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Nicaragua Sandinista People's Militia
Following the example of Cuba, the Nicaraguan
government
established the Sandinista People's Militia (Milicia
Popular
Sandinista--MPS) to augment the regular troops and to gain
the
services of enthusiastic supporters of the revolution who
could
not be accommodated in the EPS. The militia represented
both a
massive political mobilization and the primary means of
defending
the countryside against the forces of the Nicaraguan
Resistance.
Individual militias received weekend training in basic
infantry
weapons and were assigned as guards in sensitive
installations or
as neighborhood night watches. A typical militia battalion
of 700
persons consisted of five infantry companies and various
support
units.
The principal weapons of the MPS were older-model
rifles and
machine guns and mortars. Militia members displaying
aptitude
during weekend training sessions were selected for several
months
of full-time training, followed by up to six months of
service in
the field. During 1982 and 1983, the militia had primary
responsibility for border defense and thus sustained heavy
casualties, while the regular army was concentrated at
permanent
bases. After the installation of the draft in 1983 enabled
the
EPS to widen its operations, the main function of the
mobilized
militia became the protection of rural communities. The
FSLN
claimed that 250,000 persons had received some form of
military
training, of whom 100,000 were mobilized in active units.
Before Anastasio Somoza Debayle's overthrow, women had
constituted up to 40 percent of the ranks of the FSLN and
6
percent of the officers. Six women held the rank of
guerrilla
commander in the late 1970s. After the Sandinista victory,
however, women were gradually shifted to noncombatant
roles or to
the Sandinista Police. Many women fighters resisted the
redeployment, and their role became a national issue. As a
compromise, seven all-women reserve battalions were
formed, but
these were gradually converted into mixed battalions.
Women's
mobilization continued in other forms. Women constituted
50
percent of the Sandinista Defense Committees organized in
the
neighborhoods and up to 80 percent of Revolutionary
Vigilance
volunteers, who carried out nighttime patrols in urban
neighborhoods and at industrial sites.
Data as of December 1993
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