the only Sandinista to remain in a government role. At that time, the EPS was by far the strongest military apparatus in Central America and comprised a good 70,000 members, of which, however, apparently well over half were conscripts. However, the EPS completely took over the domestic secret service DGSE from the dissolved MINT Interior Ministry. The aim of the Chamorros government was to reduce the EPS to a level of 15,000 to 17,000 members by the mid-1990s.

During the period of transformation, there were battles against so-called Recontras and Recompas; former Contras and members of the EPS who became unemployed after their armies were disbanded, but who had sufficient weapons and ammunition. On July 21, 1993, a 150-strong Recompa group led by the former FSLN functionary Victor Manuel Gallego, known as "Pedrito El Hondureño", raided the city of Estelí , looted two banks and made political demands such as job security. A good 43 people were killed in the attack on the city or through the recapture by the EPS. Gallego was immediately given amnesty by Chamorro and Ortega; the loot from the banks was gone.

The transformation process was completed in 1994. The EPS was renamed Ejército de Nicaragua on September 2nd ; it is now part of the Fuerzas Armadas de Nicaragua .

literature

  • Carlos Caballero Jurado / Nigel Thomas / Simon McCouaig: Central American Wars 1959-89 , 3rd ed. Oxford (Osprey Men-at-arms series no. 221) 2000. ISBN 0-85045-945-1
  • Carlos Arturo Jiménez: Nosotros no le decíamos presidente: conspiraciones al desnudo de la Nicaragua Sandinista , Managua 2008.
  • Juan Sobalvarro: PERRA VIDA. Memorias de un Recluta del Servicio Militar , Managua (Lea Grupo Editoral) 2005. ISBN 99924-904-2-X
  • Coronel Francisco Barbosa Miranda: Historia militar de Nicaragua. Antes del siglo XVI as XXI , 2nd edition Managua 2010. ISBN 978-99924-79-46-9
  • Bob Woodward : Secret Code Veil. Reagan and the CIA's Secret Wars , Munich 1987.
  • Gerhard Ehlert / Jochen Staadt / Tobias Voigt: The cooperation between the Ministry for State Security of the GDR (MfS) and the Ministry of the Interior of Cuba (MININT) , Berlin 2002.
  • Sergio Ramírez : Adios, Muchachos! A memory of the Sandinista revolution , Wuppertal 2001.
  • Klaus Storkmann: Secret solidarity. Military aid of the GDR in the »Third World« , Berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-86153-676-5
  • Humberto Ortega Saavedra: La epopeya de la insurreción , Managua (Lea Grupo Editorial) 2004. ISBN 99924-830-5-9
  • Roger Miranda Bengoechea / William E. Ratliff: The civil war in Nicaragua. Inside the Sandinistas , 2nd ed. New Brunswick, NJ a. a. (Transaction Publ.) 1994. ISBN 1-56000-064-3

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