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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title In the Footsteps of Sandino: Geographies of Revolution and Political Violence in Northern Nicaragua, 1956-1979 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0z4306st Author Sierakowski, Robert James Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles In the Footsteps of Sandino: Geographies of Revolution and Political Violence in Northern Nicaragua, 1956-1979 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Robert James Sierakowski 2012 © Copyright by Robert James Sierakowski 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION In the Footsteps of Sandino: Geographies of Revolution and Political Violence in Northern Nicaragua, 1956-1979 by Robert James Sierakowski Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 Professor Robin Derby, Chair Why is it that certain groups and individuals come to rebel against a dictatorship's authority and support insurgents while others remain loyal to the regime? This dissertation examines the geographical paradoxes of revolutionary upheaval and counterinsurgent repression in northern Nicaragua during the two decades leading up to the 1979 Sandinista Revolution. Taking a micro- historical approach, this project focuses on the Segovias region, documenting how it came to be bifurcated between zones overwhelmingly supportive of the Sandinista guerrillas and other areas which fought to preserve the Somoza dictatorship. Drawing on government and military archives, in conjunction with a large collection of oral histories, this dissertation finds traditional ii explanations for both the dictatorship and the popular upheaval highly insufficient. I argue instead that geographic locality remains the fundamental variable determining the configurations of political consciousness and collective action. To explain the formation of “regions” and their responses to revolutionary crisis, I document the inherently spatial processes undergirding three key historical transformations at the local level: socioeconomic structure, political cultures of the state, and experiences of revolutionary/counterinsurgent violence. iii The dissertation of Robert James Sierakowski is approved. César Ayala Geoffrey Robinson Kevin Terraciano Robin Derby, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2012 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ........................................................................... ii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix VITA ................................................................................................................................... x Introduction. In the Footsteps of Sandino? : The Geographical Paradoxes of Revolution and Political Violence ................................................................................................................ 1 Questions and Hypotheses ...................................................................................... 1 Scholarship and Historiography of the Sandinista Revolution ............................... 6 Case Study Areas: Estelí and Somoto ................................................................... 12 Chapter Outline ..................................................................................................... 16 Methodology: Sources and Approaches ............................................................... 18 Chapter One. The Diagram of Counterinsurgency: Landscapes of Injustice and Remembrance in Somoza’s Segovias ........................................................................................................... 21 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 21 The Segovias: Frontier, Violence and the “War of Sandino” ............................... 25 Contested Memories of Sandinismo ..................................................................... 34 “That’s Why Later the War Came:” Estelí, Commerce, Sharecropping and Exploitation ............................................................................................................................... 39 “The Poorest Zone”: Somoto, the Indigenous Communities and Drought ........... 47 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 53 Chapter Two. Seeing like a Mafia: Municipal Politics, Criminality and Patronage in Estelí and Somoto, 1960 and 1970s ................................................................................................... 54 Introduction………………………………………………………………………58 Some Aspects of the Northern Question: Military, Political and Religious Authority at the Municipal Level .................................................................................................... 59 v Elections, Nepotism and Arbitrary Power ............................................................ 64 The Shifting Meaning of Criminality: Cattle Thieves, Moonshine and Prostitution68 Party Competition, Violence and the 1967 Election of Somoza Debayle ............ 73 Politics after 1967, Case Study One: The Landowner State and Factional Politics in Estelí and Condega.......................................................................................................... 81 Politics after 1967, Case Study Two: Rentier State and Ethnic Conflict in the Indigenous Community of Cusmapa ....................................................................................... 85 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 91 Chapter 3. The Tragic Triangle: Town and Country in the Genesis of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Estelí, 1956-1970 ............................................................................... 92 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 92 Sandino’s “Fertilized Terrain”: Guerrilla Landscapes and the Geographic Imaginary ............................................................................................................................... 95 Workers and Artisans: Urban Spaces, Places of Conflict, Cultures of Class ..... 103 ¡Al campo! : Rural Organizing, Emerging Solidarities and Repression ............. 111 Playing with Fire? : Holy Week 1965 and the Demise of the Union Movement 115 The Student Movement: Strikes, Occupations and State Violence .................... 121 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 127 Chapter 4. “Persecuting the Living Christ”: Mapping Liberation Theology onto the Body Politic, 1968-1976 ....................................................................................................................... 129 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 129 Catholic Perspectives Transformed: Local, National and International Factors 132 “He Put the Gospel into True Practice”: Cursillos, Class Identity and Political Action in Rural Estelí.......................................................................................................... 137 Other Pathways to Liberationist Praxis: Civic Movements (Condega) and Radio Schools (Cusmapa) ........................................................................................................... 146 vi “To Be Treated as Human Beings”: Guerrilla Strategy, Hybrid Ideology and Civilian Support Networks ............................................................................................... 153 “Sealed with their Actions”: Captures, Torture and its Effects, 1975-1976 ....... 163 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 169 Chapter 5. “They Planted Corn and Harvested Guards”: Campesinos, the National Guard and Mobilization for Terror ................................................................................................... 173 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 173 From Peasants into Somocistas: The Geography and Materiality of Military Recruitment ............................................................................................................................. 177 From Patronage to Anti-Communism: US Cold War Doctrine and the Stalled Transformation .................................................................................................... 187 The EEBI Elite Unit: Making a Counterinsurgency, Making Counterinsurgents194 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 201 Chapter 6. “The Tongue Has No Bones, But it Breaks Bones”: A Social Anatomy of the Secret Police and Popular Espionage in Northern Nicaragua .................................................... 203 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 203 Intelligence in Diapers? : Spying, Torture and US-Supported Modernization ... 206 “They Sold Humanity like You’d Sell a Horse:” Honorary Agents and the Political Economy of