#fsln

A portrait of a member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), Nicaragua, 1979.

May 18, 1895 - Today, on the day of his birth, we remember the Nicaraguan revolutionary Augusto C. Sandino. Between 1927 and 1933, Sandino led a revolutionary army against the US invasion of Nicaragua, expelling the US troops through guerrilla war.

30% of guerrilla combatants were women. In Nicaragua’s first democratic elections in 1984, 67% of the women who voted in that election voted for the FSLN.

"On this day 45 years ago, the socialist guerrilla Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) ended the rule of the US-backed Somoza clan in Nicaragua, which plundered one of the poorest countries in the region for 43 years. Here is an album that captures their fighting spirit during the revolutionary period.

The FSLN was named after the resistance leader César Augusto Sandino, who fought the US occupation of Nicaragua from 1927-1933. Inspired by the armed liberation movement that turned the global colonial order on its head, the FSLN defeated Somoza in 1979 with a combination of urban and rural armed struggle.

However, the revolution faced the immense challenge of rebuilding the impoverished country, as the dictator left behind empty coffers and $1.5 billion in foreign debt. The Sandinista also faced US imperialism, which feared “another Cuba” in Central America, and sought to bring the revolution to its knees with devastating sanctions and funding the counter-revolutionary contras.

The women in Nicaragua during the Sandinista Revolution saw their way of life drastically change, emerging as active participants and leaders. Empowered by the movement, they boldly challenged any attempts to confine them to traditional domestic roles.

The new revolutionary political system survived, and life expectancy increased from 55 years in 1970 to 63 years in 1990. The FSLN’s “National Literacy Crusade” reduced the national illiteracy rate from 50.35% to 12.9% in 1980."

No Intervention

We want to be: free, sovereign, independent, to build our destiny with peace, bread and dignity.

No Intervención

queremos ser: libres, sobranos, independientes, para construir nuestro destino con paz, pan y dignidad.

Nicaragua: Todo el poder al Frente Sandinista y a las organizaciones populares. Afiche de soidaridad con el FSLN - MRT.

Afiche en serigrafía. Quito-Ecuador. Circa 1978.