Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino (Later he adopted César by his middle name) Sandino was born in the town of Niquinohomo on an uncertain date, but probably on May 18, 1894; son of Gregorio Sandino and Margarita Calderón. For several years Gregorio despised his illegitimate son, who lived with his mother in poverty. At the age of 11, Augusto went to live in the house of his father, who had married América Tíffer.
He attended elementary school in his town and an institute in Granada, Nicaragua, after which he became a merchant. When he had problems with a local political boss, he left Honduras and Guatemala, finally arriving in Mexico in 1923, where he worked in the Tampico oil industry. There he observed Mexican nationalism, and when Mexicans censured Nicaraguans for their lack of patriotism, he began to think about the interference of the United States in his native land. He formulated a social and political philosophy that Nicaragua’s problems lay with the politicians and with American imperialism.
Sandino He returned to Nicaragua in 1926 during the political unrest that followed the expulsion of President Carlos Solorzano and Vice President Juan B. Sacasa by the conservative Emiliano Chamorro (supported by the Liberals). He briefly worked at a US-owned gold mine, where he spoke to workers about the need for a government to protect them from exploitation by foreign-owned capitalists and companies. According to one account, he told them that he was not a communist but a socialist.
The decision of Sandino to take up arms may have been initially influenced by its strong liberal antecedent reacting both against conservative control and by a reaction to intervention. When his attempt at independent military action in the revolution against the conservatives failed, he decided to join forces with the liberals led by Juan B. Sacasa, a candidate for the presidency who had returned from forced exile, establishing a government on the east coast of Nicaragua. . Sandino’s relationship with the liberal military and political leaders was not close, but he served the cause valuable, even at one point prevented the defeat of the main liberal force.
In April 1927, Henry L. Stimson, special representative of President Calvin Coolidge, arrived in Nicaragua to stop the fighting and, through the threat of forced disarmament, arranged an agreement in talks in Tipitapa with General José María Moncada, Minister of Justice. Sacasa war. The agreement provided for US oversight in the next presidential election to satisfy the liberal complaint that revolution was the only way to regain power given conservative-controlled elections. Despite the general acceptance by liberals of the Tipitapa terms, Sandino He rejected them and escaped with some followers to northern Nicaragua, where he launched a guerrilla campaign against the United States Marines and the Nicaraguan government. Trying to rally his small force, he moved to San Rafael del Norte, where, on May 18, 1927, he married Blanca Arauz, a young telegrapher whom he had met earlier in the revolution.
At first the movement of Sandino They did not cause alarm because most of the revolutionaries surrendered their weapons and the US military did not believe that the others offered effective resistance. The failure of Sandino to stop the occupation of the Nicaraguan navy and national guard of the northern cities seemed to confirm this opinion. However, Sandino’s attack on the Navy garrison at Ocotal on July 16, 1927, alarmed Washington and attracted international attention to the Nicaraguan nationalist who could have won the battle, had it not been for the timely intervention of US planes. American war.
Attack of Sandino a well-fortified enemy was a mistake and led his followers, the Sandinistas, to develop more refined methods of guerrilla warfare. Although the guerrilla leader was unable to prevent North American oversight of the Nicaraguan elections of 1928, 1930, and 1932 or the formation of a United States-trained national guard, he was never captured and was able to gain support in Latin America and the United States, and continue his efforts. hit-and-run tactics. The activities of Sandino led Washington to reconsider the issue of military intervention and helped lay the groundwork for the principle of nonintervention in the Good Neighbor policy.
During the resistance of Sandino, the communists considered him an important leader in the anti-imperialist struggle and tried to influence him. The relationship, purely of convenience, was strained when Sandino temporarily left for Mexico (1929-1930) and later, when Sandino made peace with Managua and treason charges were filed.
After the US Marines withdrew from Nicaragua in January 1933, Sandino and the newly elected Sacasa government reached an agreement by which it would cease its guerrilla activities in exchange for an amnesty, land concession for an agricultural colony, and retention of an armed gang of 100 men for one year. A growing hostility ensued between Sandino and Anastasio Somoza García, head of the national guard, who led to Sandino’s kidnapping and death during a visit to Managua on February 21, 1934. Sandino’s death eliminated a significant bloc of opposition to Somoza’s establishment in power and the Somozas family dictatorship that lasted from 1937 to 1979. Years later, Sandino’s anti-imperialism influenced opposition to the Somozas and inspired the formation of the Sandinista National Liberation Frontl, which brought the downfall of the dictatorship in 1979.