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Nicaragua Legacy of the Sandinista Revolution, 1977-79
By the mid-1970s, the government's economic and
dictatorial
political policies had alienated nearly all sectors of
society.
Armed opposition to the Somoza regimes, which had started
as a
small rural insurrection in the early 1960s, had grown by
1977 to
a full-scale civil war. The fighting caused foreign
investment to
drop sharply and the private sector to cut investment
plans. Many
government expenditures were shifted to the military
budget. As
fighting in the cities increased, destruction and looting
caused
a large loss in inventories and operating stock. Foreign
investment, which before 1977 had been a significant
factor in
the economy's growth, almost stopped. As the fighting
intensified
further, most liquid assets flowed out of the country.
Although the anti-Somoza forces finally won their
struggle in
July 1979, the human and physical cost of the revolution
was
tremendous. As many as 50,000 people lost their lives in
the
fighting, 100,000 were wounded, and 40,000 children were
left
orphans. About US$500 million in physical plants,
equipment, and
materials was destroyed; housing, hospitals,
transportation, and
communications incurred damages of US$80 million. The GDP
shrank
an estimated 25 percent in 1979 alone.
Data as of December 1993
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