De Sandino a los contras. Formas y prácticas de la guerra en Nicaragua

Abstract

How are we to interpret the civil wars –Somoza vs Sandinsitas: Sandnistas vs contras– which have struck Nicaragua from 1978 to 1987? While most analyses put the stress on internal socio-political “deaddlocks” and the part played by foreign interventions, the aim here is to reinstate these two wars in Nicaragua “long term” cycle of violence enables to understand how violence could become, throught the 20th century, a legitimate and codified way of action and how it made it possible for new socio-political actors to emergeand to gain legitimate access to economic resources. The article then moves on to describe how these actors as well as the “political culture” of this series of war episodes was internally structured. Finally, the article looks into the changes which have taken place since the end of the contras/ sandinistas confrontation and during Violeta Barrios de Chamorro’s mandate.