We were told that the only way to defeat the Sandinistas was to ... kill, kidnap, rob and torture ..."

One member of the Permanent Commission for Human Rights commented on the Americas Watch report and its chief investigator Juan Mendez: " The Sandinistas are laying the groundwork for a totalitarian society here and yet all Mendez wanted to hear about were abuses by the contras.

The primary opposition candidate was the U. S .- backed Arturo Cruz, who succumbed to pressure from the United States government not to take part in the 1984 elections ; later US officials were quoted as saying, " the ( Reagan ) Administration never contemplated letting Cruz stay in the race, because then the Sandinistas could justifiably claim that the elections were legitimate.

The Soviets also pledged to provide MiG 21 fighters, but, to the annoyance of the Sandinistas, the aircraft were never delivered.

The Reagan administration insisted on the " Communist threat " posed by the Sandinistas — reacting particularly to the support provided to the Sandinistas by Cuban president Fidel Castro, by the Sandinistas ' close military relations with the Soviets and Cubans, but also furthering the Reagan administration's desire to protect U. S. interests in the region, which were threatened by the policies of the Sandinista government.

Sandino was assassinated in 1934 by the Nicaraguan National Guard (), the US-equipped police force of Anastasio Somoza, whose family ruled the country from 1936 until they were overthrown by the Sandinistas in 1979.

Edén Pastora and many of the indigenous guerrilla forces, who were not associated with the " Somozistas ", also resisted the Sandinistas.

While the Sandinistas encouraged grassroots pluralism, they were perhaps less enthusiastic about national elections.

The early economic gains of the Sandinistas were wiped out by seven years of sometimes precipitous economic decline, and in 1990, by most standards, Nicaragua and most Nicaraguans were considerably poorer than they were in the 1970s.

Supporters of the Sandinistas see their era as characterized by the creation and implementation of successful social programs which were free and made widely available to the entire nation.

Some of the more successful programs for women that were implemented by the Sandinistas were in the areas of Education Nicaraguan Literacy Campaign, Health, and Housing.

The Sandinistas were particularly advantageous for the women of Nicaraguan as they promoted progressive views on gender as early as 1969 claiming that the revolution would " abolish the detestable discrimination that women have suffered with regard to men and establish economic, political and cultural equality between men and women.

Throughout the revolutionary struggle, the Sandinistas enjoyed the grassroots support of clergy who were influenced by the reforming zeal of Vatican II and dedicated to a " preferential option for the poor " ( for comparison, see liberation theology ).

The newspaper's editors were forbidden to print anything negative about the Sandinistas either at home or abroad.

The Sandinistas boasted that they were “ ready to eliminate the last Miskito Indian to take Sandinism to the Atlantic Coast ".

) By the late 1970s, human rights groups were condemning the record of the Somoza government, while support for the Sandinistas was growing inside and outside the country.

In 1975 Somoza Debayle launched a campaign to crush the Sandinistas ; individuals suspected of supporting the Front were targeted.

By 1983, the number of political prisoners in the Sandinistas ' ruthless tyranny were estimated at 20, 000.

Nevertheless, the increasing corruption and repression characterizing the Somoza rule and the likelihood that the Sandinistas would emerge victorious ultimately influenced Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo to declare formal support for the Sandinistas ' armed struggle.

Generally however, most Sandinistas associated Sandino on a more practical level, as a heroic and honest person who tried to combat the evil forces of imperialist national and international governments that existed in Nicaragua's history.

In 1990, after nearly a decade of civil warfare and economic sanctions, Chamorro became the presidential candidate of the National Opposition Union ( UNO ), a coalition of 14 political parties that ran against the Sandinistas in that year's national elections.

Some members of AIM supported the Sandinistas of the national government, although they had forced removal of thousands of Miskito from their traditional territory.

The people who belong to the national ruling government party, the Sandinistas, have more opportunities for employment.

Following the war, and with the defeat of the Sandinistas in the 1990 general election, Nicaragua began free market reforms, privatizing more than 350 state companies and commencing a general trend of economic growth.

On the other hand, the Sandinistas had little to fear from the election given the advantages of incumbency and the restrictions on the opposition, and they hoped to discredit the armed efforts to overthrow them.

Although in 1984 the Sandinistas held a fair and free election, in which they won the majority of the votes, the main opposition parties boycotted this election under US pressure, and the US was able to claim that the victory was illegitimate.

Upon the conclusion of the civil war, 7, 500 Guardsmen were taken prisoner – with many former Guards suspected of violating human rights being held in detention by the Sandinistas –, while another 4, 500 officers and enlisted men fled to neighbouring Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala to form the nucleus an armed opposition force to the new Nicaraguan government, which would later become known as the Contras

It was all lies, what they promised us " ( unemployed person ); " I thought it was going to be just like 1984, when the vote was not secret and there was not all these observers around " ( market vendor ); " Don ’ t you believe those lies fraud, I voted my conscience and my principles, and so did everyone else I know " ( young mother ); " the Sandinistas have mocked and abused the people, and now we have given our vote to opposition UNO " ( ex-Sandinista officer ).

In 1984, the DEA became upset with the White House, alleging the White House blew the smuggling investigation against the Sandinistas to embarrass them before a contra aid vote.

The Sandinistas, who already in July 1984 had expelled ten foreign priests ( who had expressed solidarity with another religious figure who had been accused of being a contrarevolutionary ), responded by rebuking Obando y Bravo repeatedly in public forums.

After the war, a survey was taken of voters: 75. 6 % agreed that if the Sandinistas had won, the war would never have ended.

The Carter administration had viewed the US-created Nicaraguan National Guard as a means to keep the Sandinistas from exclusive power, and had taken measures to preserve at least parts of it when Somoza was defeated.

* Nicaraguans who had avoided direct involvement in the revolution but opposed the Sandinistas ' increasingly anti-democratic regime.

Ronald Reagan, who had assumed the American presidency in January 1981, accused the Sandinistas of importing Cuban-style socialism and aiding leftist guerrillas in El Salvador.

" After the U. S. enforced the embargo, Nicaragua was isolated from the West, forcing the Sandinistas to rely more on Eastern bloc military and economic assistance even though Moscow declined to offer the quantity of aid it provided to close communist allies.

The Contras have killed, tortured, raped, mutilated and abducted hundreds of civilians they suspect of sympathizing with the Sandinistas.

A guerrilla struggle can't be won by attacking only card-carrying Sandinistas.

It alleged that Americas Watch gave too much credence to alleged Contra abuses and systematically tried to discredit Nicaraguan human rights groups such as the Permanent Commission on Human Rights, which blamed the major human rights abuses on the Sandinistas.

This led many commentators to assume that Nicaraguans voted against the Sandinistas out of fear of a continuation of the contra war and economic deprivation.

( 1993, 1994 ) " The Civil War in Nicaragua: Inside the Sandinistas.

Joining the Sandinistas, he also travelled to Cuba to receive training in guerilla warfare from Fidel Castro's Marxist-Leninist government.

The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Sandinistas are or have been particular causes célèbres.

Operating from Costa Rica they formed the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional ( FSLN ) and came to be known as Sandinistas.

Violent opposition to the government, especially to its widespread corruption, was then renewed with the Sandinistas being revived.

The Sandinistas received some support from Cuba and the Soviet Union.

At the same time, the Sandinistas stepped up their rate of guerrilla activity.

When León became the first city in Nicaragua to fall to the Sandinistas, he responded with aerial bombardment, famously ordering the air force to " bomb everything that moves until it stops moving.

At that point, the U. S. ambassador sent a cable to the White House saying it would be " ill-advised " to call off the bombing, because such an action would help the Sandinistas gain power.