Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T09:27:11.366Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Nicaraguan Revolution's Challenge to the Monroe Doctrine: Sandinistas and Western Europe, 1979–1990

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2021

Eline van Ommen Open the ORCID record for Eline van Ommen [Opens in a new window]
Eline van Ommen*
Affiliation:
University of Leeds, Leeds, United [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article analyzes the revolutionary diplomacy of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) through the prism of Nicaraguan and Western European relations during the final decade of the Cold War. It contends that —despite the FSLN's ideological affiliation with Third World national liberation movements, Cuba, and the socialist bloc—the campaign to influence Western European foreign policies was central to the Sandinista government's international strategy. By pushing Western European governments to play a prominent role in Central America's violent Cold War conflicts, the Sandinistas sought to undermine US power in the isthmus and alter the inter-American dynamics that shaped their region's history up to the late 1970s. Furthermore, by building financial ties with Western European countries, the FSLN could avoid complete financial dependency on the Soviet bloc and strengthen Nicaragua's image as a nonaligned state. The Sandinistas’ campaign to challenge US hegemony in Central America through a pragmatic outreach to Western Europe was largely successful, but it came at the cost of implementing domestic reforms that ran counter to their own ambitions. Ultimately, this prompted the FSLN to hold elections in 1990, which resulted in their removal from power.

Keywords

revolutionWestern EuropeNicaraguaSandinistasCold Wardiplomacy
Type
Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 78 , Special Issue 4: Internationalizing Revolution , October 2021 , pp. 639 - 666
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Academy of American Franciscan History

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author thanks Tanya Harmer for the excellent collaboration and generous feedback on this article. Thanks also to members of the Global Cold War Research Cluster at Utrecht University, the contributors to this special issue, and the editors and peer reviewers at The Americas for their helpful feedback on earlier versions of this piece.

References

1. Active during most of the Cold War period, the Socialist International was an influential umbrella organization of socialist, labor, and social democratic parties.

2. “Eddy Kühl: Un ermitaño con mucho mundo,” El Nuevo Diario, May 19, 2019; Author's interview with Eduardo Ramón Kühl, Selva Negra, Nicaragua, August 1, 2016.

3. American Embassy in Stockholm to US Secretary of State, July 20, 1979, Central Foreign Policy Files, US Department of State, National Archives and Records Administration, https://aad.archives.gov/aad/createpdf?rid=144333&dt=2776&dl=2169, accessed September 20, 2020.

4. Even though he collaborated with the FSLN, Kühl did not describe himself as a Sandinista. A young upper-class Nicaraguan of German descent, he was more closely aligned with the center-left Movimiento Democrático Nicaragüense.

5. Author's email correspondence with Eduardo Ramón Kühl, December 8, 2016.

6. “Nicaragua krijgt hulp socialisten,” De Volkskrant, July 23, 1979.

7. Primarily written from the Nicaraguan perspective, this article adopts a loose definition of Western Europe, which includes the European Commission, EC member states, and the Scandinavian countries, as well as Greece, Spain, and Portugal.

8. For more on US foreign policy toward the Nicaraguan Revolution, see Gutman, Roy, Banana Diplomacy: The Making of American Policy in Nicaragua, 1981–1987 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988)Google Scholar; LeoGrande, William M., Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977–1992 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998)Google Scholar; Kagan, Robert, A Twilight Struggle: American Power in Nicaragua, 1977–1990 (New York: The Free Press, 1996)Google Scholar; and Hager, Robert P. Jr. and Snyder, Robert S., “The United States and Nicaragua: Understanding the Breakdown in Relations,” Journal of Cold War Studies 17:2 (2015): 3–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9. Ramírez, Sergio, Adiós Muchachos: A Memoir of the Sandinista Revolution (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2011), 94CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10. For a recent account of the socialist bloc's relations with the FSLN, see Yordanov, Radoslav, “Outfoxing the Eagle: Soviet, East European and Cuban involvement in Nicaragua in the 1980s,” Journal of Contemporary History 55:4 (2020): 871–892CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For an overview of Soviet views of Central America, see Paszyn, Danuta, The Soviet Attitude to Political and Social Change in Central America, 1979–90: Case-Studies on Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11. “David resistió a Goliat: 10 años de política exterior,” Revista Envío 95 (1989), https://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/597, accessed July 19, 2021.

12. This definition draws on Odd Arne Westad's The Cold War: A World History (New York: Basic Books, 2017).

13. Matthew Connelly, A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria's Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002); Paul Thomas Chamberlin, The Global Offensive: The United States, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Making of the Post-Cold War Order (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012); Lien-Hang Nguyen, “Revolutionary Circuits: Toward Internationalizing America in the World,” Diplomatic History 39:3 (2015): 411–422.

14. Tanya Harmer, “Review of The Ideological Origins of the Dirty War by Federico Finchelstein,” Cold War History 15:3 (2015): 419.

15. “The Historic Programme of the FSLN,” as published in Bruce Mars, ed., Sandinistas Speak: Speeches, Writings and Interviews with Leaders of Nicaragua's Revolution (New York and London: Pathfinder Press, 1982).

16. “David resistió a Goliat.”

17. Ramírez, Adiós Muchachos (2012), 94.

18. “Historic Programme of the FSLN.”

19. “David resistió a Goliat.”

20. For more on El Salvador, see Dirk Kruijt, Guerrillas: War and Peace in Central America (London: Zed Books, 2008); and Andrea Oñate-Madrazo, Insurgent Diplomacy: El Salvador's Transnational Revolution, 1970–1992 (PhD diss.: Princeton University, 2016).

21. Bayardo Arce Castaño, “La intervención extranjera,” Encuentro 15 (1980): 56–64.

22. See Gary Prevost, “Cuba and Nicaragua: A Special Relationship?” Latin American Perspectives 17:3 (1990), 120–137; and Emily Snyder's contribution to this special issue.

23. Author's email correspondence with Eduardo Kühl, December 8, 2016.

24. Bayardo Arce and Pelegrín Torras, February 6, 1980, Archivo Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Havana, Cuba [hereafter ACMINREX], Ordinario, Nicaragua 1980.

25. Arce, “La intervención extranjera” (1980).

26. See Gerardo Sánchez Nateras, “The Sandinista Revolution and the Limits of the Cold War in Latin America: The Dilemma of Non-Intervention during the Nicaraguan Crisis, 1977–78,” Cold War History 18:2 (2018),:111–129; and Eline van Ommen, “Isolating Nicaragua's Somoza: Sandinista Diplomacy in Western Europe, 1977–1979,” in Latin America and the Global Cold War, Thomas C. Field, Stella Krepp, and Vanni Pettinà eds. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020).

27. Soviet Ambassador to Cuba Vorotnikov, memorandum of conversation with Raúl Castro, September 1, 1979, Wilson Center Digital Archive, https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111249, accessed September 20, 2020.

28. For more on the consolidation of Sandinista power, see María Dolores Ferrero Blanco, “El diseño de las instituciones en el Estado Sandinista,” Revista de Indias 75:265 (2015): 805–850; and Dirk Kruijt, “Revolución y contrarrevolución: el gobierno sandinista y la guerra de la Contra en Nicaragua, 1980–1990,” Desafíos 23:2 (2011): 53–81.

29. Vorotnikov, memorandum of conversation with Raúl Castro, September 1, 1979.

30. Ramírez, Adiós Muchachos (2012), 73.

31. Author's interview with Victor Hugo Tinoco, Managua, Nicaragua, August 17, 2016.

32. Besuch des AM von Nicaragua Miguel d'Escoto, August 28, 1980, Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts, Berlin, Germany [hereafter AA], Zwischenarchiv 127450.

33. Dublin to Foreign and Commonwealth Office Records [hereafter FCO], July 25, 1979, , National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom [hereafter UKNA], FCO99/350.

34. Duncan to FCO, July 21, 1982, UKNA, FCO 99/1267.

35. Gespräch des Bundesministers Genscher mit dem nicaraguanische Arbeitsminister Godoy, May 13, 1982, Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland [hereafter AAPD], Document 140, 1982.

36. J. Stephen. Wall to Bryan G. Cartledge, July 26, 1979, UKNA, FCO 99/351.

37. Dublin to FCO, July 25, 1979, UKNA, FCO 99/350.

38. Bulletin of the European Communities: Commission 7/8 (1979); The Courier: Africa-Caribbean-Pacific-European Community 57 (1979).

39. Hazel Smith, European Union Foreign Policy and Central America (London: Palgrave, 1995), 60–61.

40. Europe and Central America, April 1979, Office of European Analysis, Directorate of Intelligence, CIA Records Search Tool [hereafter CREST].

41. Alan J. Payne to FCO, February 7, 1980, UKNA, FCO 99/558.

42. According to CIA data, Latin American countries provided Nicaragua with $150 million in aid in 1980. In 1981, aid levels rose to $300 million.

43. For the response of Chile and Argentina to the Nicaraguan Revolution, see Molly Avery's contribution to this special issue.

44. Casimiro Sotelo, Saúl Arana, and Ramón Meneses to Miguel d'Escoto, Leonte Herdocia, Luis Vanegas, November 27, 1980, Alejandro Bendaña Private Archive, Managua, Nicaragua [hereafter ABPA].

45. Mateo Cayetano Jarquín, “Red Christmases: The Sandinistas, Indigenous Rebellion, and the Origins of the Nicaraguan Civil War, 1981–1982,” Cold War History 18:1 (2018): 94–95.

46. See Ariel Armony, Argentina, the United States, and the Anti-Communist Crusade in Central America (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997).

47. Consenso general sobre la coyuntura actual, MINEX, ABPA. The exact date of this file is unknown but based on the content, the document was written between May and September 1983.

48. Hans Langenberg to Western European solidarity committees, August 1983, Informationsbüro Nicaragua Wuppertal [hereafter INW; not catalogued], International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, The Netherlands [hereafter IISG].

49. “Nicaragua: a las puertas de la invasión,” Revista Envío 29 (1983).

50. See Kim Christiaens, “Between Diplomacy and Solidarity: Western European Support Networks for Sandinista Nicaragua,” European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire 21:4 (2014): 617–634; Eline van Ommen, “The Sandinista Revolution in the Netherlands: The Dutch Solidarity Committees and Nicaragua (1977–1990),” Naveg@mérica: Revista electrónica editada por la Asociación Española de Americanistas 17 (2016); and Christian Helm, Botschafter der Revolution Das transnationale Kommunikationsnetzwerk zwischen der Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional und der bundesdeutschen Nicaragua-Solidarität 1977–1990 (Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2018).

51. For a full discussion of why this outreach was successful, the foundations it built on, and how it evolved, see Eline van Ommen, “Sandinistas Go Global: Nicaragua and Western Europe, 1977–1990” (PhD diss.: London School of Economics, 2019).

52. “David resistió a Goliat.”

53. Record of meeting by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, September 29, 1983, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, CA [hereafter Reagan Library], memorandums of conversations – President Reagan, Box 51, NSC: Subject Files, Executive Secretariat.

54. Ramírez, Adiós Muchachos (2012), 95.

55. Phone call from Francisco d'Escoto to Derek Day, January 13, 1982, UKNA, FCO 99/1269.

56. Bruce Michael Bagley, “Contadora: The Failure of Diplomacy,” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 28:3 (1986): 1–32.

57. Obstáculos que la administración tiene para implementar una intervención directa contra Nicaragua, date unknown, MINEX, ABPA.

58. For more on the transatlantic relationship, see Patel, Kiran Klaus and Weisbrode, Kenneth, eds., European Integration and the Atlantic Community in the 1980s (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59. For more on the Latin American peace effort, see Mateo Cayetano Jarquín's contribution to this special issue.

60. Athens Coreu to Bonn, October 1, 1983, AA, Zwischenarchiv 136684.

61. Record of talks between the [US] Secretary of State and the President of Costa Rica, June 27, 1984, UKNA, FCO 98/1811.

62. Gespräch des Bundeskanzlers Kohl mit Präsident Monge, June 4, 1984, AAPD, Document 159, 1984.

63. Bonn to Coreu, May 4, 1984, Archief Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, The Hague, The Netherlands [hereafter BZ], Inventarisnummer 25292.

64. Jürgen Ruhfus to AA, April 17, 1984, AAPD, Document 110, 1984.

65. The summit marked the beginning of the San José dialogue, which took the form of yearly meetings between Western European and Central American ministers.

66. Ayuda Memoria, May 24, 1984, ABPA.

67. “Brillante ofensiva diplomática, constante defensa militar,” Revista Envío 40 (1984).

68. Permanent Representatives of Nicaragua to the United Nations to President of the UN Security Council, September 21, 1984, United Nations Digital Library, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/69318, accessed September 22, 2020.

69. Dublin Coreu to All Coreu, September 7, 1984, UKNA, FCO 99/1774.

70. Stephen Kinzer, “Managua Takes a Trick with the Contadora Card,” New York Times, September 30, 1984.

71. San Salvador to Bonn, September 27, 1984, AA, Zwischenarchiv 17889.

72. Background paper for National Security Council meeting, October 30, 1984, CREST.

73. Ramírez, Adiós Muchachos (2012), 101.

74. Evaluación, Perspectivas y Planes – 1984, date unknown, ABPA.

75. Nicaraguan assessment of international situation, February 14, 1984, ABPA.

76. Evaluación, Perspectivas y Planes – 1984, ABPA.

77. Nicaraguan assessment of international situation, February 14, 1984, ABPA.

78. Remarks by Ronald Reagan at the welcoming ceremony for President Jaime Lusinchi of Venezuela, December 4, 1984, Reagan Library, https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/research/speeches/120484a, accessed September 20, 2020.

79. Nicaragua Komitee Nederland to Paul Bremer, February 21, 1984, IISG, Box 14, Archief Nicaragua Komitee Nederland [hereafter NKN].

80. Nicaraguan assessment of international situation, February 14, 1984, ABPA.

81. US Information Agency, Public Diplomacy Activities on Central America, November 2, 1984, CREST.

82. Ramírez, Adiós Muchachos (2012), 102.

83. Interview with Alejandro Bendaña by James S. Sutterlin, Managua, Nicaragua July 29, 1997, http://dag.un.org/bitstream/handle/11176/89708/Benda%c3%b1a29Jul97TRANS.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y, accessed August, 24, 2021.

84. UK Representative Brussels to Immediate FCO, November 13, 1984, UKNA, FCO 99/1759.

85. House of Commons Debate on Foreign Affairs and Overseas Development, November 9, 1984, Hansard.

86. Instituto de Relaciones Europeo-Latinoamericanas, Centroamérica hoy: un informe de coyuntura (Madrid: IRELA, 1986).

87. Nicaragua: Annual Review for 1984, January 4, 1985, UKNA, FCO 99/2141; Nicaragua: Annual Review for 1983, January 2, 1984, UKNA, FCO 99/1906.

88. Nicaragua: Prospects for the Economy, June 24, 1988, CREST.

89. Gespräch des Erick Honecker mit Henry Ruiz, February 11, 1983, DY30/43863, Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR, Berlin, Germany [hereafter SAPMO]; Todor Zhivkov and Daniel Ortega Saavedra on the Situation in Central America and Bulgarian Aid to Nicaragua, May 2, 1985, Wilson Center Digital Archive, https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111292, accessed on August, 24, 2021. I want to thank Vesselin Dimitrov for providing me with a translation of this document.

90. Author's interview with Luis Ángel Caldera Aburto, Managua, Nicaragua, April 16, 2018; Author's interview with Jaime Wheelock Román, Managua, Nicaragua, April 18, 2018.

91. “Ortega to Visit Moscow,” United Press International, April 24, 1985.

92. “Gira exitosa del presidente Ortega,” Barricada Internacional, May 30, 1985.

93. Nicaragua: Prospects for Sandinista Consolidation, August 1987, CREST.

94. Informe del viaje al campo socialista 8.6.1987/22.6.1987, Ramírez to Daniel Ortega, June 25, 1987, ABPA.

95. Konferenz des Bundesministers Genscher mit Botschaftern in zentralamerikanischen Staaten in San José, April 9, 1987, AAPD, Document 103, 1987; “Nicaragua's neighbours set to back US ‘peace’ platform,” The Guardian, February 16, 1987.

96. James Dunkerley, The Pacification of Central America (London: Verso, 1988), 45–46; Konferenz des Bundesministers, April 9, 1987, AAPD.

97. Procedure for the Establishment of a Firm and Lasting Peace in Central America (Esquipulas II), August 7, 1987, https://peacemaker.un.org/centralamerica-esquipulasII87, accessed January 22, 2020.

98. Honecker und Ortega, November 3, 1987, SAPMO, DY30/2385.

99. Managua to Bonn, August 20, 1987, AA, AV Neues Amt 16.917.

100. Deutsche Bundestag, Sitzung 39, November 12, 1987.

101. Besuch des nic. Vizeministers für auswärtiges Kooperation, Pedro Antonio Blandón, bei Staatsminister Schäfer am 16.12.1987, December 17, 1987, AA, Zwischenarchiv 136369.

102. Background note, Mexico and Central America Department, May 10, 1989, UKNA, FCO 99/2969.

103. Plan de Sandino a Sandino, May 23, 1989, ABPA.

104. The representatives of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua to the United Nations Secretary-General, February 24, 1989, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/58245?ln=en, accessed January 20, 2020.

105. Josefina Vigil (despacho del Cmdt. Bayardo Arce) to Alejandro Bendaña, August 3, 1989, ABPA.

106. Gespräch Hermann Axen, Egon Krenz und Gerhard Schürer mit Henry Ruiz, April 24, 1989, SAPMO, DY30/44301.

107. Plan de Sandino a Sandino, May 23, 1989, ABPA.

108. Axen, Krenz und Schürer mit Ruiz, April 24, 1989, SAPMO, DY30/44301.

109. Plan de Sandino a Sandino, May 23, 1989, ABPA.

110. Report of meeting of solidarity activists, date unknown, IISG, NKN, Box 18; Comité Nicaragüense de Amistad, Solidaridad y Paz to Western European solidarity committees, September 26, 1989, IISG, NKN, Box 147.

111. Bonn Coreu to Madrid Coreu, May 12, 1989, BZ, Inventarisnummer 9112; Derek March to Colin Imrie, May 3, 1989, UKNA, FCO 99/3119.

112. Gespräch Axen, Krenz und Schürer mit Ruiz, April 24, 1989, SAPMO, DY30/44301.

113. March to Imrie, April 26, 1989, UKNA, FCO 99/3119.

114. “The evening Graham Greene introduced himself at a star-studded London party,” The Guardian, March 12, 2017; Report by Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, July 1989, IISG, NKN, Box 146.

115. Michael Brown to Richard Webb, August 25, 1989, UKNA, FCO 99/3116.

116. Shona Falconer to British embassy in San Jose, May 15, 1989, UKNA, FCO 99/3119.

117. George H. W Bush Presidential Library, Telcon, Oscar Arias, July 27, 1989, https://bush41library.tamu.edu/, accessed January 19, 2020.

118. “Turnover in Nicaragua,” New York Times, February 27, 1990.

119. Sutterlin with Bendaña, July 29, 1997.