Revolutionary Nicaragua: the Evolution of Governmental Institutions
Thomas Walker, ed., Revolution and Counterrevolution in Nicaragua (Westview 1991), Chapter 2, 15-47 The Evolution of Governmental Institutions By Andrew Reding Following two years of popular insurrection, the revolutionary triumph of July 19, 1979, was absolute. Dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle fled first to Miami and then to Paraguay, where he was later assassinated by Argentine extremists. His praetorian National Guard disintegrated. While officers were rescued by a U.S. government DC-8 disguised with Red Cross markings, soldiers fled for the borders.1 Thousands were captured and imprisoned by a population outraged by the slaughter of tens of thousands of their fellow citizens. Many of the government institutions that did not collapse outright were so thoroughly discredited by their collaboration with the dictatorship that they were abolished after the triumph. Such was the case with local government, the courts, and the congress, all of which had been little more than sinecures for the dictator’s family, friends, and supporters.2 So strong was the popular revulsion that even the buildings in which these institutions had been housed—most notably the National Palace— had to be converted to other uses. Only the portions of the legal codes that did not conflict with the new revolutionary decrees were allowed to stand, pending preparation of new laws. Most government institutions had to be created anew, beginning with those essential to restoring order: a provisional executive authority, a new army and police force, and new courts. These initially constituted the aptly named Government of National Reconstruction. By spring 1980 the revolutionary government was able to install a rudimentary legislative body, the Council of State, which by the following year had begun the complex task of translating the revolution’s commitment to political pluralism into a Law of Political Parties.
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