Nicaragua
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| National motto: Pro Mundi
Beneficio ( Latin: For the World's benefit) |
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| Official language | Spanish (official) (English and indigenous languages on Caribbean coast) | ||||
| Capital | Managua | ||||
| Mayor of the Capital | Ing. Dionisio Marenco | ||||
| President | Enrique Bolaños | ||||
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Area - Total - % water |
Ranked
115th 129,494 km² 14.01% |
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Population - Total - Density |
Ranked
131st 5,628,517 38,80/km² |
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| HDI ( 2003) | 0.690 ( 112th) – medium | ||||
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Independence - Declared - Recognized |
From Spain September 15, 1821 July 25, 1850 |
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| Currency | Córdoba | ||||
| Time zone | UTC -6 | ||||
| National anthem | Salve a ti | ||||
| Internet TLD | .ni | ||||
| Calling Code | 505 | ||||
Nicaragua is a sovereign and democratic nation in Central America. Although it is the largest republic in the region, it is also the least densely populated. The country is bordered on the north by Honduras and on south by Costa Rica. Its western coastline is on the Pacific Ocean, while the east side of the country is on the Caribbean Sea.
The country's name is a portmanteau of Nicarao, employed by the Spanish colonialists for the Nahuatl-speaking indigenous tribe, and the Spanish word Agua, meaning water, named after one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world Lago Nicaragua and the indigenous leader Nicarao.
At the time of the Spanish conquest, Nicaragua was the name given to the narrow strip of land between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean. Chief Nicarao ruled over that land when the first conquerors arrived. The term was eventually applied, by extension, to the group that inhabited that region: the Nicaraos or Niquiranos.
The pre-columbian Nicarao came to the area from northern regions after the fall of Teotihuacan, on the advice of their priests or religious leaders. According to tradition, they were to travel south until they encountered a lake with two volcanoes rising out of the waters, and stopped when they reached Ometepe, the largest fresh-water volcanic island in the world.
History
Colonized by Spain in 1524, Nicaragua achieved independence in 1821 when it was a province of the Audience of Guatemala and became part of the United Provinces of Central America. It separated from the federation in 1838, becoming a completely sovereign republic.
The nation's early history was marked by the desire of U.S. commercial interests to make use of Nicaraguan territory. When gold was discovered in California, Cornelius Vanderbilt's Accessory Transit Company undertook a steamship and carriage business to link Greytown (present-day San Juan del Norte), at the mouth of the San Juan River (Nicaragua) (linking the Lago Nicaragua with the Gulf of Mexico), to the Pacific. Nicaragua's strategic position has ever since been of interest to the United States.
Nicaragua offered token assistance during World War 2, and was the first country in the world to ratify the UN Charter.
Sandinista revolution
Nicaragua has seen many outside interventions and lengthy periods of military dictatorship, the most infamous being the rule of the Somoza family for much of the 20th century. The Somoza family came to power as part of a US-engineered pact in 1927 that stipulated the formation of the National Guard to replace the small individual armies that had long reigned in the country[ citation needed]. The only Nicaraguan general to refuse to sign this pact (el tratado del Espino Negro) was Augusto Cesar Sandino who headed up to the northern mountains of Las Segovias, where he fought the US Marines for over five years. A "hands off Nicaragua" movement was active in Mexico, where Sandino had worked and been deeply affected by the Mexican revolution[ citation needed]. The Marines eventually had to admit defeat[ citation needed] and National Guard head Anastasio Somoza Garcia and President Juan Bautista Sacasa had agreed to turn over virtual control of much of northern Nicaragua to General Sandino. However, when Sandino travelled to Managua in 1934, he was murdered by the National Guard (on February 21 of that year). Somoza, who was a great admirer of Mussolini[ citation needed], effectively took control of the country over the next 22 years, through the National Guard and his political party, the Partido Liberal Nacional. He was assassinated in 1956, and replaced by his son. In 1961, a young student and recent KGB recruit , named Carlos Fonseca turned back to the historical figure of Sandino, founding the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). The FSLN was a tiny party throughout most of the 1960s, but Somoza's utter hatred of the FSLN and heavy handed treatment of anyone he suspected to be a Sandinista sympathizer gave many ordinary Nicaraguans the idea that the Sandinistas were much stronger than was the case. Many Nicaraguans point to the 1972 earthquake that devastated Managua as the final 'nail in the coffin' for Somoza [ citation needed]. Some 75% of the city was destroyed, and Somoza's brazen corruption, mishandling of relief (which prompted Pittsburgh Pirates star Roberto Clemente to personally fly to Managua on December 31, 1972, a flight that ended in his tragic death) and refusal to really rebuild Managua flooded the ranks of the Sandinistas with young disaffected Nicaraguans who no longer had anything to lose[ citation needed]: The January 1978 assasination of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro by the National Guard further propelled the Sandinistas forward in their struggle against Somoza by leading many middle and upper class Nicaraguans to see the Sandinistas as the only hope for ridding the country of the brutal Somoza regime.
The Sandinistas, supported by many locals, elements of the Catholic Church[ citation needed], regional and European governments and through large scale clandestine Soviet and Cuban assistance took power in July of 1979. Somoza abandoned the country and his National Guardsmen, and eventually ended up in Paraguay, where he was assassinated in September of 1980 by members of the Argentinian Revolutionary Workers' Party. The key large scale programs of the Sandinistas included a massive literacy campaign (March-August, 1980) and a sweeping agrarian reform that put land into the hands of many formerly landless peasants.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who had cut off aid to Somoza the previous year, initially chose to give aid to the new government, but this lessened towards the end of his presidency and was completely cut off by Reagan due to evidence of Sandinista support of FMLN rebels in El Salvador. After a brief breathing space, the Sandinistas were faced with an ongoing and debilitating war against the Contra rebels with the ascent of Ronald Reagan to the US presidency. The US trained and financed the contras to fight against the Sandinistas, sparking widespread criticism from many quarters within the US, including the Congress. When the Congress moved to cut off aid to the Contras, Reagan aide Col. Oliver North concocted a plan to fund the contras through clandestine arms sales to Iran, a fiasco that blew up into the so-called Iran Contra affair.
Daniel Ortega was overwhelmingly elected President in 1984, but the years of the war took an unparalleled toll on Nicaragua's economy and left many families in quite difficult situations. Although the elections were certified fair by Western NGOs allowed into Nicaragua, Ortega and the FSLN had, in fact, been actively suppressing opposition parties while leaving moderate parties alone claiming that the moderates “presented no danger and served as a convenient facade to the outside world” .
Nicaragua won a historic case against the US at the World Court in 1986, and the US was ordered to pay Nicaragua some $12 billion in reparations for violating Nicaraguan sovereignty by engaging in attacks against it. The United States withdrew its acceptance of the Court it had previously made use of itself [ citation needed] and argued it had no authority in matters of sovereign state relations. The US government refused to pay restitutions, even when a United Nations General Assembly resolution on the matter was passed. Nicaragua v. United States, Iran-Contra.
The US invasion of Panama in 1989 was seen by many in Nicaragua as a clear warning to average Nicaraguans to vote in a US ally, and the elections in 1990 were won by Violeta Chamorro, the hand-picked US candidate and widow of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro[ citation needed], a much revered newspaper editor and ardent opponent of the Somoza dictatorship. Much to the surprise of the US and the contra forces, Chamorro did not dismantle the Sandinista Army, though the name was changed to the Nicaraguan Army. Her government, under intense pressure from the US, did withdraw Nicaragua's World Court case against the US [ citation needed].
1990's and the Post Sandinistan Era
Multi-party elections held in 1990 saw the defeat of the Sandinistas by a coalition of anti-sandinista (from the left and right of the political spectrum) parties led by Violeta Chamorro. The defeat shocked the Sandinistas as numerous pre-election polls had indicated a sure Sandinista victory and their pre-election rallies had attracted crowds of several hundred thousand people.
The unexpected result was subject to a great deal of analysis and comment, and was attributed by commentators such as Noam Chomsky and S. Brian Wilson to the Contra threats to continue the war if the Sandinistas retained power, the general war-weariness of the Nicaraguan population, and extensive U.S. funding of the opposition.
On the other hand, P. J. O'Rourke wrote in "Return of the Death of Communism" about "the unfair advantages of using state resources for party ends, about how Sandinista control of the transit system prevented UNO supporters from attending rallies, how Sandinista domination of the army forced soldiers to vote for Ortega and how Sandinista bureaucracy kept $3.3 million of U.S. campaign aid from getting to UNO while Daniel [Ortega] spent millions donated by overseas people and millions and millions more from the Nicaraguan treasury . . ."
Exit polls of Nicaraguans reported the largest plurality of voters voted for Charmorro due to American economic sanctions against the Ortega government. Exit polling also convinced Daniel Ortega that the election results were legitimate, and were instrumental in his decision to accept the vote of the people and step down rather than void the election.
In subsequent elections in 1996, Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas of the FSLN were again defeated, this time by Arnoldo Alemán and the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) and its allies, but ran a reasonably strong second. President Alemán came to a strategic understanding with Ortega and the FSLN, and Nicaragua's politics seemed to settle into a two party system, with the PLC and FSLN cooperating in dividing certain government spoils and positions and helping to shut out smaller parties (Note that "Dhimokratía" is the Greek word for "Republic" which is in Latin (Roman)). In the 2001 elections, the PLC again defeated the FSLN, with Enrique Bolaños winning the Presidency. However, President Bolaños subsequently broke with the PLC and charged former President Alemán with corruption, securing a twenty-year prison term for embezzlement, money laundering, and corruption. The Sandinista party and Liberal members loyal to Alemán reacted by stripping powers from President Bolaños and his ministers, and threatening impeachment. This "slow motion coup" was averted partially due to U.S. pressure, with proposed constitutional changes delayed until the scheduled 2006 elections.
Politics
Nicaragua is a constitutional republic with an elected president holding executive power. The unicameral legislative body is the National Assembly, which has 92 members elected for 5-year terms. The President, and the runner-up are both members of the National Assembly, as well, and the government operates according to pseudo- parliamentary rules.
- List of Presidents of Nicaragua
- Listen to Nicaragua's National Anthem!
Departments
For administrative purposes, Nicaragua is divided into 15 departments and two autonomous regions. The departments are Boaco, Carazo, Chinandega, Chontales, Estelí, Granada, Jinotega, León, Madriz, Managua, Masaya, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, Rivas, Río San Juan. The two autonomous regions are Región Autónoma del Atlántico Norte and Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur, often referred to as RAAN and RAAS respectively. Until they were granted autonomy in 1985 they formed the single department of Zelaya.
Geography
Nicaragua is bordered by Costa Rica on the south and Honduras on the north, the balmy Caribbean Sea the east. It is a warm land of lakes and mountains, rivers and volcanoes, sea and sun.
Nicaragua has three distinct geographical regions: the Pacific Lowlands, the North-Central Mountains and the Atlantic Lowlands.
The Pacific Lowlands:
Located in the west of the country, these lowlands consist of a broad, hot, fertile plain. Punctuating this plain are several large volcanoes—there are upwards of 40 volcanoes in the country, including Mombacho and Momotombo. The lowland area runs from the Gulf of Fonseca, on Nicaragua's Pacific border with Costa Rica south of Lake Nicaragua. From this lowland strip, the Maribios mountain range, with its 25 volcanic cones, towers overs some of the most impressive beaches in Central America.
This region is the most populous. About 27 percent of the nation's population lives in and around Managua, the capital city, on the southern shores of Lake Managua. Being on an open plain, Managua does not suffer the pollution of other cities trapped in mountain valleys.
In addition to its beach and resort communities, the Pacific Lowlands is also the repository for much of Nicaragua's Spanish colonial heritage. Cities such as Granada and León abound in colonial architecture and artifacts.
The Central Region:
This is an upland region away from the Pacific coast, with a cooler climate than the Pacific Lowlands. About a quarter of the country's agriculture takes place in this region, with coffee grown on the higher slopes. An ecologically active area with mountains and ranges over 3,000 feet above sea level. Oaks, pines, moss, ferns and orchids are abundant in the massive cloud forests of the region. Large coffee plantations often welcome a weary visitor with a steaming cup of the homegrown product.
Hikers and backpackers walking along the tree-shaded paths can quench their thirst in the clear waters of the mountain springs.
Lucky birdwatchers may be able to add a rare quetzal viewing to their inventory. Certainly they will see goldfinches, hummingbirds, jays or toucanets. Taking a branch of the famous Pan-American Highway, the traveler can drive through the heart of this region to the border with Honduras.
The Atlantic Lowlands:
This large rainforest region, with several large rivers running through it, is very sparsely populated and is considered the second-largest rainforest in the Americas after the Amazon in Brazil. The Río Negro forms the border with Honduras. The Caribbean coastline is much more sinuous than its generally straight Pacific counterpart: lagoons and deltas make it very irregular.
Nicaragua's tropical east coast is very different from the rest of the country. The climate is predominantly tropical with high temperature and high humidity. Around the area's principal city of Bluefields, English is widely spoken along with the official Spanish and the population more closely resembles that found in many typical Caribbean ports than the rest of Nicaragua, which further enriches the diversity of this country.
Nature lovers will find much to pique their interest in the tropical forests of the area. A great variety of birds can be observed including eagles, turkeys, toucans, parakeets and macaws. Animal life in the area includes several different species of monkeys, ant-eaters, white-tailed deer and tapirs.
A short flight away from Bluefields are the Corn Islands. These small, beautiful islands are fringed with white coral and are a popular resort area for Central Americans. Activities including bathing, surfing, fishing, and eating seafood, and the small island even has a mountain to climb.
See also:
- Lake Nicaragua
- Volcanoes of Nicaragua
- List of cities in Nicaragua
Economy
The Nicaraguan unit of currency is the Córdoba (NIO) and was named after Francisco Hernández de Córdoba its national founder. It trades at around 16.450 to the U.S. dollar, trades at about 19.910 to the European euro, and trades at around 0.5139 to the Taiwanese dollar. Regardless of exchange rates, real value for foreign currencies tends to go much further in Nicaragua than the rest of the region.
Nicaragua's economy has historically been based on the export of cash crops such as bananas, coffee and tobacco. It is renowned to produce the best rum in Latin America; the second best tobacco in the world; and have the third ranking in beef quality only behind Argentina and Brazil. During the Contra War in the early 1980's, much of the country's infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, poor administration by the Sandinista regime and an economic blockade by the U.S. combined with the economic stagnation of the aligned Soviet bloc led to the virtual collapse of the economy. Inflation ran at that time at several thousand per cent. Since the end of the war almost two decades ago, many state-owned industries have been privatized. Inflation has been brought to manageable levels, and the economy has grown quite rapidly in recent years.
As in so many other developing countries, most of the poor in Nicaragua are women. In addition, a relatively high percentage of Nicaragua's average homes have a woman as head of household: 39% of urban homes and 28% of the rural ones.
The country is still a recovering economy and it continues to implement further reforms, on which aid from the International Monetary Fund is conditional. A new state agency ( Pro Nicaragua) established in 2002 and the recent ratification of CAFTA have been instrumental for the democratic government of Nicaragua to launch an ambitious promotional campaign employing USA-educated nationals with executive expertise, to attract foreign investment and diversify the economy in such areas as BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and Garment Sourcing.
By the end of 2005 these initiatives had already successfully launched Nicaragua as one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America and a prefered destination for tourism and business as well as a retirement haven for North Americans, Europeans and many others alike with its incentive packages ( Law 306) and an inrivaled natural beauty and abundance of resources... Nicaragua is ripe for the picking as some say.
In 2005, finance ministers of the leading eight industrialized nations ( G-8) agreed to forgive Nicaragua's foreign debt, as part of the HIPC program.
Demographics
According to the 2005 census, Nicaragua has a population of 5,483,400, an increase of 20% on the 1995 census figure of 4,357,099.
Nicaraguans of European or Mestizo (to varying degrees) stock make up a combined 86% of the population, and effectively the largest majority. Although there are not always clear lines of differentiation due to the large and varying caucasoid composition across this group, the segment can be divided for the most part along the lines of 69% Mestizos and 17% of European descent (mostly Spanish, German and Italian).
In the nineteenth century, there had been a substantial indigenous minority, but this group was also largely assimilated culturally into the Hispanic mainstream. Primarily in the 19th century, Nicaragua saw several waves of immigration from other European nations. In particular the northern cities of Esteli and Matagalpa have significant 4th generation German communities. Most of the Mestizo and European descent population live in the western regions of the country as in the cities of Managua, Granada and Leon.
A minority comprising about 9 % of Nicaragua's population is considered black or afronicaragüense, and mainly reside in the country's sparsely populated eastern or Atlantic coast. The black population is mostly of West Indian (Antillean) origin, the descendents of indentured labourers brought mostly from Jamaica and Haiti when the region was a British protectorate. As the largest country in the region, Nicaragua also has the second largest black population in Central America after Panama. There is also a smaller number of Garifuna, a people of mixed Carib, Angolan, Congolese and Arawak descent.
The remaining 5 % is comprised of the unmixed descendants of the country's indigenous inhabitants. Nicaragua's pre-Colombian population consisted of the Nahuatl-speaking Nicarao people of the west after whom the country is named, and six other ethnic groups including the Miskitos, Ramas and Sumos along the Caribbean coast. While very few pure-blooded Nicarao people still exist, the Caribbean peoples have remained distinct. In the mid-1980s, the government divided the department of Zelaya - consisting of the eastern half of the country - into two autonomous regions and thus granted the African and indigenous people of this region limited self-rule within the Republic.
There is also a small Middle Eastern-Nicaraguan community of Syrian, Armenian, Palestinian and Lebanese people in Nicaragua with a total population of about 30,000, and an East Asian community of Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese people of almost 8,000. These minorities speak Spanish while maintaining their ancestral languages as well.
Spanish is spoken by about 90% of the country's population; Nicaraguans speak standard Iberoamerican Spanish with some similarities to Galician Spanish—structurally similar to Argentinian Spanish which uses "vos" instead of "tu" along with the " vos" conjugation, but with a different intonation. The black population of the east coast region has English as its first language. Several indigenous peoples of the east still use their original languages.
Roman Catholicism is the major religion, but evangelical Protestant groups have grown recently, and there are strong Anglican and Moravian communities on the Caribbean coast.
90 % of Nicaraguans live in the Pacific lowlands and the adjacent interior highlands. The population is 54% urban. An estimated 2 million Nicaraguans live outside of Nicaragua, popular destinations are Costa Rica, the United States, Mexico, Germany, and Spain.
Culture
The "Nicas" are friendly and obliging people, with a matriarchal society. The population is very young with 60 percent under 17 years of age. As a whole the country is rich in colorful folklore, music and religious traditions. A fusion of Old World and New World emerged as the national psyche creating a society largely founded on European-Iberian culture but enriched with Amerindian sounds and flavours. Nicaragua has historically been a literary treasure in poetry of the Hispanic world with internationally renowned contributors such as Ruben Darío who is widely acclaimed as the Father of Modernism and Prince of Spanish Literature.
Through education Nicaragua's Government promotes the formation of nationals, giving them a decisive, scientific and humanist conscience. Education is free and the same for all Nicaraguans. Elementary education is free and compulsory. Communities localted on the Atlantic Coast have access to education in their native language. Higher education has financial, organic and administrative autonomy, according to the law. Also, freedom of subjects is recognized.
Nicaraguan culture can further be defined in several distinct strands. The west of the country was colonized by Spain and its people are mostly Mestizos and European in composition; Spanish is invariably their first language.
The eastern half of the country, on the other hand, was once a British protectorate. English is still predominant in this region and spoken domestically a par with Spanish which is formally taught in schools, its culture is somewhat similar to Caribbean nations, although recent immigration by Mestizos has largely influenced younger generations and an increasing number of people are either bilingual at home or speak Spanish only. There is a large population of people of mixed African stock, as well as a smaller Garifuna population.
Of the cultures that were present before European colonization, the Nahuatl-speaking peoples who populated the west of the country have essentially been assimilated into the latino culture. In the east, however, several indigenous groups have maintained a distinct identity. The Sumos and Ramas people still use their original languages.
Arts
- Atelier Yoyita www.yoyita.com (English, Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Italian)
- Arte Nicaraguense www.artenicaraguense.com Contemporary art by Nicaraguan masters.
- Images of Nicaragua Paintings of Nicaragua
FAMOUS "NICAS" IN THE WORLD OF ENTERTAINMENT, MUSIC AND TELEVISION IN THE U.S
Bianca Jagger - Socialite and Human rights activist
Denis Martinez- Former Orioles Baseball Player and
Hall-of-Famer
Luis Enrique Mejia - Salsero
singer/composer
Gioconda Belli - Writer/Poet
Maria A. Morales - Senior writer "People en Espanol"
Sal Morales - Telemundo Los Angeles weather anchor
Ivan Taylor - Telemundo Miami Weekend anchor reporter
Gabriel Traversari - Show Host/Actor/Model