:en:Nicaragua

{{Main|History of Nicaragua}}

File:Nicaragua Ometepe pétroglyphes 1.jpg on Ometepe Island]]

Paleo-Indians first inhabited what is now known as Nicaragua as far back as 12,000 BCE.{{cite book|last=Dall|first=Christopher|title=Nicaragua in Pictures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vUP3hLbq6DEC&pg=PA66|date=1 October 2005|publisher=Twenty-First Century Books|isbn=978-0-8225-2671-1|pages=66–67}} In later pre-Columbian times, Nicaragua's indigenous people were part of the Intermediate Area,{{cite book|last1=Pérez-Brignoli|first1=Héctor|last2=translated by Sawrey A.|first2=Ricardo B.|last3=Sawrey|first3=Susana Stettri de|title=A Brief History of Central America|url=https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofce00pr|url-access=registration|date=1989|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0520060494|edition=2nd}}{{rp|33}} between the Mesoamerican and Andean cultural regions, and within the influence of the Isthmo-Colombian Area. Nicaragua's central region and its Caribbean coast were inhabited by Macro-Chibchan language ethnic groups such as the Miskito, Rama, Mayangna, and Matagalpas.{{rp|20}} They had coalesced in Central America and migrated both to and from present-day northern Colombia and nearby areas.[http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40290 Gloria Helena Rey, "The Chibcha Culture – Forgotten, But Still Alive"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220131907/http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40290 |date=20 February 2012 }}, Colombia, Inter Press Service (IPS) News, 30 November 2007, accessed 9 November 2010 Their food came primarily from hunting and gathering, but also fishing and slash-and-burn agriculture.{{rp|33}}{{cite encyclopedia|title=Nicaragua: VI History|encyclopedia=Encarta|date=13 June 2007}}{{cite book|last1=Newson|first1=Linda A.|title=Indian survival in colonial Nicaragua|date=1987|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|location=Norman [OK]|isbn=978-0806120089|edition=1st}}{{rp|65}}

At the end of the 15th century, western Nicaragua was inhabited by several indigenous peoples related by culture to the Mesoamerican civilizations of the Aztec and Maya, and by language to the Mesoamerican language area.{{cite news|title=Nicaragua: Precolonial Period|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0013)|work=Library of Congress Country Studies|access-date=29 June 2007|archive-date=22 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922145600/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0013)|url-status=live}}, interpretation of statement: "the native peoples were linguistically and culturally similar to the Aztec and the Maya" The Chorotegas were Mangue language ethnic groups who had arrived in Nicaragua from what is now the Mexican state of Chiapas sometime around 800 CE.{{rp|26–33}} The Nicarao people were a branch of Nahuas who spoke the Nawat dialect and also came from Chiapas, around 1200 CE.{{cite book|last=Campbell|first=Lyle|title=The Pipil Language of El Salvador|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5bmUh7jproC&pg=PA10|date=1 January 1985|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-088199-8|pages=10–12}} Prior to that, the Nicaraos had been associated with the Toltec civilization.{{rp|26–33}}{{cite journal|last=Fowler|first=WR Jr.|year=1985|title=Ethnohistoric Sources on the Pipil Nicarao: A Critical Analysis|journal=Ethnohistory|volume=32|issue=1|pages=37–62|place=Columbus, Ohio|oclc=62217753|doi=10.2307/482092|jstor=482092 | issn = 0014-1801}}{{cite journal|last1=Brinton|first1=Daniel G.|title=Were the Toltecs an Historic Nationality?|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|date=1887|volume=24|issue=126|pages=229–230|jstor=983071}}{{cite book|author1=von Humboldt, Alexander|author2=Poynter, J. Ryan |author3=Altamirano Rayo, Giorleny D |author4=Kraft, Tobias |title=Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: A Critical Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G7Pt35axXEkC&pg=PA92|date=25 January 2013|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-86509-6|page=92}} Both Chorotegas and Nicaraos originated in Mexico's Cholula valley, and migrated south.{{rp|26–33}} A third group, the Subtiabas, were an Oto-Manguean people who migrated from the Mexican state of Guerrero around 1200 CE.{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Lyle |title=American Indian languages : the historical linguistics of Native America |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-19-509427-1}}{{rp|159}} Additionally, there were trade-related colonies in Nicaragua set up by the Aztecs starting in the 14th century.{{rp|26–33}}

{{Further|Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish conquest of Nicaragua}}

File:Iglesia de la Recoleccion - Leon - Nicaragua - 01 (31416391552).jpg]]

File:06.Plaza de la Independencia de Granada.JPG near Lake Nicaragua, one of the most visited sites in Central America]]

In 1502, on his fourth voyage, Christopher Columbus became the first European known to have reached what is now Nicaragua as he sailed southeast toward the Isthmus of Panama.{{rp|193}}{{rp|92}} Columbus explored the Mosquito Coast on the Atlantic side of Nicaragua{{cite news|title=Letter of Columbus on the Fourth Voyage|publisher=American Journey|url=http://www.americanjourneys.org/aj-068/summary/index.asp|access-date=9 May 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070403152053/http://americanjourneys.org/aj-068/summary/index.asp|archive-date=3 April 2007}} but did not encounter any indigenous people. 20 years later, the Spaniards returned to Nicaragua, this time to its southwestern part. The first attempt to conquer Nicaragua was by the conquistador Gil González Dávila,{{cite encyclopedia|title=Nicaragua: History|url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-214487/Nicaragua|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=21 August 2007|archive-date=10 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080610194232/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-214487/Nicaragua|url-status=live}} who had arrived in Panama in January 1520. In 1522, González Dávila ventured to the area that later became the Rivas Department of Nicaragua.{{rp|35}}{{rp|92}} There he encountered an indigenous Nahua tribe led by chief Macuilmiquiztli, whose name has sometimes been erroneously referred to as "Nicarao" or "Nicaragua". The tribe's capital was Quauhcapolca.{{cite news|title=Encuentro del cacique y el conquistador|url=http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/especiales/44697-encuentro-cacique-conquistador/|access-date=17 May 2017|work=El Nuevo Diario|date=4 April 2009|trans-title=Encounter of the cacique and the conqueror|language=es|archive-date=7 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170507054414/http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/especiales/44697-encuentro-cacique-conquistador/|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|author1=Healy, Paul |author2=Pohl, Mary |title=Archaeology of the Rivas Region, Nicaragua|url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofriv0001heal|url-access=registration |year=1980|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press|isbn=978-0-88920-094-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofriv0001heal/page/21 21]}}{{cite book|author1=Dyck, Erika |author2=Fletcher, Christopher |title=Locating Health: Historical and Anthropological Investigations of Place and Health|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m-c5CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA107|date=6 October 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-32278-8|page=107}} González Dávila conversed with Macuilmiquiztli thanks to two indigenous interpreters who had learned Spanish, whom he had brought along.{{cite news|last1=Sánchez|first1=Edwin|title=No hubo Nicarao, todo es invento|work=El Nuevo Diario|date=16 September 2002|trans-title=There was no Nicarao, it's all invented|language=es}} After exploring and gathering gold{{rp|35}}{{rp|55}} in the fertile western valleys, González Dávila and his men were attacked and driven off by the Chorotega, led by chief Diriangén.{{cite news|title=The Spanish Conquest|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0014)|work=Library of Congress|access-date=21 August 2007|archive-date=22 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922150135/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0014)|url-status=live}} The Spanish tried to convert the tribes to Christianity; Macuilmiquiztli's tribe was baptized,{{rp|86}} but Diriangén was openly hostile to the Spaniards. Western Nicaragua, at the Pacific Coast, became a port and shipbuilding facility for the Galleons plying the waters between Manila, Philippines and Acapulco, Mexico.[https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/100380/1/Peterson_Andrew_r.pdf Making the First Global Trade Route: The Southeast Asian Foundations of the Acapulco–Manila Galleon Trade, 1519-1650 (Page 163)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211117122328/https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/100380/1/Peterson_Andrew_r.pdf |date=17 November 2021 }} Citing Andre Gschaedler, "Mexico and the Pacific, 1540 - 1565: The Voyage of Villabos and Legazpi and the Preparations Made for Them," (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1954), 40.

The first Spanish permanent settlements were founded in 1524. That year, the conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba founded two of Nicaragua's main cities: Granada on Lake Nicaragua, and then León, west of Lake Managua.{{rp|35, 193}}{{rp|92}} Córdoba soon built defenses for the cities and fought against incursions by other conquistadors.{{rp|92}} Córdoba was later publicly beheaded for having defied his superior, Pedro Arias Dávila.{{rp|35}} Córdoba's tomb and remains were discovered in 2000 in the ruins of León Viejo.{{cite news|title=Nicaragua Briefs: An Historic Find|publisher=Central American University – UCA|url=http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/1418|work=Envío|access-date=21 August 2007|archive-date=12 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170712083309/http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/1418|url-status=live}}

The clashes among Spanish forces did not impede their destruction of the indigenous people and their culture. The series of battles came to be known as the "War of the Captains".{{cite book|last=Duncan|first=David Ewing|title=Hernando de Soto – A Savage Quest in the Americas – Book II: Consolidation|publisher=Crown Publishers|location=New York|year=1995}} Pedro Arias Dávila was a winner;{{rp|35}} although he lost control of Panama, he moved to Nicaragua and established his base in León.{{cite book|last=Whisnant|first=David E.|title=Rascally Signs in Sacred Places: The Politics of Culture in Nicaragua|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qK8TBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA30|date=9 November 2000|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-6626-9|pages=30–32|access-date=24 May 2017|archive-date=5 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205140444/https://books.google.com/books?id=qK8TBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA30#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}} In 1527, León became the capital of the colony.{{rp|93}} Through diplomacy, Arias Dávila became the colony's first governor.

Without women in their parties,{{rp|123}} the Spanish conquerors took Nahua and Chorotega wives and partners, beginning the multiethnic mix of indigenous and European stock now known as "mestizo", which constitutes the great majority of the population in western Nicaragua. Many indigenous people were killed by European infectious diseases, compounded by neglect by the Spaniards, who controlled their subsistence. Many other indigenous peoples were captured and transported as slaves to Panama and Peru between 1526 and 1540.{{rp|193}}{{rp|104–105}}

In 1610, the Momotombo volcano erupted, destroying the city of León.{{cite book|last=Bergoeing|first=Jean Pierre|title=Geomorphology of Central America: A Syngenetic Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TWwZBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA68|date=18 May 2015|publisher=Elsevier Science|isbn=978-0-12-803185-8|pages=68–69|access-date=25 May 2017|archive-date=5 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205140445/https://books.google.com/books?id=TWwZBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA68#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}} The city was rebuilt northwest of the original, which is now known as the ruins of León Viejo. During the American Revolutionary War, Central America was subject to conflict between Britain and Spain. British navy admiral Horatio Nelson led expeditions in the Battle of San Fernando de Omoa in 1779 and on the San Juan River in 1780, the latter of which had temporary success before being abandoned due to disease.

File:Political Evolution of Central America and the Caribbean 1830 na.png in 1830]]

File:La Pedrada de Andres Castro.jpg during the Filibuster War]]

The Act of Independence of Central America dissolved the Captaincy General of Guatemala in September 1821, and Nicaragua soon became part of the First Mexican Empire. In July 1823, after the overthrow of the Mexican monarchy in March of the same year, Nicaragua joined the newly formed United Provinces of Central America, a country later known as the Federal Republic of Central America. Nicaragua definitively became an independent republic in 1838.{{cite journal|last1= Smith|first1= RS|title= Financing the Central American federation, 1821–1838|journal= The Hispanic American Historical Review|volume= 43|issue= 4|pages= 483–510|year= 1963|doi= 10.2307/2509898|jstor= 2509898}}

The early years of independence were characterized by rivalry between the Liberal elite of León and the Conservative elite of Granada, which often degenerated into civil war, particularly during the 1840s and 1850s. Managua rose to undisputed preeminence as the nation's capital in 1852 to allay the rivalry between the two feuding cities.{{cite book|last= Cybriwsky|first= Roman Adrian|title= Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qb6NAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA177|date= 23 May 2013|publisher= ABC-CLIO|isbn= 978-1-61069-248-9|page= 177|access-date= 27 May 2017|archive-date= 5 February 2024|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240205140429/https://books.google.com/books?id=qb6NAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA177|url-status= live}}{{cite news|title= Managua|url= http://archivo.laprensa.com.ni/archivo/2006/marzo/09/servicios/guiaturistica/|access-date= 24 May 2017|work= La Prensa|date= 9 March 2006|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131111081208/http://archivo.laprensa.com.ni/archivo/2006/marzo/09/servicios/guiaturistica/|language= es|archive-date=11 November 2013 | quote = Fue elevada a ciudad en 1846 y salomónicamente declarada capital de la República en 1852, para dirimir el viejo conflicto entre las urbes coloniales de León (occidente) y Granada (oriente) que rivalizaban por ejercer la hegemonía política de Nicaragua.}} Following the start of the California Gold Rush in 1848, Nicaragua provided a route for travelers from the eastern United States to journey to California by sea, via the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua.{{rp|81}} Invited by the Liberals in 1855 to join their struggle against the Conservatives, the American adventurer and filibuster William Walker set himself up as President of Nicaragua after conducting a farcical election in 1856; his presidency lasted less than a year.{{cite web|url= http://www.mined.gob.ni/gobernant4.php|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121009181920/http://www.mined.gob.ni/gobernant4.php|url-status= dead|archive-date= 9 October 2012|title= Gobernantes de Nicaragua|date= 9 December 2012|publisher= Ministerio de Educación|access-date= 29 August 2020}} Military forces from Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua itself united to drive Walker out of Nicaragua in 1857,{{cite book|last= Walker|first= W|title= The War in Nicaragua|publisher= S.H. Goetzel & Company|place= New York|year= 1860|url= https://archive.org/stream/warinnicaragua00walkgoog#page/n6/mode/2up}}{{cite journal|last= Juda|first= F|title= California Filibusters: A History of their Expeditions into Hispanic America (excerpt)|journal= The Grizzly Bear|volume= XXI|issue= 4|pages= 3–6, 15, 19|year= 1919|url= http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/walker.html|access-date= 20 July 2011|archive-date= 2 August 2009|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090802063416/http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/walker.html|url-status= live}}{{cite book|last= Baker|first= CP|title= Moon Handbooks: Costa Rica|edition= 4th|chapter= The William Walker Saga|page= [https://archive.org/details/costarica00bake_2/page/67 67]|publisher= Avalon Travel Publishing|place= New York|year= 2001|isbn= 978-1-56691-608-0|chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/costarica00bake_2/page/67}} bringing three decades of Conservative rule.

Great Britain, which had claimed the Mosquito Coast as a protectorate since 1655, delegated the area to Honduras in 1859 before transferring it to Nicaragua in 1860. The Mosquito Coast remained an autonomous area until 1894. José Santos Zelaya, President of Nicaragua from 1893 to 1909, negotiated the integration of the Mosquito Coast into Nicaragua. In his honor, the region became "Zelaya Department".

Throughout the late 19th-century, the United States and several European powers considered various schemes to link the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic by building a canal across Nicaragua.

{{cite book

|last= Colquhoun|first= AR|title= The key of the Pacific: the Nicaragua canal

|publisher= Archibald Constable and Company

|place= Westminster, England|year= 1895

|url= https://archive.org/stream/keypacificnicar02colqgoog#page/n6/mode/2up

}}

{{See also|United States occupation of Nicaragua}}

In 1909, the United States supported the forces rebelling against President Zelaya. U.S. motives included differences over the proposed Nicaragua Canal, Nicaragua's potential to destabilize the region, and Zelaya's attempts to regulate foreign access to Nicaraguan natural resources. On 18 November 1909, U.S. warships were sent to the area after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) were executed by order of Zelaya. The U.S. justified the intervention by claiming to protect U.S. lives and property. Zelaya resigned later that year.

In August 1912, the President of Nicaragua, Adolfo Díaz, requested the secretary of war, General Luis Mena, to resign for fear he was leading an insurrection. Mena fled Managua with his brother, the chief of police of Managua, to start an insurrection. After Mena's troops captured steam boats of an American company, the U.S. delegation asked President Díaz to ensure the safety of American citizens and property during the insurrection. He replied he could not, and asked the U.S. to intervene in the conflict.{{cite book|title=Foreign Relations of the United States|year=1912|page=1032}}{{cite book|last=Langley|first=Lester D.|title=The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898-1934|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xc1RBfZd3pcC&pg=PA64|year=2002|publisher=SR Books|location=Wilmington|isbn=978-0-8420-5047-0|page=64|access-date=5 February 2024|archive-date=5 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205140307/https://books.google.com/books?id=Xc1RBfZd3pcC&pg=PA64#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}

U.S. Marines occupied Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933,{{rp|111, 197}}{{cite news|title=US violence for a century: Nicaragua: 1912–33|url=http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=12191|work=Socialist Worker|access-date=21 August 2007|archive-date=27 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927213236/http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=12191|url-status=dead}} except for a nine-month period beginning in 1925. In 1914, the Bryan–Chamorro Treaty was signed, giving the U.S. control over a proposed canal through Nicaragua, as well as leases for potential canal defenses.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Bryan–Chamorro Treaty|url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9016820/Bryan-Chamorro-Treaty|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=21 August 2007|archive-date=27 February 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227005939/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9016820/Bryan-Chamorro-Treaty|url-status=live}} After the U.S. Marines left, another violent conflict between Liberals and Conservatives in 1926 resulted in the return of U.S. Marines.{{cite news|title=General Augusto C. Sandino: The Constitutional War|url=http://www.vianica.com/go/specials/16-augusto-sandino.html|work=ViaNica|access-date=21 August 2007|archive-date=22 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070822222208/http://www.vianica.com/go/specials/16-augusto-sandino.html|url-status=live}}

File:General Sandino (center) and Staff enroute to Mexico. Siglo XX., 06-1929 - NARA - 532357.tif (center) in June 1929]]

From 1927 to 1933, rebel general Augusto César Sandino led a sustained guerrilla war against the regime and then against the U.S. Marines, whom he fought for over five years.{{cite news|last=Vukelich|first=D|title=A Disaster Foretold|publisher=The Advocacy Project|url=http://www.advocacynet.org/news_view/news_141.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070403231532/http://www.advocacynet.org/news_view/news_141.html|archive-date=3 April 2007|access-date=9 May 2007|url-status=dead}} When the Americans left in 1933, they set up the Guardia Nacional (national guard),{{cite encyclopedia|title=The Somoza years|url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-40992/Nicaragua|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=21 August 2007|archive-date=19 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080619204204/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-40992/Nicaragua|url-status=live}} a combined military and police force trained and equipped by the Americans and designed to be loyal to U.S. interests.

After the U.S. Marines withdrew from Nicaragua in January 1933, Sandino and the newly elected administration of President Juan Bautista Sacasa reached an agreement that Sandino would cease his guerrilla activities in return for amnesty, a land grant for an agricultural colony, and retention of an armed band of 100 men for a year.{{cite news|title=Biographical Notes |url=http://www.sandino.org/bio_en.htm |access-date=9 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061231171221/http://www.sandino.org/bio_en.htm |archive-date=31 December 2006 }} However, due to a growing hostility between Sandino and National Guard director Anastasio Somoza García and a fear of armed opposition from Sandino, Somoza García ordered his assassination.{{cite news|title=History of U.S. Violence Across the Globe: Washington's War Crimes (1912–33)|date=16 December 2001|url=http://www.bulatlat.com/news/2-5/2-5-reader-arnove.html|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=14 November 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061114023101/http://www.bulatlat.com/news/2-5/2-5-reader-arnove.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|first=T|last=Solo|title=Nicaragua: From Sandino to Chavez|date=7 October 2005|publisher=Dissident Voice|url=http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/solo1007.htm|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=5 April 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070405114858/http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/solo1007.htm|url-status=live}} Sacasa invited Sandino for dinner and to sign a peace treaty at the Presidential House on the night of 21 February 1934. After leaving the Presidential House, Sandino's car was stopped by National Guard soldiers and they kidnapped him. Later that night, Sandino was assassinated by National Guard soldiers. Later, hundreds of men, women, and children from Sandino's agricultural colony were murdered.{{cite news |title=The Somoza Dynasty |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |url=http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/clas/nicaragua_proj/history/somoza/Hist-Somoza-dinasty.pdf |page=1 |access-date=9 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061110033552/http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/clas/nicaragua_proj/history/somoza/Hist-Somoza-dinasty.pdf |archive-date=10 November 2006 }}

File:Trujillo-Somoza 1952.jpg (left) with Dominican President Rafael Trujillo in 1952]]

File:Meeting with President Anastasio Somoza Debayle of Nicaragua, before State Dinner - NARA - 194723-perspective-tilt-crop.jpg (center) with U.S. president Richard Nixon in 1971]]

Nicaragua has experienced several military dictatorships, the longest being the hereditary dictatorship of the Somoza family, who ruled for 43 nonconsecutive years during the 20th century.{{cite journal|last=Colburn|first=Forrest D.|title=Nicaragua, Forlorn|journal=World Policy Journal|issue=Spring 2012|url=http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/spring2012/nicaragua-forlorn|access-date=31 May 2012|date=26 March 2012|volume=29|pages=91–100|doi=10.1177/0740277512443806|archive-date=6 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120506221638/http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/spring2012/nicaragua-forlorn|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription}} The Somoza family came to power in 1937 partly as a result of a U.S.-engineered pact in 1927 that stipulated the formation of the Guardia Nacional to replace the marines who had long reigned in the country.{{cite book|title=Lying for Empire: How to Commit War Crimes With a Straight Face|first=David|last=Model|publisher=Common Courage Press|year=2005}} Somoza García slowly eliminated officers in the national guard who might have stood in his way, and then deposed Sacasa and became president on 1 January 1937, in a rigged election.

In 1941, during the Second World War, Nicaragua declared war on Japan (8 December), Germany (11 December), Italy (11 December), Bulgaria (19 December), Hungary (19 December) and Romania (19 December). Only Romania reciprocated, declaring war on Nicaragua on the same day (19 December 1941).Goldstein, Erik (2005) Wars and Peace Treaties: 1816 to 1991. Routledge. p. 218. {{ISBN|9781134899111}} No soldiers were sent to the war, but Somoza García confiscated properties held by German Nicaraguan residents.{{cite news|title=El asalto de Somoza a los alemanes |date=6 January 2005 |url=http://archivo.elnuevodiario.com.ni/2005/enero/06-enero-2005/nacional/nacional-20050106-04.html |access-date=13 July 2007 |language=es |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012011055/http://archivo.elnuevodiario.com.ni/2005/enero/06-enero-2005/nacional/nacional-20050106-04.html |archive-date=12 October 2007 }} In 1945, Nicaragua was among the first countries to ratify the United Nations Charter.{{cite web|title=Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice|page=49|publisher=United Nations|place=San Francisco|date=26 June 1945|url=http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CTC/uncharter.pdf|access-date=21 July 2011|archive-date=16 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116214749/http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CTC/uncharter.pdf|url-status=live}}

On 29 September 1956,{{Cite web|date=30 September 1956|title=SOMOZA'S NATION CALLED HIS FIEF; Rule of Nicaraguan General, Beginning With 1935 Coup, Was Seldom Challenged PRESIDENT FIRST IN '37 Graduate of Business School in U.S., He Acquired Great Wealth During Regime|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/09/30/88469093.html|access-date=8 November 2021|website=New York Times TimesMachine|language=en|archive-date=5 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205140309/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/09/30/88469093.html|url-status=live}} Somoza García was shot to death by Rigoberto López Pérez, a 27-year-old Liberal Nicaraguan poet. Luis Somoza Debayle, the eldest son of the late president, was appointed president by the congress and officially took charge of the country. He is remembered by some as moderate, but after only a few years in power died of a heart attack. His successor as president was René Schick Gutiérrez, whom most Nicaraguans viewed "as nothing more than a puppet of the Somozas".{{cite news|last=Leonard |first=TM |title=Against all odds: U.S. policy and the 1963 Central America Summit Conference |year=2003 |publisher=Journal of Third World Studies |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3821/is_200304/ai_n9173383/pg_11 |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090628115503/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3821/is_200304/ai_n9173383/pg_11 |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 June 2009 |page=11 |access-date=9 May 2007 }} Somoza García's youngest son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, often referred to simply as "Somoza", became president in 1967.

An earthquake in 1972 destroyed nearly 90% of Managua, including much of its infrastructure.{{cite news|title=Headline: Nicaragua Earthquake |date=16 December 1972 |publisher=Vanderbilt Television News Archive |url=http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/program.pl?ID=221286 |access-date=24 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510035404/https://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/program.pl?ID=221286 |archive-date=10 May 2011 }} Instead of helping to rebuild the city, Somoza siphoned off relief money. The mishandling of relief money also prompted Pittsburgh Pirates star Roberto Clemente to personally fly to Managua on 31 December 1972, but he died en route in an airplane accident.{{cite web |title=Roberto Clemente |url=https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/clemente-roberto |website=National Baseball Hall of Fame |access-date=8 March 2022 |archive-date=8 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308052248/https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/clemente-roberto |url-status=live }}{{cite web|title=Roberto Clemente – Bio|publisher=The National Baseball Hall of Fame|url=http://baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/clemente_roberto.htm|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070427145215/http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/clemente_roberto.htm|archive-date=27 April 2007|url-status=dead}} Even the economic elite were reluctant to support Somoza, as he had acquired monopolies in industries that were key to rebuilding the nation.{{cite news|title=A Battle Ends, a War Begins|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946048-1,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930135935/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946048-1,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 September 2007|magazine=TIME|access-date=21 August 2007|date=11 September 1978}}

The Somoza family was among a few families or groups of influential firms which reaped most of the benefits of the country's growth from the 1950s to the 1970s. When Somoza was deposed by the Sandinistas in 1979, the family's worth was estimated to be between $500 million and $1.5 billion.{{cite news|last=Annis|first=B|title=Nicaragua: Diversification and Growth, 1945–77|year=1993|publisher=The Library of Congress|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0047)|access-date=25 September 2012|archive-date=7 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407221029/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0047)|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Nicaraguan Revolution}}

File:Smoke break el serrano 1987.jpg rebels in 1987]]

File:10th anniversary of the Nicaraguan revolution in Managua, 1989.jpg in Managua in 1989]]

In 1961, Carlos Fonseca looked back to the historical figure of Sandino, and along with two other people, one of whom was believed to be Casimiro Sotelo, who was later assassinated, founded the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). After the 1972 earthquake and Somoza's apparent corruption, the ranks of the Sandinistas were flooded with young disaffected Nicaraguans who no longer had anything to lose.{{cite news|title=The Sandinistas and the Revolution|publisher=Grinnell College|url=http://web.grinnell.edu/LatinAmericanStudies/this.html|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070206200536/http://web.grinnell.edu/LatinAmericanStudies/this.html|archive-date=6 February 2007|url-status=dead}}

In December 1974, a group of the FSLN, in an attempt to kidnap U.S. ambassador Turner Shelton, held some Managuan partygoers hostage after killing the party's host, former agriculture minister Jose Maria Castillo, until the Somoza government met their demands for a large ransom and free transport to Cuba. Somoza granted the demand, and then subsequently sent his national guard out into the countryside to look for the kidnappers, who were described by opponents as terrorists.{{cite book|first1=Pamela |last1=Constable |author-link=Pamela Constable |first2=Arturo |last2=Valenzuela |year=1991 |title=A Nation of Enemies: Chile Under Pinochet |page=[https://archive.org/details/nationofenemiesc00cons/page/150 150] |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-30985-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/nationofenemiesc00cons/page/150}}

On 10 January 1978, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, the editor of the national newspaper La Prensa and ardent opponent of Somoza, was assassinated.{{cite news|title=History of Nicaragua: The Beginning of the End|publisher=American Nicaraguan School|url=http://www.ans.edu.ni/Academics/history/somozatachito.html|access-date=4 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060520223517/http://www.ans.edu.ni/Academics/history/somozatachito.html|archive-date=20 May 2006|url-status=dead}} It is alleged that the planners and perpetrators of the murder were at the highest echelons of the Somoza regime.

The Sandinistas forcefully took power in July 1979, ousting Somoza, and prompting the exodus of the majority of Nicaragua's middle class, wealthy landowners, and professionals, many of whom settled in the United States.{{cite news|last1=Nordheimer|first1=Jon|title=Nicaraguan Exiles Find A Place In The Sun: Miami|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/29/us/nicaraguan-exiles-find-a-place-in-the-sun-miami.html|access-date=27 May 2017|work=The New York Times|date=29 July 1987|archive-date=24 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024123311/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/29/us/nicaraguan-exiles-find-a-place-in-the-sun-miami.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Wilkinson|first1=Tracy|title=Families Struggle to Maintain Life Style : Sandinista Rule Not Easy on Middle Class|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-08-07-mn-373-story.html|access-date=27 May 2017|work=Los Angeles Times|date=7 August 1988|archive-date=5 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205140400/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-08-07-mn-373-story.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Wicker|first1=Tom|title=In The Nation; The Sandinista Puzzle|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/29/opinion/in-the-nation-the-sandinista-puzzle.html|access-date=27 May 2017|work=The New York Times|date=29 July 1983|archive-date=24 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024123644/https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/29/opinion/in-the-nation-the-sandinista-puzzle.html|url-status=live}} The Carter administration decided to work with the new government, while attaching a provision for aid forfeiture if it was found to be assisting insurgencies in neighboring countries.{{cite book|last=Pastor|first=Robert|title=Exiting the Whirlpool: U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Latin America and the Caribbean|publisher=Westview Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-8133-3811-8|url=https://archive.org/details/exitingwhirlpool00past}} Somoza fled the country, and eventually ended up in Paraguay, where he was assassinated in September 1980, allegedly by members of the Argentinian Revolutionary Workers' Party.{{cite web|title=Timeline: Nicaragua|publisher=Stanford University|url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/arts/nicaragua/discovery_eng/timeline/|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=26 April 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060426233326/http://www.stanford.edu/group/arts/nicaragua/discovery_eng/timeline/|url-status=dead}}

In 1980, the Carter administration provided $60 million in aid to Nicaragua under the Sandinistas, but the aid was suspended when the administration obtained evidence of Nicaraguan shipment of arms to El Salvadoran rebels.[https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/02/world/us-halts-economic-aid-to-nicaragua.html? U.S. HALTS ECONOMIC AID TO NICARAGUA] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024122802/https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/02/world/us-halts-economic-aid-to-nicaragua.html |date=24 October 2023 }}, New York Times, 2 April 1981 {{Clarify span|Most people sided with Nicaragua against the Sandinistas.|date=May 2024}}Mary C. Waters, et al. The New Americans : A Guide to Immigration Since 1965. Harvard University Press, 2007. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.lpclibrary.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=282331&site=ehost-live {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205140334/https://clpccd.idaccessmanage.com/idp/profile/SAML2/POST/SSO?execution=e1s1 |date=5 February 2024 }}.

{{Main|Contras}}

In response to the Sandinistas, various rebel groups collectively known as the "Contras" were formed to oppose the new government. The Reagan administration ultimately authorized the CIA to help the Contra rebels with funding, weapons, and training.{{cite news|title=Nicaragua: Growth of Opposition, 1981–83|url=http://www.ciaonet.org/atlas/countries/ni_data_loc.html|work=Ciao Atlas|access-date=21 August 2007|archive-date=12 January 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130112154844/http://www.ciaonet.org/atlas/countries/ni_data_loc.html|url-status=live}} The Contras operated from camps in the neighboring countries of Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south.

They engaged in a systematic campaign of terror among rural Nicaraguans to disrupt the social reform projects of the Sandinistas. Several historians have criticized the Contra campaign and the Reagan administration's support for the Contras, citing the brutality and numerous human rights violations of the Contras, alleging that health centers, schools, and cooperatives were destroyed by rebels,{{cite book|author=LaRamee, Pierre |author2=Polakoff, Erica|isbn=9780333751992|title=The Undermining of the Sandinista Revolution|year=1999|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|pages=141–205}} and that murder, rape, and torture occurred on a large scale in Contra-dominated areas.{{cite book|last=Chomsky|first=Noam|title=Turning the Tide|url=https://archive.org/details/turningtideusint00chom|url-access=registration|year=1985|publisher=South End Press|location=Boston, MA}} The U.S. also carried out a campaign of economic sabotage, and disrupted shipping by planting underwater mines in Nicaragua's port of Corinto,{{cite news |last=Truver |first=SC |title=Mines and Underwater IEDs in U.S. Ports and Waterways... |url=http://www.mast.udel.edu/873/Spring%202007/ScottTruves.pdf |page=4 |access-date=21 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080428050841/http://www.mast.udel.edu/873/Spring%202007/ScottTruves.pdf |archive-date=28 April 2008 }} an action condemned by the International Court of Justice as illegal.[http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?sum=360&code=nus&p1=3&p2=3&case=70&k=66&p3=5 Summary of the Order] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071107024852/http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?sum=360&code=nus&p1=3&p2=3&case=70&k=66&p3=5 |date=7 November 2007 }} of the International Court of Justice of 10 May 1984 The court also found that the U.S. encouraged acts contrary to humanitarian law by producing the manual Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare and disseminating it to the Contras."...Finds that the United States of America, by producing in 1983 a manual entitled "Operaciones sicológicas en guerra de guerrillas", and disseminating it to Contra forces, has encouraged the commission by them of acts contrary to general principles of humanitarian law." As seen at: International Court of Justice 1986, (9) The manual, among other things, advised on how to rationalize killings of civilians."In the case of shooting "a citizen who was trying to leave the town or city in which the guerrillas are carrying out armed propaganda or political proselytism," the manual suggests that the Contras "...explain that if that citizen had managed to escape, he would have alerted the enemy." As seen at: Sklar 1988, p. 179 The U.S. also sought to place economic pressure on the Sandinistas, and the Reagan administration imposed a full trade embargo.{{cite news|title=US Policy: Economic Embargo: The War Goes On|publisher=Central American University – UCA|url=http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/2695|work=Envío|access-date=21 August 2007|archive-date=21 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070621163831/http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/2695|url-status=live}}

The Sandinistas were also accused of human rights abuses including torture, disappearances and mass executions.Moore, John Norton (1987) The Secret War in Central America. University Publications of America. p. 143. {{ISBN|978-0890939611}}Miranda, Roger and Ratliff, William (1993) The Civil War in Nicaragua. Transaction. p. 193. {{ISBN|9781412819688}} The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights investigated abuses by Sandinista forces, including an execution of 35 to 40 Miskitos in December 1981,{{Cite news|title=OAS Study Says Miskito Indians Suffered Abuse From Sandinistas|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/06/08/oas-study-says-miskito-indians-suffered-abuse-from-sandinistas/5a034db2-11ad-4142-80d8-2c4fe611c8a6/|access-date=21 July 2021|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en|archive-date=2 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202123333/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/06/08/oas-study-says-miskito-indians-suffered-abuse-from-sandinistas/5a034db2-11ad-4142-80d8-2c4fe611c8a6/|url-status=live}} and an execution of 75 people in November 1984.{{cite web|url=http://www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/92eng/chap.4b.htm|title=Annual Report 1992–1993|date=12 March 1993|publisher=Inter-American Commission on Human Rights|access-date=30 March 2009|archive-date=12 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112024022/http://www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/92eng/chap.4b.htm|url-status=live}}

In the Nicaraguan general elections of 1984, which were judged by at least one visiting 30-person delegation of NGO representatives to have been free and fair,{{cite news |title=NICARAGUAN VOTE:'FREE, FAIR, HOTLY CONTESTED' |page=30 |work=The New York Times |date=16 November 1984 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/16/opinion/l-nicaraguan-vote-free-fair-hotly-contested-089345.html |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-date=1 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701011437/http://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/16/opinion/l-nicaraguan-vote-free-fair-hotly-contested-089345.html |url-status=live }} the Sandinistas won the parliamentary election and their leader Daniel Ortega won the presidential election.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/5/newsid_2538000/2538379.stm|title=1984: Sandinistas claim election victory|work=BBC News|date=5 November 1984|access-date=18 May 2012|archive-date=29 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629081613/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/5/newsid_2538000/2538379.stm|url-status=live}} The Reagan administration criticized the elections as a "sham" based on the claim that Arturo Cruz, the candidate nominated by the Coordinadora Democrática Nicaragüense, comprising three right wing political parties, did not participate in the elections. However, the administration privately argued against Cruz's participation for fear that his involvement would legitimize the elections, and thus weaken the case for American aid to the Contras.{{cite news|last=Taubman|first=Philip|title=KEY AIDES DISPUTE U.S. ROLE IN NICARAGUAN VOTE|work=The New York Times|page=12|date=21 October 1984|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/21/world/key-aides-dispute-us-role-in-nicaraguan-vote.html|access-date=2 December 2023|archive-date=31 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230531075251/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/21/world/key-aides-dispute-us-role-in-nicaraguan-vote.html|url-status=live}}

In 1983 the U.S. Congress prohibited federal funding of the Contras, but the Reagan administration illegally continued to back them by covertly selling arms to Iran and channeling the proceeds to the Contras in the Iran–Contra affair, for which several members of the Reagan administration were convicted of felonies.{{cite book|last=Baker|first=D|title=The United States since 1980 (The World Since 1980)|publisher=Cambridge University Press|place=Cambridge, UK|page=[https://archive.org/details/unitedstatessinc00bake/page/101 101]|isbn=978-0-521-86017-8|date=5 March 2007|url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatessinc00bake/page/101}} The International Court of Justice, in regard to the case of Nicaragua v. United States in 1986, found, "the United States of America was under an obligation to make reparation to the Republic of Nicaragua for all injury caused to Nicaragua by certain breaches of obligations under customary international law and treaty-law committed by the United States of America".{{cite web|title=Case concerning military and paramilitary activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America), International Court of Justice, Order of 26 september 1991|url=http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/70/6483.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924063157/http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/70/6483.pdf|archive-date=24 September 2015|access-date=5 November 2008}} During the war between the Contras and the Sandinistas, 30,000 people were killed.[https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20171019150641/http://www.prio.no/Global/upload/CSCW/Data/PRIObd3.0_documentation.pdf The PRIO Battle Deaths Dataset, 1946–2008, Version 3.0: Documentation of Coding Decisions] by Bethany Lacina

File:Violeta Chamorro 1993.jpg war, Violeta Chamorro became the first woman president democratically elected in the history of the Americas.]]

File:Mitch-Flooding in Managua.jpg in 1998]]

File:Crowd fills street at a May 2018 protest.jpg in May 2018]]

In the 1990 Nicaraguan general election, a coalition of anti-Sandinista parties from both the left and right of the political spectrum led by Violeta Chamorro, the widow of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, defeated the Sandinistas. The defeat shocked the Sandinistas, who had expected to win.{{cite news|last=O'Grady |first=M |title=Ortega's Comeback Schemes Roil Nicaragua |url=http://www.mre.gov.br/portugues/noticiario/internacional/selecao_detalhe.asp?ID_RESENHA=154683&Imprime=on |access-date=9 May 2007 }}{{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

Exit polls of Nicaraguans reported Chamorro's victory over Ortega was achieved with a 55% majority.{{cite news|title=Was February 25 a 'triumph'? National Review v. 42|publisher=Tulane University|url=http://lal.tulane.edu/RESTRICTED/CABIB/nicabib_.txt|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901190113/http://lal.tulane.edu/RESTRICTED/CABIB/nicabib_.txt|archive-date=1 September 2006}} Chamorro was the first woman president of Nicaragua. Ortega vowed he would govern desde abajo (from below).{{cite news|title=El Sandinista Daniel Ortega se convierte de nuevo en presidente de Nicaragua|date=8 November 2006|url=http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2006/11/08/internacional/1162945503.html|work=El Mundo|access-date=9 May 2007|language=es|archive-date=1 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231101160122/https://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2006/11/08/internacional/1162945503.html|url-status=live}} Chamorro came to office with an economy in ruins, primarily because of the financial and social costs of the Contra War with the Sandinista-led government.{{cite news|last=Dennis|first=G|title=Social conditions of Nicaragua|date=December 1993|publisher=The Library of Congress|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0035)|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=22 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922150151/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0035)|url-status=live}} In the 1996 general election, Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas of the FSLN lost again, this time to Arnoldo Alemán of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC).

In the 2001 elections, the PLC again defeated the FSLN, with Alemán's Vice President Enrique Bolaños succeeding him as president. However, Alemán was convicted and sentenced in 2003 to 20 years in prison for embezzlement, money laundering, and corruption;{{cite news|title=Nicaragua: Political profile|url=http://www.alertnet.org/printable.htm?URL=/db/cp/nicaragua.htm|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=18 September 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060918221221/http://www.alertnet.org/printable.htm?URL=/db/cp/nicaragua.htm|url-status=live}} liberal and Sandinista parliament members combined to strip the presidential powers of President Bolaños and his ministers, calling for his resignation and threatening impeachment. The Sandinistas said they no longer supported Bolaños after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told Bolaños to distance from the FSLN.{{cite news |last=Thompson |first=G |title=Old Foe of U.S. Trying for a Comeback in Nicaragua |date=5 April 2005 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/world/americas/old-foe-of-us-trying-for-a-comeback-in-nicaragua.html |access-date=2 April 2023 |archive-date=24 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024122152/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/world/americas/old-foe-of-us-trying-for-a-comeback-in-nicaragua.html |url-status=live }} This "slow motion coup d'état" was averted partially by pressure from the Central American presidents, who vowed not to recognize any movement that removed Bolaños; the U.S., the OAS, and the European Union also opposed the action.{{cite news|title=Nicaragua 'creeping coup' warning|date=30 September 2005|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4296818.stm|work=BBC News|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=10 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410155830/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4296818.stm|url-status=live}}

Nicaragua briefly participated in the Iraq War in 2004 as part of the Plus Ultra Brigade, a military contingent of mixed personnel.{{cite web |agency=Associated Press |title=Spanish defense minister: No more troops for Iraq |website=Deseret News |date=29 April 2004 |url=https://www.deseret.com/2004/4/29/19826018/spanish-defense-minister-no-more-troops-for-iraq |access-date=17 January 2024 |archive-date=17 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117214140/https://www.deseret.com/2004/4/29/19826018/spanish-defense-minister-no-more-troops-for-iraq |url-status=live }}

Before the general elections on 5 November 2006, the National Assembly passed a bill further restricting abortion in Nicaragua.{{cite news|last=Frazier|first=JB|title=Nicaraguan President Signs Abortion Ban|date=18 November 2006|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/18/AR2006111800351.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=25 May 2007|archive-date=18 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210718132940/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/18/AR2006111800351.html|url-status=live}} As a result, Nicaragua is one of five countries in the world where abortion is illegal with no exceptions.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/jun/11/abortion-nicaragua|title=Nicaragua refuses to lift abortion ban|last=Boseley|first=S|newspaper=The Guardian|date=11 June 2010|access-date=15 December 2016|archive-date=25 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225094013/https://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/jun/11/abortion-nicaragua|url-status=live}}

Legislative and presidential elections took place on 5 November 2006. Ortega returned to the presidency with 37.99% of the vote. This percentage was enough to win the presidency outright, because of a change in electoral law which lowered the percentage requiring a runoff election from 45% to 35% (with a 5% margin of victory).{{cite news|title=Bolaños Will Move To The National Assembly After All|year=2006|url=http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/3439|work=Envío Magazine|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=4 February 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070204105521/http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/3439|url-status=live}} Nicaragua's 2011 general election resulted in the re-election of Ortega, with a landslide 62.46% of the vote. In 2014 the National Assembly approved changes to the constitution allowing Ortega to run for a third successive term.{{cite news|title=Nicaragua's Revolution Heads Toward Dictatorship|last=Gibney|first=James|publisher=Bloomberg|date=30 January 2014|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-30/nicaragua-s-revolution-heads-toward-dictatorship-.html|access-date=4 February 2014|archive-date=22 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222145224/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-30/nicaragua-s-revolution-heads-toward-dictatorship-.html|url-status=live}}

In November 2016, Ortega was elected for his third consecutive term (his fourth overall). International monitoring of the elections was initially prohibited, and as a result the validity of the elections has been disputed, but observation by the OAS was announced in October.{{cite news|last1=Geoff|first1=Thale|title=As Nicaragua's Election Draws Near, Concerns Grow Over Abuse of Power|url=https://www.wola.org/analysis/nicaraguas-election-draws-near-concerns-grow-abuse-power/|access-date=13 January 2018|publisher=WOLA|archive-date=13 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113203631/https://www.wola.org/analysis/nicaraguas-election-draws-near-concerns-grow-abuse-power/|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=OAS Mission in Nicaragua Recommends Integral Electoral Reform|url=http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-079/17|access-date=13 January 2018|agency=Organization of American States|date=7 November 2016|archive-date=14 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180114020252/http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-079/17|url-status=live}} Ortega was reported by Nicaraguan election officials as having received 72% of the vote. However, the Broad Front for Democracy (FAD), having promoted boycotts of the elections, claimed that 70% of voters had abstained (while election officials claimed 65.8% participation).{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37892477|title=Nicaragua's Ortega re-elected president|date=7 November 2016|work=BBC News|access-date=12 September 2017|language=en-GB|archive-date=25 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171225142817/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37892477|url-status=live}}

In April 2018, demonstrations were held to oppose a decree increasing taxes and reducing benefits in the country's pension system. Local independent press organizations documented at least 19 dead and over 100 missing in the ensuing conflict.{{Cite news|url=https://confidencial.com.ni/quienes-son-muertos-de-las-protestas-en-nicaragua/|title=Los muertos de la represión que Daniel Ortega oculta|last=Cerda|first=Arlen|date=22 April 2018|work=Confidencial|access-date=25 April 2018|language=es-NI|archive-date=26 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180426012028/https://confidencial.com.ni/quienes-son-muertos-de-las-protestas-en-nicaragua/|url-status=live}} A reporter from NPR spoke to protestors who explained that while the initial issue was the pension reforms, the uprisings that spread across the country reflected many grievances about the government's time in office, and that the fight is for President Ortega and his vice president, his wife, to step down.{{cite news|last1=Kahn|first1=Carrie|title=Nicaragua Withdraws Social Security Changes That Sparked Unrest|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/04/23/604854250/nicaragua-withdraws-social-security-changes-that-sparked-unrest|access-date=31 May 2018|publisher=NPR|date=23 April 2018|language=en|archive-date=6 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180606075104/https://www.npr.org/2018/04/23/604854250/nicaragua-withdraws-social-security-changes-that-sparked-unrest|url-status=live}} 24 April 2018 marked the day of the greatest march in opposition of the Sandinista party. On 2 May 2018, university student leaders made a public announcement giving the government seven days to set a date and time for a dialogue that was promised to the people due to the recent events of repression. The students also scheduled another peaceful protest march on that same day. As of May 2018, estimates of the death toll were as high as 63, many of them student protesters, and the wounded totalled more than 400.{{cite news|last1=Garvin|first1=Glenn|title=In Nicaragua, the political battle is moving from the streets to the negotiating table|url=http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article210129639.html|access-date=2 May 2018|work=Miami Herald|date=2 May 2018|language=en|archive-date=14 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614020016/http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article210129639.html|url-status=live}} Following a working visit from 17 to 21 May, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights adopted precautionary measures aimed at protecting members of the student movement and their families after testimonies indicated the majority of them had suffered acts of violence and death threats for their participation.{{cite news|title=CIDH condena nuevos hechos de violencia en Nicaragua|url=http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/prensa/comunicados/2018/116.asp|access-date=26 May 2018|work=www.oas.org|agency=Inter-American Commission on Human Rights|publisher=Organization of American States|date=25 May 2018|language=es|archive-date=28 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180528043043/https://www.oas.org/es/cidh/prensa/comunicados/2018/116.asp|url-status=live}} In the last week of May, thousands who accuse Mr. Ortega and his wife of acting like dictators joined in resuming anti-government rallies after attempted peace talks have remained unresolved.{{cite news|title=Nicaraguan protesters call on Ortega to go|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44269498|access-date=27 May 2018|work=BBC News|publisher=BBC|date=27 May 2018|archive-date=27 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527062610/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44269498|url-status=live}} Open suppression of political dissent and more militarized policing began in April 2018, but the onset of repression was gradual.Dammert, Lucía, and Mary Fran T. Malone. "From Community Policing to Political Police in Nicaragua." European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y Del Caribe, no. 110, 2020, pp. 79–99. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26979875 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231125012623/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26979875 |date=25 November 2023 }}. Accessed 25 Nov. 2023.

On 12 October 2024, Nicaragua broke ties with Israel in response to the ongoing Gaza war, condemning Israel's leaders as "fascist" and "genocidal".{{Cite news |date=11 October 2024 |title=Nicaragua breaks diplomatic relations with Israel |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-breaks-diplomatic-relations-with-israel-2024-10-11/ |access-date=29 March 2025 |work=Reuters}}

{{Main|Geography of Nicaragua|Climate of Nicaragua}}

{{See also|Volcanoes of Nicaragua|}}

File:Koppen-Geiger Map NIC present.svg

Nicaragua occupies a landmass of {{convert|130967|km2|0|abbr=on}}, which makes it slightly larger than England. Nicaragua has three distinct geographical regions: the Pacific lowlands – fertile valleys which the Spanish colonists settled, the Amerrisque Mountains (North-central highlands), and the Mosquito Coast (Atlantic lowlands/Caribbean lowlands).

The low plains of the Atlantic Coast are {{convert|97|km|0|abbr=on}} wide in areas. They have long been exploited for their natural resources.

On the Pacific side of Nicaragua are the two largest freshwater lakes in Central America—Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua. Surrounding these lakes and extending to their northwest along the rift valley of the Gulf of Fonseca are fertile lowland plains, with soil highly enriched by ash from nearby volcanoes of the central highlands. Nicaragua's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contribute to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot. Nicaragua has made efforts to become less dependent on fossil fuels, and it expects to acquire 90% of its energy from renewable resources by 2020.{{Cite news|title=Why isn't Nicaragua in the Paris agreement?|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40135819|newspaper=BBC News|access-date=27 October 2017|date=3 June 2017|archive-date=10 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010132459/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40135819|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Nicaragua: a renewable energy paradise in Central America|url=http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/10/25/energias-renovables-nicaragua|website=World Bank|access-date=27 October 2017|language=en|date=25 October 2013|archive-date=28 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028092850/http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/10/25/energias-renovables-nicaragua|url-status=live}} Nicaragua was one of the few countries that did not enter an INDC at COP21.{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-08/after-two-decades-of-stumbles-carbon-market-pioneers-revving-up#media-2|title=Carbon Markets Are Making a Slow, But Steady, Comeback|first1=Alex|last1=Nussbaum|first2=Ewa|last2=Krukowska|first3=Mathew|last3=Carr|date=8 December 2015|work=Bloomberg.com|access-date=17 February 2016|archive-date=2 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171002070611/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-08/after-two-decades-of-stumbles-carbon-market-pioneers-revving-up#media-2|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/indc/Submission%20Pages/submissions.aspx|title=INDCs as communicated by Parties|publisher=unfccc.int|access-date=9 December 2015|archive-date=13 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213114249/http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/indc/Submission%20Pages/submissions.aspx|url-status=live}} Nicaragua initially chose not to join the Paris Climate Accord because it felt that "much more action is required" by individual countries on restricting global temperature rise. However, in October 2017, Nicaragua made the decision to join the agreement.{{cite news|title=Nicaragua to join Paris climate accord, leaving US and Syria isolated|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/23/nicaragua-joins-paris-climate-accord-us-trump-syria|access-date=4 December 2017|work=The Guardian|date=23 October 2017|archive-date=21 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171121110757/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/23/nicaragua-joins-paris-climate-accord-us-trump-syria|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Stack|first1=Liam|title=Only U.S. and Syria Now Oppose Paris Climate Deal, as Nicaragua Joins|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/world/americas/nicaragua-paris-climate-agreement-us.html|access-date=4 December 2017|work=The New York Times|date=24 October 2017|archive-date=5 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171205043817/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/world/americas/nicaragua-paris-climate-agreement-us.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Noack|first1=Rick|title=Being outside the Paris climate deal: Something now only the U.S. and Syria agree on|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/10/24/not-being-part-of-the-paris-climate-deal-something-only-the-u-s-and-syria-agree-on/|access-date=4 December 2017|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=24 October 2017|archive-date=11 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211054805/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/10/24/not-being-part-of-the-paris-climate-deal-something-only-the-u-s-and-syria-agree-on/|url-status=live}} It ratified this agreement on 22 November 2017.{{cite web|title=Paris Agreement – Status of Ratification|url=http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9444.php|publisher=United Nations|access-date=13 January 2018|archive-date=14 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180114073512/http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9444.php|url-status=live}}

Nearly one fifth of Nicaragua is designated as protected areas like national parks, nature reserves, and biological reserves. The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 3.63/10, ranking it 146th globally out of 172 countries.{{cite journal|last1=Grantham|first1=H. S.|last2=Duncan|first2=A.|last3=Evans|first3=T. D.|last4=Jones|first4=K. R.|last5=Beyer|first5=H. L.|last6=Schuster|first6=R.|last7=Walston|first7=J.|last8=Ray|first8=J. C.|last9=Robinson|first9=J. G.|last10=Callow|first10=M.|last11=Clements|first11=T.|last12=Costa|first12=H. M.|last13=DeGemmis|first13=A.|last14=Elsen|first14=P. R.|last15=Ervin|first15=J.|last16=Franco|first16=P.|last17=Goldman|first17=E.|last18=Goetz|first18=S.|last19=Hansen|first19=A.|last20=Hofsvang|first20=E.|last21=Jantz|first21=P.|last22=Jupiter|first22=S.|last23=Kang|first23=A.|last24=Langhammer|first24=P.|last25=Laurance|first25=W. F.|last26=Lieberman|first26=S.|last27=Linkie|first27=M.|last28=Malhi|first28=Y.|last29=Maxwell|first29=S.|last30=Mendez|first30=M.|last31=Mittermeier|first31=R.|last32=Murray|first32=N. J.|last33=Possingham|first33=H.|last34=Radachowsky|first34=J.|last35=Saatchi|first35=S.|last36=Samper|first36=C.|last37=Silverman|first37=J.|last38=Shapiro|first38=A.|last39=Strassburg|first39=B.|last40=Stevens|first40=T.|last41=Stokes|first41=E.|last42=Taylor|first42=R.|last43=Tear|first43=T.|last44=Tizard|first44=R.|last45=Venter|first45=O.|last46=Visconti|first46=P.|last47=Wang|first47=S.|last48=Watson|first48=J. E. M.|display-authors=1|title=Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity - Supplementary Material|journal=Nature Communications|volume=11|issue=1|year=2020|page=5978|issn=2041-1723|doi=10.1038/s41467-020-19493-3|pmid=33293507|pmc=7723057|bibcode=2020NatCo..11.5978G |doi-access=free}} Geophysically, Nicaragua is surrounded by the Caribbean Plate, an oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America, and the Cocos Plate. Since Central America is a major subduction zone, Nicaragua hosts most of the Central American Volcanic Arc. On 9 June 2021, Nicaragua launched a new volcanic supersite research in strengthening the monitoring and surveillance of the country's 21 active volcanoes.

File:Concepción from Maderas (landscape).jpg, seen from Maderas volcano.]]

File:PenasBlancas, part of the Bosawas Reserve, Jinotega Department, Nicaragua.jpg and located northeast of Jinotega in northeastern Nicaragua, is the second-largest rainforest in the Western Hemisphere after the Amazonian Rainforest in Brazil]]

In the west of the country, these lowlands consist of a broad, hot, fertile plain. Punctuating this plain are several large volcanoes of the Cordillera Los Maribios mountain range, including Mombacho just outside Granada, and Momotombo near León. The lowland area runs from the Gulf of Fonseca to Nicaragua's Pacific border with Costa Rica south of Lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua is the largest freshwater lake in Central America (20th largest in the world),{{cite news|title=Large Lakes of the World|url=http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0001777.html|access-date=25 May 2007|work=factmonster.com|archive-date=29 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329213828/http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0001777.html|url-status=live}} and is home to some of the world's rare freshwater sharks (Nicaraguan shark).{{cite news|work=nature.org|title=The Nature Conservancy in Nicaragua|url=http://www.nature.org/wherewework/centralamerica/nicaragua/|access-date=25 May 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070405074947/http://www.nature.org/wherewework/centralamerica/nicaragua/|archive-date=5 April 2007|url-status=dead}} The Pacific lowlands region is the most populous, with over half of the nation's population.{{cite report|lang=es|url=https://nicaragua.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Informe-Pac%C3%ADfico-Final-24.04.2015-1.pdf|date=24 April 2015|access-date=26 April 2025|page=15|publisher=Universidad Centroamericana|title=Censo de Asentamientos del Pacífico Urbano de Nicaragua}}

The eruptions of western Nicaragua's 40 volcanoes, many of which are still active, have sometimes devastated settlements but also have enriched the land with layers of fertile ash. The geologic activity that produces vulcanism also breeds powerful earthquakes. Tremors occur regularly throughout the Pacific zone, and earthquakes have nearly destroyed the capital city, Managua, more than once.[http://ea.grolier.com/article?id=0286870-00 "Nicaragua."]{{Dead link|date=August 2019|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online. (200-11-20){{date?}} [http://lp.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=4067000]{{Dead link|date=August 2019|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}{{subscription required}}

Most of the Pacific zone is tierra caliente, the "hot land" of tropical Spanish America at elevations under {{convert|2000|ft|m|0|order=flip}}. Temperatures remain virtually constant throughout the year, with highs ranging between {{convert|85|and|90|°F|°C|1|abbr=on|order=flip}}. After a dry season lasting from November to April, rains begin in May and continue to October, giving the Pacific lowlands {{convert|40|to|60|in|mm|0|order=flip}} of precipitation. Good soils and a favourable climate combine to make western Nicaragua the country's economic and demographic centre. The southwestern shore of Lake Nicaragua lies within {{convert|15|mi|km|0|order=flip}} of the Pacific Ocean. Thus the lake and the San Juan River were often proposed in the 19th century as the longest part of a canal route across the Central American isthmus. Canal proposals were periodically revived in the 20th and 21st centuries.{{cite web|title=TED CASE: Nicaragua Canal Proposal|publisher=american.edu|url=http://www1.american.edu/TED/nicanal.htm|access-date=16 July 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111151730/http://www1.american.edu/TED/nicanal.htm|archive-date=11 January 2012}} Roughly a century after the opening of the Panama Canal, the prospect of a Nicaraguan ecocanal remains a topic of interest.{{cite web |author=Muñoz, Néfer |title=An 'Eco-Canal' across Nicaragua |work=Accents |publisher=Tierramérica |location=Granada, Nicaragua |year=2001 |url=http://www.tierramerica.net/2001/0506/iacentos.shtml |access-date=20 July 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510015252/http://www.tierramerica.net/2001/0506/iacentos.shtml |archive-date=10 May 2011 }}{{cite web |title=Proyecto "Construcción del Puerto Monkey Point" |work=Proyectos |publisher=Empresa Portuaria Nacional |location=Managua |language=es |year=2009 |url=http://www.epn.com.ni/Puerto-mp.aspx |access-date=20 July 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511094605/http://www.epn.com.ni/Puerto-mp.aspx |archive-date=11 May 2011 }}{{cite news|author=Alvarez, Gustavo|title=Empresas de seis países interesadas en Monkey Point|newspaper=elnuevodiario.com.ni|publisher=El Nuevo Diario|place=Managua|date=18 February 2008|language=es|url=http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/economia/8704|access-date=20 July 2011|archive-date=13 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100713163014/http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/economia/8704|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|author=Álvarez Hidalgo, Wendy|title=Harán puerto Monkey Point|newspaper=laprensa.co.ni|publisher=La Prensa|place=Managua|date=7 July 2010|language=es|url=http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2010/07/07/economia/30625|access-date=20 July 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813073852/http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2010/07/07/economia/30625|archive-date=13 August 2011}}

In addition to its beach and resort communities, the Pacific lowlands contains most of Nicaragua's Spanish colonial architecture and artifacts. Cities such as León and Granada abound in colonial architecture; founded in 1524, Granada is the oldest colonial city in the Americas.{{cite news|last=White|first=RL|title=Pittsburghers find once war-ravaged country is a good place to invest|date=24 August 2004|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04237/366377.stm|work=Post Gazette|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=16 May 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516145838/http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04237/366377.stm|url-status=live}}{{update inline|date=January 2024}}

File:Cañonsomoto.JPG in Somoto in the Madriz Department in northern Nicaragua]]

Northern Nicaragua is the most diversified region producing coffee, cattle, milk products, vegetables, wood, gold, and flowers. Its extensive forests, rivers and geography are suited for ecotourism.

The central highlands are a significantly less populated and economically developed area in the north, between Lake Nicaragua and the Caribbean. Forming the country's tierra templada, or "temperate land", at elevations between {{convert|2000|and|5000|ft|m|0|order=flip}}, the highlands enjoy mild temperatures with daily highs of {{convert|75|to|80|°F|°C|1|abbr=on|order=flip}}. This region has a longer, wetter rainy season than the Pacific lowlands, making erosion a problem on its steep slopes. Rugged terrain, poor soils, and low population density characterize the area as a whole, but the northwestern valleys are fertile and well settled.

The area has a cooler climate than the Pacific lowlands. About a quarter of the country's agriculture takes place in this region, with coffee grown on the higher slopes. Oaks, pines, moss, ferns and orchids are abundant in the cloud forests of the region.

Bird life in the forests of the central region includes resplendent quetzals, goldfinches, hummingbirds, jays and toucanets.

This large rainforest region is irrigated by several large rivers and is sparsely populated. The area has 57% of the territory of the nation and most of its mineral resources. It has been heavily exploited, but much natural diversity remains. The Rio Coco is the largest river in Central America; it forms the border with Honduras. The Caribbean coastline is much more sinuous than its generally straight Pacific counterpart; lagoons and deltas make it very irregular.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

Nicaragua's Bosawás Biosphere Reserve is in the Atlantic lowlands, part of which is located in the municipality of Siuna; it protects {{convert|1800000|acre|km2|order=flip}} of La Mosquitia forest – almost 7% of the country's area – making it the largest rainforest north of the Amazon in Brazil.{{cite news|title=Bosawas Bioreserve Nicaragua|url=http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2006/1718459.htm|access-date=25 May 2007|archive-date=11 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511122659/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2006/1718459.htm|url-status=live}}

The municipalities of Siuna, Rosita, and Bonanza, known as the "Mining Triangle", are located in the region known as the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, in the Caribbean lowlands. Bonanza still contains an active gold mine owned by HEMCO. Siuna and Rosita do not have active mines but panning for gold is still very common in the region.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

Nicaragua's tropical east coast is very different from the rest of the country. The climate is predominantly tropical, with high temperature and high humidity. Around the area's principal city of Bluefields, English is widely spoken along with the official Spanish. The population more closely resembles that found in many typical Caribbean ports than the rest of Nicaragua.{{cite book|title=Alternative Histories of English|editor1 =Trudgill, Peter |editor2=Watts, Richard J.|isbn=9780415233569 |publisher=Routledge|year= 2002|page=35|quote=English-speaking protestants formed the majority of the population until about 1900...indigenous anglophones still form about 85 per cent of the population, which also includes non-anglophone Black Caribs...At least at the level of arolectal Whites, the accent is rhotic though obviously Caribbean....England established a protectorate over the local Miskito Indians, who the region is named after, and the area was a British dependency from 1740 to 1786. In Nicaragua the British founded the principal Miskito coast city of Bluefields... There are about 30,000 native speakers of English in this area of Nicaragua who look to Bluefields as their centre... The English of the anglophone Corn Islands is also typically Caribbean.}}

A great variety of birds can be observed including eagles, toucans, parakeets and macaws. Other animal life in the area includes different species of monkeys, anteaters, white-tailed deer and tapirs.{{Cite web|url=https://vianica.com/animals|title=Nicaraguan Animal Guide|website=Vianica|access-date=17 August 2018|archive-date=24 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024123152/https://vianica.com/animals|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Fauna of Nicaragua}}

File:Turquoise-browed Motmot 2495425451.jpg ("ravine-guard") is Nicaragua's national bird.]]

Nicaragua is home to a rich variety of plants and animals. Nicaragua is located in the middle of the Americas and this privileged location has enabled the country to serve as host to a great biodiversity. This factor, along with the weather and light altitudinal variations, allows the country to harbor 248 species of amphibians and reptiles, 183 species of mammals, 705 bird species, 640 fish species, and about 5,796 species of plants.

The region of great forests is located on the eastern side of the country. Rainforests are found in the Río San Juan Department and in the autonomous regions of RAAN and RAAS. This biome groups together the greatest biodiversity in the country and is largely protected by the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve in the south and the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve in the north. The Nicaraguan jungles, which represent about {{convert|2.4|e6acre|km2|order=flip|abbr=off}}, are considered the lungs of Central America and comprise the second largest-sized rainforest of the Americas.{{cite news|last1=Rogers|first1=Tim|title=In Latin America's Second Largest Rainforest, an Indigenous Tribe Fights for Its Land|url=https://world.time.com/2013/05/15/the-battle-over-latin-americas-second-largest-rainforest/|access-date=3 August 2017|magazine=Time|date=15 May 2013|archive-date=26 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180426220455/http://world.time.com/2013/05/15/the-battle-over-latin-americas-second-largest-rainforest/|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Connor|first1=Liz|title=10 reasons why you should visit Nicaragua|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/10-reasons-why-you-should-visit-nicaragua-in-2017-a3398571.html|access-date=3 August 2017|work=Evening Standard|date=17 November 2016|archive-date=5 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205060812/https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/10-reasons-why-you-should-visit-nicaragua-in-2017-a3398571.html|url-status=live}}

There are currently 78 protected areas in Nicaragua, covering more than {{convert|22000|km2}}, or about 17% of its landmass. These include wildlife refuges and nature reserves that shelter a wide range of ecosystems. There are more than 1,400 animal species classified thus far in Nicaragua. Some 12,000 species of plants have been classified thus far in Nicaragua, with an estimated 5,000 species not yet classified.{{cite web|url=http://centralamerica.com/nicaragua/parks/nationalpark.htm|title=National Parks and Protected Areas of Nicaragua|access-date=17 February 2016|archive-date=2 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802185044/http://centralamerica.com/nicaragua/parks/nationalpark.htm|url-status=dead}}

The bull shark is a species of shark that can survive for an extended period of time in fresh water. It can be found in Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River, where it is often referred to as the "Nicaragua shark".{{cite web|url=http://www.nature.org/wherewework/centralamerica/nicaragua/|title=Nicaragua|publisher=The Nature Conservancy|access-date=17 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070405074947/http://www.nature.org/wherewework/centralamerica/nicaragua/|archive-date=5 April 2007|url-status=dead}} Nicaragua has recently banned freshwater fishing of the Nicaragua shark and the sawfish in response to the declining populations of these animals.{{cite web|url=http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=05437210968|title=Nicaragua bans freshwater shark fishing amid dwindling population numbers|work=UnderwaterTimes.com|access-date=17 February 2016|archive-date=24 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160224085133/http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=05437210968|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Politics of Nicaragua}}

{{more citations needed section|date=September 2017}}

File:Dmitry Medvedev 18 December 2008-6.jpg with then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow in 2008]]

Politics of Nicaragua takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Nicaragua is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the national assembly. The judiciary makes up the third branch of government.

Since Daniel Ortega's election in 2006, liberal democratic norms and individual rights in practice have deteriorated, a process known as democratic backsliding.{{cite journal |last1=Perelló |first1=Lucas |last2=Navia |first2=Patricio |title=Changes in support for Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front during democratic backsliding |journal=Politics |date=August 2022 |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=426–442 |doi=10.1177/0263395720961999}} Parties other than the ruling FSLN have been repressed through arbitrary arrest and detention of opposition candidates and activists. Most government jobs de facto require membership in the FSLN. Opposition media has been repressed through arrests of journalists and seizure of broadcasting and printing materials.{{cite web |title=Freedom in the World 2024: Nicaragua |url=https://freedomhouse.org/country/nicaragua/freedom-world/2024 |publisher=Freedom House |access-date=8 August 2024|archive-date=19 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619060319/https://freedomhouse.org/country/nicaragua/freedom-world/2024 |url-status=live }}

Between 2007 and 2009, Nicaragua's major political parties discussed the possibility of going from a presidential system to a parliamentary system. It was argued{{by whom|date=January 2025}} that the reason for this proposal was to find a legal way for President Ortega to stay in power after January 2012, when his second and last government period was expected to end. Ortega was re-elected to a third term in November 2016, and a fourth in 2021; both elections were tainted by credible reports of large-scale fraud, voter intimidation, and politically motivated arrests of opposition party leaders. Independent observers were barred from the polls. The OAS, United States, and European Union all described the 2021 election as a "sham" due to these issues.{{cite news |last1=Sesin |first1=Carmen |title='Rigged': Criticism mounts of Nicaragua's 'sham' elections under Ortega |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/rigged-criticism-mounts-nicaraguas-sham-elections-ortega-rcna4820 |access-date=7 May 2022 |publisher=NBC News |date=8 November 2021 |archive-date=12 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230512031653/http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/rigged-criticism-mounts-nicaraguas-sham-elections-ortega-rcna4820 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last1=Blinken |first1=Anthony |title=New Sanctions Following Sham Elections in Nicaragua |url=https://www.state.gov/new-sanctions-following-sham-elections-in-nicaragua/ |publisher=White House |access-date=7 May 2022 |archive-date=23 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523053054/https://www.state.gov/new-sanctions-following-sham-elections-in-nicaragua/ |url-status=live }}

In November 2024, the government presented a partial constitutional reform that established sweeping government changes.{{Cite web |date=20 November 2024 |title=Nicaragua: Ortega presenta una reforma constitucional con la que su esposa será copresidenta y ambos controlarán los 3 poderes del Estado |url=https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/cvgwzz0d5v3o |access-date=19 January 2025 |website=BBC News Mundo |language=es |ref=govreform |archive-date=26 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250226201845/https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/cvgwzz0d5v3o |url-status=live }} The reform defined Nicaragua as a revolutionary socialist state with the flag of the Sandinista National Liberation Front as a national symbol, disallowed transgressions against the "principles of security, peace, and wellbeing established in the Constitution", and declared opponents to these as "traitors to the homeland", whether inside or outside national territory. This reform also increased presidential powers by establishing a co-presidency capable of "coordinating" with other "state organs" such as the legislature, judiciary, and executive. Among other changes, the reform increases the presidential term from 5 to 6 years, establishes a voluntary civilian police as "an auxiliary body in support of the National Police", and limits any speech or religious practices that "violate public order" and constitutional principles.{{Citation |last=Human Rights Watch |title=Nicaragua: Events of 2024 |date=8 December 2024 |work=Share this via Facebook |url=https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/nicaragua |access-date=19 January 2025 |language=en |ref=hrw2025 |archive-date=22 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250222054714/https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/nicaragua |url-status=live }}

The reform has been widely criticized by the OAS and opposition figures as officializing repressive practices, eliminating checks and balances, and establishing a "bicephalous dictatorship". It has been condemned as "the most flagrant violation of human rights" since "it is about the constitution". The OAS further criticized the reform as "illegitimate" and as an "aberrant form of institutionalization a matrimonial dictatorship". Other outlets, including the Uruguayan Diálogo Político, have condemned the reforms as installing a totalitarian government.{{Cite web |last=Lira |first=Elvira Cuadra |date=4 December 2024 |title=Arquitecturas autocráticas: del Estado policial al Estado totalitario en Nicaragua |url=https://dialogopolitico.org/agenda/estado-policial-totalitario-nicaragua/ |access-date=20 January 2025 |website=Diálogo Político |language=es |ref=critictotalitarian |archive-date=20 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241220104625/https://dialogopolitico.org/agenda/estado-policial-totalitario-nicaragua/ |url-status=live }}

The partial constitutional reform was passed in the first hearing on November 2024 and the second hearing on January 2025 where the legislature discussed and ratified it on an article-by-article basis, completing its passage by the end of the month.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

{{main|Foreign relations of Nicaragua}}

Nicaragua pursues an independent foreign policy. Nicaragua is in territorial disputes with Colombia over the Archipelago de San Andrés y Providencia and Quita Sueño Bank and with Costa Rica over a boundary dispute involving the San Juan River.

Since 2019, human rights in Nicaragua have been rated not free.

On 12 October 2022, Nicaragua voted against condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.{{cite magazine |title=A New U.N. Vote Shows Russia Isn't as Isolated as the West May Like to Think |url=https://time.com/6222005/un-vote-russia-ukraine-allies/ |magazine=Time |date=13 October 2022 |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-date=11 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230811053026/https://time.com/6222005/un-vote-russia-ukraine-allies/ |url-status=live }}

{{Main|Nicaraguan Armed Forces}}

The Nicaraguan Armed Forces consist of various military contingents. Nicaragua has an army, navy and an air force. There are roughly 14,000 active duty personnel, which is much less compared to the numbers seen during the Nicaraguan Revolution. Although the army has had a rough military history, a portion of its forces, which were known as the national guard, became integrated with what is now the National Police of Nicaragua. In essence, the police became a gendarmerie. The National Police of Nicaragua are rarely, if ever, labeled as a gendarmerie. The other elements and manpower that were not devoted to the national police were sent over to cultivate the new Army of Nicaragua.

The age to serve in the armed forces is 17 and conscription is not imminent. {{As of|2006}}, the military budget was roughly 0.7% of Nicaragua's expenditures.

{{main|Law enforcement in Nicaragua}}

File:600x400 1329442889 170212amb-nota2,photo01.jpg]]

The National Police of Nicaragua Force (in Spanish: La Policía Nacional Nicaragüense) is the national police of Nicaragua. The force is in charge of regular police functions and, at times, works in conjunction with the Nicaraguan military, making it an indirect and rather subtle version of a gendarmerie.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}} However, the Nicaraguan National Police work separately and have a different established set of norms than the nation's military.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}} According to a recent U.S. Department of State report, corruption is endemic, especially within law enforcement and the judiciary, and arbitrary arrests, torture, and harsh prison conditions are the norm.{{Cite web|title=Nicaragua|url=https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/nicaragua/|access-date=22 June 2020|website=United States Department of State|language=en-US|archive-date=30 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231030023818/https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/nicaragua/|url-status=live}}

Nicaragua has one of the lowest intentional homicide rates in Central America, according to the United Nations Development Program, with a homicide rate of 11 per 100,000 inhabitants as of 2021.{{Cite web|title=Intentional homicides (per 100,000 people) - Nicaragua|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5?locations=NI|access-date=22 May 2024|archive-date=22 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522045626/https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5?locations=NI|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Departments of Nicaragua|}}

Nicaragua is a unitary republic. For administrative purposes it is divided into 15 departments (departamentos) and two self-governing regions (autonomous communities) based on the Spanish model. The departments are then subdivided into 153 municipios (municipalities). The two autonomous regions are the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region

and South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, often referred to as RACCN and RACCS, respectively.{{cite news|title=Background and socio-economic context |url=http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/vam/wfp073961.pdf |page=9 |access-date=9 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061015212525/http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/vam/wfp073961.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2006 }}

|}

{{Main|Economy of Nicaragua}}

File:GDP_per_capita_development_in_Nicaragua.svg per capita in Nicaragua]]

File:FruitColors.jpg is one of the Nicaragua's largest exports. It is grown in Jinotega, Esteli, Nueva Segovia, Matagalpa, and Madriz, and exported worldwide through North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Nestlé and Starbucks buy Nicaraguan coffee.]]

Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the Americas,{{Cite web|url=http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/LACEXT/NICARAGUAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22255024~pagePK:1497618~piPK:217854~theSitePK:258689,00.html|title=Nicaragua - Country Brief|website=web.worldbank.org|access-date=18 March 2010|archive-date=3 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141003113427/http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/LACEXT/NICARAGUAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22255024%7EpagePK:1497618%7EpiPK:217854%7EtheSitePK:258689,00.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=Rank Order – GDP – per capita (PPP)|publisher=CIA World Factbook|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=24 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424075526/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|title=Social indicators: Per capita GDP|publisher=United Nations|url=http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/socind/inc-eco.htm|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=30 April 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070430044658/http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/socind/inc-eco.htm|url-status=live}} only ahead of Haiti in terms of nominal per capita GDP. Its gross domestic product (GDP) in purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2023 was estimated at US$56.7 billion.{{cite web|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.PP.CD?locations=NI|accessdate=31 Mar 2025|date=2023|website=World Bank|title=GDP, PPP (current international $) - Nicaragua}} Agriculture represents 15.5% of GDP, the highest percentage in Central America.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/214.html#NU|title=Field Listing :: GDP - composition, by sector of origin — The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency|website=www.cia.gov|access-date=5 May 2019|archive-date=11 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111214540/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/214.html#NU|url-status=dead}} Remittances account for over 15% of its GDP. Almost one billion dollars are sent annually to the country by Nicaraguans living abroad.{{cite web|url=http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=393|title=Migration Information Source – Remittance Trends in Central America|publisher=Migrationinformation.org|access-date=26 June 2010|date=April 2006|archive-date=10 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140210034140/http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?ID=393|url-status=live}} The economy grew at a rate of about 4% in 2011. By 2019, given restrictive taxes and a civil conflict, it recorded a negative annual growth rate of -3.9%.

The restrictive tax measures put in place in 2019 and a political crisis over social security negatively affected the country's weak public spending and investor confidence in sovereign debt. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, GDP growth fell to -1.8%. In the ensuing 3 years, it rose again to an average of 9.35%.{{cite web|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=NI|title=GDP growth (annual %) - Nicaragua|access-date=31 March 2025|website=World Bank}}

According to the United Nations Development Programme, 48% of the population of Nicaragua live below the poverty line,{{cite web |url=http://www.pnud.org.ni/noticias/343 |title=Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo – Noticias – La pobreza se arraiga en el país |publisher=Pnud.org.ni |access-date=26 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511101524/http://www.pnud.org.ni/noticias/343 |archive-date=11 May 2011 }} 79.9% of the population live with less than $2 per day,{{cite web|url=http://hdrstats.undp.org/indicators/24.html |title=Human Development Report 2009 – Countries' shares of total stock of migrants in Africa (%) |publisher=Hdrstats.undp.org |access-date=26 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221190342/http://hdrstats.undp.org/indicators/24.html |archive-date=21 February 2009 }} and, according to UN figures, 80% of the indigenous people (who make up 5% of the population) live on less than $1 per day.{{cite news|last=Silva |first=JA |title=NICARAGUA: Name and Identity for Thousands of Indigenous Children |url=http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43760 |work=IPS |access-date=12 September 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080911133236/http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43760 |archive-date=11 September 2008 }}

According to the World Bank, Nicaragua ranked as the 123rd out of 190 best economy for starting a business.{{cite news|title=Economy Rankings: Doing Business|publisher=World Bank|url=http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings/|access-date=4 January 2014|archive-date=10 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201210072629/https://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings|url-status=dead}} In 2007, Nicaragua's economy was labelled "62.7% free" by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, with high levels of fiscal, government, labor, investment, financial, and trade freedom.{{cite news|title=Index Of Economic Freedom: Nicaragua|url=http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/country.cfm?id=Nicaragua|work=Heritage.org|access-date=2 November 2007|url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071026050611/http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/country.cfm?ID=Nicaragua|archive-date=26 October 2007}} It ranked as the 61st freest economy, and 14th (of 29) in the Americas. Nicaragua was ranked 124th in the Global Innovation Index in 2024.{{cite book|url=https://www.wipo.int/web-publications/global-innovation-index-2024/en/|title=Global Innovation Index 2024. Unlocking the Promise of Social Entrepreneurship|access-date=22 October 2024|author=World Intellectual Property Organization|year=2024|isbn=978-92-805-3681-2|doi=10.34667/tind.50062|website=www.wipo.int|location=Geneva|page=18|archive-date=12 December 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241212043914/https://www.wipo.int/web-publications/global-innovation-index-2024/en/|url-status=live}}

In March 2007, Poland and Nicaragua signed an agreement to write off 30.6 million dollars, which was borrowed by the Nicaraguan government in the 1980s.{{cite news|title=Poland forgives nearly 31 million dollars of debt owed by Nicaragua|date=21 March 2007|url=http://english.people.com.cn/200703/31/eng20070331_362713.html|work=People's Daily Online|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=16 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116214745/http://english.people.com.cn/200703/31/eng20070331_362713.html|url-status=live}} Inflation reduced from 33,500% in 1988 to 9.45% in 2006, and the foreign debt was cut in half.{{cite news|title=Nicaragua:Economy|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1850.htm|work=U.S. State Department|access-date=2 November 2007|archive-date=21 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121153233/https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1850.htm|url-status=live}}

Nicaragua is primarily an agricultural country; 28% of its workforce is employed in agriculture{{cite web|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS?locations=NI|date=2023|accessdate=31 March 2025|website=World Bank|title=Employment in agriculture (% of total employment) - Nicaragua}} and 60% of its total exports, which annually yield approximately US$300 million.{{cite news|title=General Information – Nicaragua: Economy|url=http://centralamerica.com/nicaragua/info/general.htm#economy|access-date=4 January 2014|archive-date=28 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110828041455/http://centralamerica.com/nicaragua/info/general.htm#economy|url-status=dead}} Nearly two-thirds of the coffee crop comes from the northern part of the central highlands, in the area north and east of the town of Estelí. Tobacco, grown in the same northern highlands region as coffee, has become an increasingly important cash crop since the 1990s, with annual exports of leaf and cigars in the neighborhood of $200 million per year.{{cite web|url=https://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/home/Tobacco_Sector_Exceeds_Expectations|title=Tobacco Sector Exceeds Expectations – CentralAmericaData :: The Regional Business Portal|website=www.centralamericadata.com|access-date=22 December 2017|archive-date=22 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422003628/https://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/home/Tobacco_Sector_Exceeds_Expectations|url-status=live}} Soil erosion and pollution from the heavy use of pesticides have become serious concerns in the cotton district. Yields and exports have both been declining since 1985. Today most of Nicaragua's bananas are grown in the northwestern part of the country near the port of Corinto; sugarcane is also grown in the same district. Cassava, a root crop somewhat similar to the potato, is an important food in tropical regions. Cassava is also the main ingredient in tapioca pudding. Nicaragua's agricultural sector has benefited because of the country's strong ties to Venezuela. It is estimated that Venezuela will import approximately $200 million in agricultural goods.{{cite web|last=Sánchez|first=E|url=http://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/home/Nicaragua_Plans_to_Sell_Over_200_Million_to_Venezuela/925161|title=Nicaragua Plans to Sell Over $200 Million to Venezuela – CentralAmericaData :: The Regional Business Portal|publisher=CentralAmericaData|date=29 March 2010|access-date=26 June 2010|archive-date=11 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511101523/http://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/home/Nicaragua_Plans_to_Sell_Over_200_Million_to_Venezuela/925161|url-status=live}} In the 1990s, the government initiated efforts to diversify agriculture. Some of the new export-oriented crops were peanuts, sesame, melons, and onions.

Fishing boats on the Caribbean side bring shrimp as well as lobsters into processing plants at Puerto Cabezas, Bluefields, and Laguna de Perlas. A turtle fishery thrived on the Caribbean coast before it collapsed from overexploitation.

Mining is becoming a major industry in Nicaragua,Dan Oancea: [http://magazine.mining.com/Issues/0901/MiningCentralAmerica.pdf "Mining In Central America"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116212655/http://magazine.mining.com/Issues/0901/MiningCentralAmerica.pdf |date=16 January 2013 }} contributing less than 1% of gross domestic product (GDP). Restrictions are being placed on lumbering due to increased environmental concerns about destruction of the rain forests. But lumbering continues despite these obstacles; indeed, a single hardwood tree may be worth thousands of dollars.

During the war between the Contras and the government of the Sandinistas in the 1980s, much of the country's infrastructure was damaged or destroyed.{{cite news|last=Tartter|first=JR|title=The Nicaraguan Resistance|publisher=Library of Congress|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?cstdy:10:./temp/~frd_famN::|work=Country Studies|access-date=2 November 2007|archive-date=24 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024123358/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?cstdy:10:./temp/~frd_famN::|url-status=live}} Transportation throughout the nation is often inadequate. For example, it was until recently impossible to travel all the way by highway from Managua to the Caribbean coast. A new road between Nueva Guinea and Bluefields was completed in 2019 and allows regular bus service to the capital.{{cite web |url=https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/nicaragua-completes-bluefields-nueva-guinea-highway |title=Nicaragua completes Bluefields-Nueva Guinea highway |work=Bnamericas |date=2 May 2019 |access-date=20 August 2021 |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407073143/https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/nicaragua-completes-bluefields-nueva-guinea-highway |url-status=live }} The Centroamérica power plant on the Tuma River in the Central highlands has been expanded, and other hydroelectric projects have been undertaken to help provide electricity to the nation's newer industries. Nicaragua has long been considered as a possible site for a new canal that could supplement the Panama Canal, connecting the Caribbean Sea (and therefore the Atlantic Ocean) with the Pacific Ocean.

Nicaragua's minimum wage is among the lowest in the Americas and in the world.[https://www.pbs.org/now/politics/cafta.pdf PBS Now Politics CAFTA] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130308021701/http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/cafta.pdf |date=8 March 2013 }}. (PDF). Retrieved on 2 May 2012.Raphaelidis, Leia [https://web.archive.org/web/20110511231922/http://www.allbusiness.com/specialty-businesses/652587-1.html Sewing Discontent in Nicaragua: The Harsh Regime of Asian Garment Companies in Nicaragua]. Multinational Monitor. 1 September 1997Sarah Anderson [https://web.archive.org/web/20070710055436/http://wakeupwalmart.com/facts/Wal-mart-pay-gap.pdf Walmart Pay Gap]. wakeupwalmart.com. 15 April 2005{{Cite web|url=http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/frontpage|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705112448/http://rspas.anu.edu.au/~anita/pdf/AChancp461.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Home|first=ANU College of Asia & the Pacific|last=Dean|archive-date=5 July 2010|website=ANU College of Asia & the Pacific|access-date=3 May 2019}} Remittances are equivalent to roughly 15% of the country's gross domestic product. Growth in the maquila sector slowed in the first decade of the 21st century with rising competition from Asian markets, particularly China. Land is the traditional basis of wealth in Nicaragua, with great fortunes coming from the export of staples such as coffee, cotton, beef, and sugar. Almost all of the upper class and nearly a quarter of the middle class are substantial landowners.

A 1985 government study classified 69.4 percent of the population as poor on the basis that they were unable to satisfy one or more of their basic needs in housing, sanitary services (water, sewage, and garbage collection), education, and employment. The defining standards for this study were very low; housing was considered substandard if it was constructed of discarded materials with dirt floors or if it was occupied by more than four persons per room.

Rural workers are dependent on agricultural wage labor, especially in coffee and cotton. Only a small fraction hold permanent jobs. Most are migrants who follow crops during the harvest period and find other work during the off-season. The "lower" peasants are typically smallholders without sufficient land to sustain a family; they also join the harvest labor force. The "upper" peasants have sufficient resources to be economically independent. They produce enough surplus, beyond their personal needs, to allow them to participate in the national and world markets.

File:Rotonda Ruben dario.jpg at night]]

The urban lower class is characterized by the informal sector of the economy. The informal sector consists of small-scale enterprises that utilize traditional technologies and operate outside the legal regime of labor protections and taxation. Workers in the informal sector are self-employed, unsalaried family workers or employees of small-enterprises, and they are generally poor.

Nicaragua's informal sector workers include tinsmiths, mattress makers, seamstresses, bakers, shoemakers, and carpenters; people who take in laundry and ironing or prepare food for sale in the streets; and thousands of peddlers, owners of small businesses (often operating out of their own homes), and market stall operators. Some work alone, but others labor in the small talleres (workshops/factories) that are responsible for a large share of the country's industrial production. Because informal sector earnings are generally very low, few families can subsist on one income.{{cite web |title=Nicaragua – SOCIETY |quote=CITATION: Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. The Country Studies Series. Published 1988–1999. |url=http://www.mongabay.com/reference/country_studies/nicaragua/GEOGRAPHY.html |access-date=3 May 2014 |website=Mongabay.com |location=Menlo Park, CA, US |publisher=Mongabay |archive-date=27 April 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130427041957/http://www.mongabay.com/reference/country_studies/nicaragua/GEOGRAPHY.html |url-status=live }}
Original source: {{cite book |title=Nicaragua |series=Country Studies |first=Tim |last=Merrill |publisher=Federal Research Division, U.S. Library of Congress |access-date=3 May 2014 |url=https://archive.org/details/nicaraguacountry00merr |location=Washington, DC |date=1994 |website=lcweb2.loc.gov |isbn=978-0-8444-0831-6 |oclc=30623751 }} Like most Latin American nations Nicaragua is also characterized by a very small upper-class, roughly 2% of the population, that is very wealthy and wields the political and economic power in the country that is not in the hands of foreign corporations and private industries. These families are oligarchical in nature and have ruled Nicaragua for generations and their wealth is politically and economically horizontally and vertically integrated.

Nicaragua is currently a member of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, also known as ALBA. ALBA has proposed creating a new currency, the Sucre, for use among its members. In essence, this means that the Nicaraguan córdoba will be replaced with the Sucre. Other nations that will follow a similar pattern include: Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras, Cuba, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda.{{cite web |url=http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2009/12/13/nacionales/10246 |title=Primera prueba del sucre en enero – LA PRENSA — EL Diario de los Nicaragüenses |publisher=Laprensa.com.ni |date=16 June 2010 |access-date=26 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116202832/http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2009/12/13/nacionales/10246 |archive-date=16 January 2010 }}

Nicaragua is considering construction of a canal linking the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, which President Daniel Ortega has said will give Nicaragua its "economic independence".{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-25607757|title=Nicaragua canal construction 'will not begin until 2015'|publisher=bbc.co.uk|date=4 January 2014|access-date=4 January 2014|newspaper=BBC News|archive-date=5 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140105010930/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-25607757|url-status=live}} Scientists have raised concerns about environmental impacts, but the government has maintained that the canal will benefit the country by creating new jobs and potentially increasing its annual growth to an average of 8% per year.{{cite web|last1=Howard|first1=Brian Clark|title=Nicaraguan Canal Could Wreck Environment, Scientists Say|url=https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140220-nicaraguan-canal-environment-conservation/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302024223/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140220-nicaraguan-canal-environment-conservation/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 March 2014|website=National Geographic|publisher=National Geographic Society|access-date=26 May 2018|date=22 February 2014}} The project was scheduled to begin construction in December 2014,{{cite magazine|url=http://www.nation.com.pk/business/13-Jan-2014/nicaragua-chinese-tycoon-say-canal-work-to-start-in-2014|title=Nicaragua, Chinese tycoon say canal work to start in 2014|magazine=The Nation|date=13 January 2014|access-date=14 January 2014|archive-date=13 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140113073406/http://www.nation.com.pk/business/13-Jan-2014/nicaragua-chinese-tycoon-say-canal-work-to-start-in-2014|url-status=live}} however the Nicaragua Canal has yet to be started.{{Cite web |url=https://panampost.com/adriana-peralta/2017/05/08/four-years-later-china-backed-nicaragua-canal-struggles-to-take-off-the-ground/ |title=Four Years Later, China-Backed Nicaragua Canal Struggles to Take Off the Ground |date=8 May 2017 |website=PanAm Post |language=en-US |access-date=24 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823160624/https://panampost.com/adriana-peralta/2017/05/08/four-years-later-china-backed-nicaragua-canal-struggles-to-take-off-the-ground/ |archive-date=23 August 2017 |url-status=dead }}

{{Main|Tourism in Nicaragua}}

File:Crucero en San Juan.jpg cruise ship docked near the beach at San Juan del Sur in southern Nicaragua]]

File:HuellasdeAcahualinca.jpg, called "Huellas de Acahualinca" and preserved in volcanic mud near Lake Managua]]

File:LagunaApoyo.jpg, a nature reserve located between the departments of Masaya and Granada]]

File:Nicaraguasee03.JPG, tropical islands in Lake Nicaragua, which are home to 76 bird species and are a growing ecotourism destination]]

By 2006, tourism became the second-largest industry in Nicaragua.{{cite news|title=Travel And Tourism in Nicaragua|publisher=Euromonitor International|url=http://www.euromonitor.com/Travel_And_Tourism_in_Nicaragua|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=14 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100614011500/http://www.euromonitor.com/Travel_And_Tourism_in_Nicaragua|url-status=live}} Previously, tourism had grown about 70% nationwide during a period of 7 years, with rates of 10%–16% annually.{{cite news |first=G |last=Alemán |title=Turismo en Nicaragua: aportes y desafios parte I |url=http://www.canal2tv.com/Noticias/Marzo%202007/turismo%20con%20gran%20empuje%20en%20Nicaragua.html |work=Canal 2 |access-date=29 July 2007 |language=es |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070717184332/http://www.canal2tv.com/Noticias/Marzo%202007/turismo%20con%20gran%20empuje%20en%20Nicaragua.html |archive-date=17 July 2007 }} The increase and growth led to the income from tourism to rise more than 300% over a period of 10 years.{{cite news |title=A Dynamic Economy: Dynamic Sectors of the Economy; Tourism |url=http://www.pronicaragua.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=98 |work=ProNicaragua |access-date=1 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927210500/http://www.pronicaragua.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=98 |archive-date=27 September 2007 }} The growth in tourism has also positively affected the agricultural, commercial, and finance industries, as well as the construction industry. President Daniel Ortega has stated his intention to use tourism to combat poverty throughout the country.{{cite news|first=Rory |last=Carroll |title=Ortega banks on tourism to beat poverty |date=7 January 2007 |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1984401,00.html |work=Guardian Unlimited |access-date=12 August 2007 |location=London |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607065504/https://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0%2C%2C1984401%2C00.html |archive-date=7 June 2007 }} The results for Nicaragua's tourism-driven economy have been significant, with the nation welcoming one million tourists in a calendar year for the first time in its history in 2010.{{Cite web|url=http://www.sify.com/news/nicaragua-exceeds-one-mn-foreign-tourists-for-first-time-news-international-km4ladiidea.html|title=Nicaragua exceeds one mn foreign tourists for first time|website=Sify|language=en|access-date=18 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017082140/http://www.sify.com/news/nicaragua-exceeds-one-mn-foreign-tourists-for-first-time-news-international-km4ladiidea.html|archive-date=17 October 2018|url-status=dead}}

Every year about 60,000 U.S. citizens visit Nicaragua, primarily business people, tourists, and those visiting relatives.{{cite news|title=Background Note: Nicaragua; Economy|publisher=U.S. State Department|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1850.htm|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=21 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121153233/https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1850.htm|url-status=live}} Some 5,300 people from the U.S. reside in Nicaragua. The majority of tourists who visit Nicaragua are from the U.S., Central or South America, and Europe. According to the Ministry of Tourism of Nicaragua (INTUR),{{cite news|title=Ministry of Tourism of Nicaragua|publisher=INTUR|url=http://www.intur.gob.ni/|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070513114726/http://www.intur.gob.ni/|archive-date=13 May 2007|url-status=dead}} the colonial cities of León and Granada are the preferred spots for tourists. Also, the cities of Masaya, Rivas and the likes of San Juan del Sur, El Ostional, the Fortress of the Immaculate Conception, Ometepe Island, the Mombacho volcano, and the Corn Islands among other locations are the main tourist attractions. In addition, ecotourism, sport fishing and surfing attract many tourists to Nicaragua.

According to the TV Noticias news program, the main attractions in Nicaragua for tourists are the beaches, the scenic routes, the architecture of cities such as León and Granada, ecotourism, and agritourism particularly in northern Nicaragua. As a result of increased tourism, Nicaragua has seen its foreign direct investment increase by 79.1% from 2007 to 2009.{{cite web|author=Acan-Efe|url=http://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/home/Foreign_investment_Increases_by_791_in_Nicaragua/378984|title=Foreign investment Increases by 79.1% in Nicaragua – CentralAmericaData :: The Regional Business Portal|publisher=CentralAmericaData|date=27 March 2009|access-date=26 June 2010|archive-date=11 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511101528/http://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/home/Foreign_investment_Increases_by_791_in_Nicaragua/378984|url-status=live}}

Nicaragua is referred to as "the land of lakes and volcanoes" due to the number of lagoons and lakes, and the chain of volcanoes that runs from the north to the south along the country's Pacific side.{{cite web|last1=Parker|first1=Nick|title=Can Nicaragua deliver on huge potential?|url=http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/nicaragua-tourism/index.html|website=CNN Travel|access-date=27 October 2017|date=1 August 2012|archive-date=22 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422013811/http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/nicaragua-tourism/index.html|url-status=live}} Today, only 7 of the 50 volcanoes in Nicaragua are considered active. Many of these volcanoes offer some great possibilities for tourists with activities such as hiking, climbing, camping, and swimming in crater lakes.

The Apoyo Lagoon Natural Reserve was created by the eruption of the Apoyo Volcano about 23,000 years ago, which left a huge 7 km-wide crater that gradually filled with water. It is surrounded by the old crater wall.{{cite news | title =Volcanoes in Nicaragua: Apoyo Volcano | url =http://www.vianica.com/go/specials/9-nicaragua-volcanoes.html | work =ViaNica | access-date =12 August 2007 | archive-date =29 October 2012 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20121029112723/http://www.vianica.com/go/specials/9-nicaragua-volcanoes.html | url-status =live }} The rim of the lagoon is lined with restaurants, many of which have kayaks available. Besides exploring the forest around it, many water sports are practiced in the lagoon, most notably kayaking.{{cite news | title =Activities in and around the Apoyo Lagoon | url =http://www.vianica.com/activity/17/activities-in-and-around-the-apoyo-lagoon | work =ViaNica | access-date =12 August 2007 | archive-date =22 August 2007 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070822223958/http://www.vianica.com/activity/17/activities-in-and-around-the-apoyo-lagoon | url-status =live }}

Sand skiing has become a popular attraction at the Cerro Negro volcano in León. Both dormant and active volcanoes can be climbed. Some of the most visited volcanoes include the Masaya Volcano, Momotombo, Mombacho, Cosigüina and Ometepe's Maderas and Concepción.

Ecotourism aims to be ecologically and socially conscious; it focuses on local culture, wilderness, and adventure. Nicaragua's ecotourism is growing with every passing year.{{cite news | title =Nicaraguan Ecotourism | url =http://www.nicaragua.com/ecotourism/ | work =Nicaragua.com | access-date =12 August 2007 | archive-date =16 July 2007 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070716120324/http://www.nicaragua.com/ecotourism/ | url-status =live }} It boasts a number of ecotourist tours and perfect places for adventurers. Nicaragua has three eco-regions (the Pacific, Central, and Atlantic) which contain volcanoes, tropical rainforests, and agricultural land.{{cite news| title=Nicaragua Travel Guide – Overview| url=http://www.worldtravelguide.net/country/198/country_guide/Central-America/Nicaragua.html| work=World Travel Guide| access-date=12 August 2007| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070807210850/http://www.worldtravelguide.net/country/198/country_guide/Central-America/Nicaragua.html| archive-date=7 August 2007}} The majority of the eco-lodges and other environmentally-focused touristic destinations are found on Ometepe Island,{{Cite web|url=https://ometepeislandinfo.com/|title=Ometepe Island Information – Everything About Traveling To Ometepe Island In One Place!|website=ometepeislandinfo.com|language=en|access-date=5 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170306132130/http://ometepeislandinfo.com/|archive-date=6 March 2017|url-status=dead}} located in the middle of Lake Nicaragua just an hour's boat ride from Granada. While some are foreign-owned, others are owned by local families.

{{Main|Nicaraguans|Demographics of Nicaragua}}

File:Nicaragua boys.jpg

According to a 2014 research published in the journal Genetics and Molecular Biology, European ancestry predominates in 69% of Nicaraguans, followed by African ancestry in 20%, and lastly indigenous ancestry in 11%.{{cite journal|author1=Mauro Salzano, Francisco |author2=Sans, Mónica |title=Interethnic admixture and the evolution of Latin American populations|journal=Genetics and Molecular Biology|date=2014|volume=37|issue=1 (suppl)|pages=151–170|doi=10.1590/s1415-47572014000200003|pmid=24764751 |pmc=3983580}} A Japanese research of "Genomic Components in America's demography" demonstrated that, on average, the ancestry of Nicaraguans is 58–62% European, 28% Native American, and 14% African, with a very small Near Eastern contribution.{{Cite web|url=https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4307/35125440893_3566ed7714_o.jpg|title=Genomic Components in America's demography|access-date=8 January 2018|archive-date=7 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307232735/https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4307/35125440893_3566ed7714_o.jpg|url-status=live}} Non-genetic data from the CIA World Factbook establish that from Nicaragua's 2016 population of 5,966,798, around 69% are mestizo, 17% white, 5% Native American, and 9% black and other races. This fluctuates with changes in migration patterns. The population is 58% urban {{As of|2013|lc=y}}.{{cite web|url=http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS|title=Urban population (% of total)|publisher=World Bank|access-date=26 June 2015|archive-date=2 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302054104/http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS|url-status=live}}

The capital Managua is the biggest city, with an estimated population of 1,042,641 in 2016.{{cite report |url=http://www.inide.gob.ni/Anuarios/Anuario%20Estadistico%202015.pdf |title=Anuario Estadístico 2015 |page=52 |publisher=INIDE |date=February 2016 |access-date=1 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215012047/http://www.inide.gob.ni/Anuarios/Anuario%20Estadistico%202015.pdf |archive-date=15 December 2017 |url-status=dead }} In 2005, over 5 million people lived in the Pacific, Central and North regions, and 700,000 in the Caribbean region.{{cite news |title=VIII Censo de Poblacion y IV de Vivienda |date=October 2005 |url=http://www.inec.gob.ni/censos2005/ResumenCensal/RESUMENCENSAL.pdf |work=Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos |access-date=7 July 2007 |language=es |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824192548/http://www.inec.gob.ni/censos2005/ResumenCensal/RESUMENCENSAL.pdf |archive-date=24 August 2007 }}

There is a growing expatriate community,{{cite news|title=Expatriates of Nicaragua|url=http://www.nicaragua.com/expatriates/|work=Nicaragua.com|access-date=30 July 2007|archive-date=14 July 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714201243/http://www.nicaragua.com/expatriates/|url-status=live}} the majority of whom move for business, investment or retirement from across the world, such as from the United States, Canada, Taiwan, and European countries; the majority have settled in Managua, Granada and San Juan del Sur.

Many Nicaraguans live abroad, particularly in Costa Rica, the United States, Spain, Canada, and other Central American countries.[http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=636 Migration Information Source – El Salvador: Despite End to Civil War, Emigration Continues] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140215015815/http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=636 |date=15 February 2014 }}. Migrationinformation.org. Retrieved on 29 April 2011.{{failed verification|date=September 2023}}

Nicaragua has a population growth rate of 1.5% {{As of|2013|lc=y}}.{{Cite web|url=http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.GROW/countries/NI?display=graph|title=Population growth (annual %)|publisher=World Bank|access-date=26 June 2015|archive-date=19 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160619233907/http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.GROW/countries/NI?display=graph|url-status=live}} This is the result of one of the highest birth rates in the Western Hemisphere:{{citation needed|reason=Is this still correct as of 2017?|date=January 2019}} 17.7 per 1,000 as of 2017.{{Cite web|url=https://www.indexmundi.com/nicaragua/birth_rate.html|title=Nicaragua Birth rate - Demographics|website=www.indexmundi.com|access-date=2 December 2023|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407073226/https://www.indexmundi.com/nicaragua/birth_rate.html|url-status=live}} The death rate was 4.7 per 1,000 during the same period according to the United Nations.{{cite web|url=https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=PopDiv&f=variableID%3A65|title=Crude death rate – the United Nations|publisher=UNData|access-date=26 June 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627055521/https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=PopDiv&f=variableID%3A65|archive-date=27 June 2015}}

File:AfroNicoya.jpg man]]

The majority of the Nicaraguan population is composed of mestizos, roughly 69%, while 17% of Nicaragua's population is white,{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/nicaragua/#people-and-society |title=Nicaragua – People and Society |work=The World Factbook |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |access-date=20 August 2021 |archive-date=20 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210320071255/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/nicaragua#people-and-society |url-status=live }} with the majority of them being of Spanish descent, while others are of German, Italian, English, Danish or French ancestry.

About 9% of Nicaragua's population is black and mainly resides on the country's Caribbean (or Atlantic) coast. The black population is mostly composed of black English-speaking Creoles who are the descendants of escaped or shipwrecked slaves; many carry the name of Scottish settlers who brought slaves with them, such as Campbell, Gordon, Downs, and Hodgson. Although many Creoles supported Somoza because of his close association with the United States, they rallied to the Sandinista cause in July 1979, only to reject the revolution soon afterwards in response to a new phase of "westernization" and imposition of central rule from Managua.{{cite book|last=Baracco |first=L|year=2005|title=Nicaragua: The Imagining of a Nation. From Nineteenth-Century Liberals to Twentieth-Century Sandinistas |place=New York|publisher=Algora Publishing|chapter=From Acquiescence to Ethnic Militancy: Costeno Responses to Sandinista Anti-Imperialist Nationalism}} There is a smaller number of Garifuna, a people of mixed West African, Carib and Arawak descent. In the mid-1980s, the government divided the Zelaya Department – consisting of the eastern half of the country – into two autonomous regions and granted the black and indigenous people of this region limited self-rule within the republic.

{{Anchor|Amerindians}}

The remaining 5% of Nicaraguans are indigenous, the descendants of the country's original inhabitants. Nicaragua's pre-Columbian population consisted of many indigenous groups. In the western region, the Nahuas (Nicarao people) were present along with other groups such as the Chorotega people and the Subtiabas (also known as Maribios or Hokan Xiu). The central region and the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua were inhabited by indigenous peoples who were Macro-Chibchan language groups that had migrated to and from South America in ancient times, primarily what is now Colombia and Venezuela.{{cite web |url=https://ticotimes.net/2008/01/11/vestiges-of-ancient-indigenous-language-still-found-today-in-matagalpa-s-northern-highlands |title=Vestiges of Ancient Indigenous Language Still Found Today in Matagalpa's Northern Highlands |work=The Tico Times |last=Zúñiga |first=Alejandro |date=11 January 2008 |access-date=20 August 2021 |archive-date=22 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422031324/https://ticotimes.net/2008/01/11/vestiges-of-ancient-indigenous-language-still-found-today-in-matagalpa-s-northern-highlands |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.mundoalfal.org/CDAnaisXVII/trabalhos/R0839-1.pdf |title=¿La Costa Pacífica de América Central y América del sur Como Zona de Difusión Lexical?: Primeras Aproximaciones |last=Urban |first=Matthias |publisher=ALFAL 2014 |access-date=20 August 2021 |archive-date=30 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130215833/https://www.mundoalfal.org/CDAnaisXVII/trabalhos/R0839-1.pdf |url-status=live }} These groups include the present-day Matagalpas, Miskitos, Ramas, as well as Mayangnas and Ulwas who are also known as Sumos.{{cite web |url=https://iwgia.org/en/nicaragua/4237-iw-2021-nicaragua.html |title=Indigenous peoples in Nicaragua |publisher=IWGIA |access-date=20 August 2021 |archive-date=27 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220427101921/https://iwgia.org/en/nicaragua/4237-iw-2021-nicaragua.html |url-status=live }}{{rp|20}} In the 19th century, there was a substantial indigenous minority, but this group was largely assimilated culturally into the mestizo majority. The Garifuna are also present, mainly on the Caribbean Coast. They are a people of mixed African and Indigenous descent.{{cite web |url=https://minorityrights.org/minorities/garifuna/ |title=Garifuna |work=World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples |date=19 June 2015 |publisher=Minority Rights Group International |access-date=20 August 2021 |archive-date=28 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128032203/https://minorityrights.org/minorities/garifuna/ |url-status=live }}

{{Main|Languages of Nicaragua}}

File:BluefieldsSign.jpg (middle), and Miskito (bottom)]]

Nicaraguan Spanish has many indigenous influences and several distinguishing characteristics. For example, some Nicaraguans have a tendency to replace /s/ with /h/ when speaking. Although Spanish is spoken throughout, the country has great variety: vocabulary, accents and colloquial language can vary between towns and departments.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLCnGxUR8K4| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211028/FLCnGxUR8K4| archive-date=28 October 2021|title=Aqui Nicaragua Documentary, Program by Carlos Fernando Chamorro. Programa Inaugural de Aqui Nicaragua, Idiosincracia Nicaragüense | date=27 February 2008|language=es|publisher=YouTube|access-date=26 June 2010}}{{cbignore}}

Nicaraguan Sign Language emerged in the 1970s and 1980s among deaf children as the first special education schools brought them together, and its emergence became of particular interest to linguists as an opportunity to directly observe the creation of a language.{{cite web|access-date=24 April 2022|title=LADR About NSL|url=http://www.columbia.edu/~as1038/about-nsl.html|website=www.columbia.edu|archive-date=24 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024122152/http://www.columbia.edu/~as1038/about-nsl.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|access-date=24 April 2022|title=Evolution: Library: Birth of a Language|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/07/2/l_072_04.html|website=www.pbs.org|archive-date=7 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407221031/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/07/2/l_072_04.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite journal |last1=Kocab |first1=Annemarie |last2=Senghas |first2=Ann |last3=Snedeker |first3=Jesse |date=November 2016 |title=The emergence of temporal language in Nicaraguan Sign Language |journal=Cognition |language=en |volume=156 |pages=147–163 |doi=10.1016/j.cognition.2016.08.005 |pmc=5027136 |pmid=27591549}}

On the Caribbean coast, indigenous languages, English-based creoles, and Spanish are spoken. The Miskito language, spoken by the Miskito people as a first language and some other indigenous and Afro-descendants people as a second, third, or fourth language, is the most commonly spoken indigenous language. The indigenous Misumalpan languages of Mayangna and Ulwa are spoken by the respective peoples of the same names. Many Miskito, Mayangna, and Sumo people also speak Miskito Coast Creole, and a large majority also speak Spanish. Fewer than three dozen of nearly 2,000 Rama people speak their Chibchan language fluently, with nearly all Ramas speaking Rama Cay Creole and the vast majority speaking Spanish. Linguists have attempted to document and revitalize the language over the past three decades.{{cite web |url=http://www.turkulka.net/ |title=Turkulka |access-date=23 April 2015 |archive-date=27 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427220123/http://www.turkulka.net/ |url-status=live }}

The Garifuna people, descendants of indigenous and Afro-descendant people who came to Nicaragua from Honduras in the early twentieth century, have recently attempted to revitalize their Arawakan language. The majority speak Miskito Coast Creole as their first language and Spanish as their second. The Creole or Kriol people, descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the Mosquito Coast during the British colonial period and European, Chinese, Arab, and British West Indian immigrants, also speak Miskito Coast Creole as their first language and Spanish as their second.{{cite news|title=Languages of Nicaragua|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=NI|work=Ethnologue|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=15 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115100732/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=NI|url-status=live}}

{{Largest cities

| country = Nicaragua

| kind = municipalities

| stat_ref = [http://www.inide.gob.ni/Anuarios/Anuario%20Estadistico%202015.pdf Anuario Estadístico 2015, pp. 50–53] (2016 projections)

| list_by_pop =

| div_name = Department

| div_link =

|city_1 = Managua

|div_1 = Managua Department{{!}}Managua

|pop_1 = 1,042,641

|img_1 =

|city_2 = León, Nicaragua{{!}}León

|div_2 = León Department{{!}}León

|pop_2 = 206,264

|img_2 = Catedral de León Nicaragua2.JPG

|city_3 = Masaya

|div_3 = Masaya Department{{!}}Masaya

|pop_3 = 176,344

|img_3 = Masaya_Market,_Nicaragua.jpg

|city_4 = Matagalpa

|div_4 = Matagalpa Department{{!}}Matagalpa

|pop_4 = 158,095

|img_4 = Matagalpa080408c.jpg

|city_5 = Tipitapa

|div_5 = Managua Department{{!}}Managua

|pop_5 = 140,569

|city_6 = Chinandega

|div_6 = Chinandega Department{{!}}Chinandega

|pop_6 = 135,154

|city_7 = Jinotega

|div_7 = Jinotega Department{{!}}Jinotega

|pop_7 = 133,705

|city_8 = Granada, Nicaragua{{!}}Granada

|div_8 = Granada Department{{!}}Granada

|pop_8 = 127,892

|city_9 = Estelí

|div_9 = Estelí Department{{!}}Estelí

|pop_9 = 126,290

|city_10 = Puerto Cabezas

|div_10 = North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region{{!}}RACCN

|pop_10 = 113,534

}}

{{Main|Religion in Nicaragua}}

File:Nicaragua 2017-03-13 (33663091692).jpg, one of Nicaragua's World Heritage Sites]]

Religion plays a significant role in Nicaraguan culture and is afforded special protections in its constitution. Religious freedom (which has been guaranteed since 1939) and religious tolerance are officially promoted by the government, but, in recent years, the Catholic Church and the regime led by Daniel Ortega have been in open conflict. The latter has been accused of using the police to harass clergy (including bishops),{{Cite web |last=ACN |date=24 May 2022 |title=Nicaragua bishop on hunger strike to protest police harassment |url=https://acninternational.org/police-harassment-nicaraguan-bishop/ |access-date=21 November 2022 |website=ACN International |language=en-US |archive-date=21 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221121112532/https://acninternational.org/police-harassment-nicaraguan-bishop/ |url-status=live }} closing down Catholic media outlets, and arresting members of the clergy (including Bishop Rolando Alvarez of the Diocese of Matagalpa).

Nicaragua has no official state religion. Catholic bishops are expected to lend their authority to important state occasions, and their pronouncements on national issues are closely followed. They can be called upon to mediate between contending parties at moments of political crisis.{{cite news|first=G|last=Dennis|title=Nicaragua: Religion|publisher=Library of Congress|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0040)|work=Country Studies|access-date=30 October 2007|archive-date=2 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102130553/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0040)|url-status=live}} In 1979, Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, a priest who had embraced Liberation Theology, served in the government as foreign minister when the Sandinistas came to power. The largest denomination, and traditionally the religion of the majority, is the Roman Catholic Church. It came to Nicaragua in the 16th century with the Spanish conquest and remained, until 1939, the established faith.

The number of practicing Roman Catholics has been declining, while membership of evangelical Protestant groups and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has been growing rapidly since the 1990s. There is a significant LDS missionary effort in Nicaragua. There are two missions and 95,768 members of the LDS Church (1.54% of the population).{{cite web|title=Nicaragua – Facts and Statistics|url=https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics/country/nicaragua|website=Mormon Newsroom|access-date=26 May 2017|archive-date=28 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190628004621/https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics/country/nicaragua|url-status=live}} There are also strong Anglican and Moravian communities on the Caribbean coast in what once constituted the sparsely populated Mosquito Coast colony. It was under British influence for nearly three centuries. Protestantism was brought to the Mosquito Coast mainly by British and German colonists in forms of Anglicanism and the Moravian Church. Other kinds of Protestant and other Christian denominations were introduced to the rest of Nicaragua during the 19th century.

Popular religion revolves around the saints, who are perceived as intercessors between human beings and God. Most localities, from the capital of Managua to small rural communities, honor patron saints, selected from the Roman Catholic calendar, with annual fiestas. In many communities, a rich lore has grown up around the celebrations of patron saints, such as Managua's Saint Dominic (Santo Domingo), honored in August with two colorful, often riotous, day-long processions through the city. The high point of Nicaragua's religious calendar for the masses is neither Christmas nor Easter, but La Purísima, a week of festivities in early December dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, during which elaborate altars to the Virgin Mary are constructed in homes and workplaces.

Buddhism has increased with a steady influx of immigration.[http://archivo.elnuevodiario.com.ni/2004/octubre/24-octubre-2004/mundo_oculto/mundo_oculto-20041020-01.html Con Todo el Poder de la Informmación – El Nuevo Diario – Managua, Nicaragua] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513110733/http://archivo.elnuevodiario.com.ni/2004/octubre/24-octubre-2004/mundo_oculto/mundo_oculto-20041020-01.html |date=13 May 2011 }}. Archivo.elnuevodiario.com.ni. Retrieved on 29 April 2011.

Although Jews have been living in Nicaragua since the 18th century, the Jewish population is small, numbering less than 200 people in 2017. Of these, 112 were recent converts who claimed Sephardic Jewish ancestry.{{cite news |last1=Dolsten |first1=Josefin |title=Tiny Nicaraguan Community Doubles in Size as 112 Convert |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/tiny-nicaragua-jewish-community-doubles-in-size-as-114-convert/ |access-date=30 December 2021 |publisher=Times of Israel |date=2 August 2017 |archive-date=30 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230134726/https://www.timesofisrael.com/tiny-nicaragua-jewish-community-doubles-in-size-as-114-convert/ |url-status=live }}

As of 2007, approximately 1,200 to 1,500 Nicaraguan residents practiced Islam, most of them Sunnis who are resident aliens or naturalized citizens from Palestine, Libya, and Iran or natural-born Nicaraguan descendants of the two groups.[http://nicaragua.usembassy.gov/religious_2007.html International Religious Freedom 2007] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724182039/http://nicaragua.usembassy.gov/religious_2007.html |date=24 July 2008 }} (Released October 2007, covers period of June 2006 to May 2007)

{{main|Immigration to Nicaragua}}

Relative to its population, Nicaragua has not experienced large waves of immigration. The number of immigrants in Nicaragua, from other Latin American countries or other countries, never surpassed 1% of its total population before 1995. The 2005 census showed the foreign-born population at 1.2%, having risen a mere 0.06% in 10 years.

In the 19th century, Nicaragua experienced modest waves of immigration from Europe. In particular, families from Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Belgium immigrated to Nicaragua, particularly the departments in the Central and Pacific region.

Also present is a small Middle Eastern-Nicaraguan community of Syrians, Armenians, Jewish Nicaraguans, and Lebanese people in Nicaragua. This community numbers about 30,000. There is an East Asian community mostly consisting of Chinese. The Chinese Nicaraguan population is estimated at 12,000.{{cite news|title=Nicaragua: People groups|url=http://www.joshuaproject.net/countries.php?rog3=NU|work=Joshua Project|access-date=26 March 2007|archive-date=13 February 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070213010531/http://www.joshuaproject.net/countries.php?rog3=NU|url-status=live}} The Chinese arrived in the late 19th century but were unsubstantiated until the 1920s.

{{Main|Nicaraguan diaspora}}

The Civil War forced many Nicaraguans to start lives outside of their country. Many people emigrated during the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century due to the lack of employment opportunities and poverty. The majority of the Nicaraguan Diaspora migrated to the United States and Costa Rica. Today one in six Nicaraguans live in these two countries.{{cite web |url=http://www.thedialogue.org/PublicationFiles/The%20Nicaragua%20case_M%20Orozco2%20REV.pdf |title=The Nicaragua case_M Orozco2 REV.doc |access-date=26 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511104117/http://www.thedialogue.org/PublicationFiles/The%20Nicaragua%20case_M%20Orozco2%20REV.pdf |archive-date=11 May 2011 }}

The diaspora has seen Nicaraguans settling around in smaller communities in other parts of the world, particularly Western Europe. Small communities of Nicaraguans are found in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Communities also exist in Australia and New Zealand. Canada, Brazil and Argentina host small groups of these communities. In Asia, Japan hosts a small Nicaraguan community.

Due to extreme poverty at home, many Nicaraguans are now living and working in neighboring El Salvador, a country that has the US dollar as its currency.{{cite news|url=http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/internacionales/102550|title=El Salvador inicia plan para regularizar a nicaragüenses residentes|newspaper=El Nuevo Diario|date=18 May 2011|access-date=19 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120706204153/http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/internacionales/102550|archive-date=6 July 2012|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|url=http://www.laprensagrafica.com/el-salvador/departamentos/214132-nicaragueenses-se-acogen-a-programa.html|title=Nicaragüenses se acogen a programa|author=Lazo, Flor|work=La Prensa Gráfica|date=28 August 2011|access-date=19 February 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427034529/http://www.laprensagrafica.com/el-salvador/departamentos/214132-nicaragueenses-se-acogen-a-programa.html|archive-date=27 April 2014}}

{{Main|Healthcare in Nicaragua}}Although Nicaragua's health outcomes have improved over the past few decades with the efficient utilization of resources relative to other Central American nations, healthcare in Nicaragua still confronts challenges responding to its populations' diverse healthcare needs.Angel-Urdinola D, Cortez R, Tanabe K. (2008). Equity, Access to Health Care Services and Expenditures on Health in Nicaragua. Health, Nutrition and Population of the World Bank.

The Nicaraguan government guarantees universal free health care for its citizens.Sequeira M, Espinoza H, Amador JJ, Domingo G, Quintanilla M, and de los Santos T. (2011). The Nicaraguan Health System. PATH. However, limitations of current delivery models and unequal distribution of resources and medical personnel contribute to the persistent lack of quality care in more remote areas of Nicaragua, especially among rural communities in the Central and Atlantic region. To respond to the dynamic needs of localities, the government has adopted a decentralized model that emphasizes community-based preventive and primary medical care.Birn AE, Zimmerman S, Garfield R. (2000). To decentralize or not to decentralize, is that the question? Nicaraguan health policy under structural adjustment in the 1990s. International Journal of Health Services, 30, 111–28.

{{Main|Education in Nicaragua}}

The adult literacy rate in 2005 was 78.0%, the lowest literacy rate in Central America.{{cite web|title=National adult literacy rates (15+), youth literacy rates (15–24) and elderly literacy rates (65+)|url=http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=210|publisher=UNESCO Institute for Statistics|access-date=22 July 2013|archive-date=29 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029183908/http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=210|url-status=dead}}

Primary education is free in Nicaragua. A system of private schools exists, many of which are religiously affiliated and often have more robust English programs.{{cite news|last=Liu|first=D|title=Nicaragua's new gov't to enforce free education|date=6 December 2006|url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-12/06/content_5442752.htm|work=CHINA VIEW|access-date=9 May 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061228223949/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-12/06/content_5442752.htm|archive-date=28 December 2006}} As of 1979, the educational system was one of the poorest in Latin America.{{cite news|first=D|last=Gilbert|title=Nicaragua: Education|publisher=Library of Congress|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0036)|work=Country Studies|access-date=2 July 2007|archive-date=2 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102104512/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0036)|url-status=live}} One of the first acts of the newly elected Sandinista government in 1980 was an extensive and successful literacy campaign, using secondary school students, university students and teachers as volunteer teachers: it reduced the overall illiteracy rate from 50.3% to 12.9% within only five months.{{cite news|first=U|last=Hanemann|title=Nicaragua's Literacy Campaign|url=http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/file_download.php/67b39f3aaf8f20da06be3c6a4e4c6dfeHanemann_U.doc|work=UNESCO|access-date=2 July 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703020810/http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/file_download.php/67b39f3aaf8f20da06be3c6a4e4c6dfeHanemann_U.doc|archive-date=3 July 2007}} This was one of a number of large-scale programs which received international recognition for their gains in literacy, health care, education, childcare, unions, and land reform.{{cite news|title=Historical Background of Nicaragua|publisher=Stanford University|url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/arts/nicaragua/discovery_eng/history/background.html|access-date=9 May 2007|archive-date=22 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422185323/http://stanford.edu/group/arts/nicaragua/discovery_eng/history//background.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite news |title=Nicaragua Pre-election Delegation Report |publisher=Global Exchange |url=http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/NicaraguaReportOct2001.html |access-date=9 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060930032055/http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/NicaraguaReportOct2001.html |archive-date=30 September 2006 }} The Sandinistas also added a leftist ideological content to the curriculum, which was removed after 1990. In September 1980, UNESCO awarded Nicaragua the Soviet Union sponsored Nadezhda Krupskaya award for the literacy campaign.{{cite news|last=Arrien|first=JB|title=Literacy in Nicaragua|publisher=UNESCO|url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001459/145937e.pdf|access-date=1 August 2007|archive-date=19 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019150639/http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001459/145937e.pdf|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Gender equality in Nicaragua}}

Nicaragua's gender equality ranks high among countries in Latin America.{{Cite journal|last=Piper|first=Alan T.|date=May 2018|title=An investigation into the reported closing of the Nicaraguan gender gap|journal=Mpra Paper|url=https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/86769.html|language=en|access-date=31 October 2018|archive-date=1 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101095420/https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/86769.html|url-status=live}} When it came to global rankings regarding gender equality, the World Economic Forum ranked Nicaragua at number twelve in 2015, and in its 2020 report Nicaragua ranked number five, behind only northern European countries.{{cite web |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=2020 |title=Global Gender Gap Report |page=9 |location=Geneva |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2020.pdf |access-date=20 August 2021 |archive-date=17 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191217140602/http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2020.pdf |url-status=live }}

Nicaragua was among the many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which aimed to promote women's rights.{{Cite news|url=http://www.unwomen.org/en/where-we-are/americas-and-the-caribbean|title=Americas and the Caribbean|work=UN Women|access-date=27 November 2018|language=en|archive-date=29 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129100444/http://www.unwomen.org/en/where-we-are/americas-and-the-caribbean|url-status=live}}

In 2009, a Special Ombudsman for Sexual Diversity position was created within its Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman. And, in 2014, the Health Ministry banned discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.{{Cite web|date=18 December 2018|title=Nicaragua's rainbow revolutionaries|url=https://www.washingtonblade.com/2018/12/18/nicaraguas-rainbow-revolutionaries/|access-date=22 June 2020|website=Washington Blade: Gay News, Politics, LGBT Rights|language=en-US|archive-date=26 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626015421/https://www.washingtonblade.com/2018/12/18/nicaraguas-rainbow-revolutionaries/|url-status=dead}} Nevertheless, discrimination against LGBTQ individuals is common, particularly in housing, education, and the workplace.

The Human Development Report ranked Nicaragua 106 out of 160 countries in the Gender Inequality Index (GII) in 2017. It reflects gender-based inequalities in three dimensions - reproductive health, empowerment, and economic activity.{{Cite journal|title=Human development indices and indicators: 2018 statistical update|date=19 September 2018|doi=10.18356/9a42b856-en|s2cid=240203402|url=http://www.gbv.de/dms/zbw/1041186428.pdf|access-date=14 November 2022|archive-date=21 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221121042557/https://www.gbv.de/dms/zbw/1041186428.pdf|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Culture of Nicaragua}}

File:El Güegüense.jpg, a drama, was the first literary work of post-Columbian Nicaragua and is regarded as one of Latin America's most distinctive colonial-era expressions and as Nicaragua's signature folkloric masterpiece combining music, dance, and theatre.]]

Nicaraguan culture has strong folklore, music and religious traditions, deeply influenced by European culture but also including Native American sounds and flavors. Nicaraguan culture can further be defined in several distinct strands. The Pacific coast has strong folklore, music and religious traditions, deeply influenced by Iberian Peninsula Europeans. It was colonized by Spain and has a similar culture to other Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. The indigenous groups that historically inhabited the Pacific coast have largely been assimilated into the mestizo culture.

The Caribbean coast of Nicaragua was once a British protectorate. English is still predominant in this region and spoken domestically along with Spanish and indigenous languages. Its culture is similar to that of Caribbean nations that were or are British possessions, such as Jamaica, Belize, the Cayman Islands, etc. Unlike on the west coast, the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean coast have maintained distinct identities, and some still speak their native languages as first languages.

{{Main|Music of Nicaragua}}

File:Nicaragua Mestizaje.jpg costume, which is a traditional costume worn to dance the Mestizaje dance. The costume demonstrates the indigenous influence upon Nicaraguan clothing.{{cite news|title=Traditional Nicaraguan Costumes: Mestizaje Costume|url=http://www.vianica.com/go/specials/19-traditional-nicaraguan-costumes.html|work=ViaNica.com|access-date=21 November 2007|archive-date=24 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024123152/https://www.vianica.com/go/specials/19-traditional-nicaraguan-costumes.html|url-status=live}}]]

Nicaraguan music is a mixture of indigenous and Spanish influences. Musical instruments include the marimba and others common across Central America. The marimba of Nicaragua is played by a sitting performer holding the instrument on his knees. He is usually accompanied by a bass fiddle, guitar and guitarrilla (a small guitar like a mandolin). This music is played at social functions as a sort of background music.

The marimba is made with hardwood plates placed over bamboo or metal tubes of varying lengths. It is played with two or four hammers. The Caribbean coast of Nicaragua is known for a lively, sensual form of dance music called Palo de Mayo which is popular throughout the country. It is especially loud and celebrated during the Palo de Mayo festival in May. The Garifuna community (Afro-Native American) is known for its popular music called Punta.

Nicaragua has international influence in music. Bachata, Merengue, Salsa and Cumbia have gained prominence in cultural centres such as Managua, León and Granada. Cumbia dancing has grown popular with the introduction of Nicaraguan artists, including Gustavo Leyton, on Ometepe Island and in Managua. Salsa dancing has become extremely popular in Managua's nightclubs. With various influences, the form of salsa dancing varies in Nicaragua. New York style and Cuban Salsa (Salsa Casino) elements have gained popularity across the country.

{{Further|Dance in Nicaragua}}

Dance in Nicaragua varies depending upon the region. Rural areas tend to have a stronger focus on movement of the hips and turns. The dance style in cities focuses primarily on more sophisticated footwork in addition to movement and turns. Combinations of styles from the Dominican Republic and the United States can be found throughout Nicaragua. Bachata dancing is popular in Nicaragua. A considerable amount of Bachata dancing influence comes from Nicaraguans living abroad, in cities that include Miami, Los Angeles and, to a much lesser extent, New York City. Tango has also surfaced recently in cultural cities and ballroom dance occasions.

{{Main|Literature of Nicaragua}}

File:Rubén Darío.jpg, founder of Latin America's modernismo literary movement]]

The origin of Nicaraguan literature can arguably be traced to pre-Columbian times. The myths and oral literature formed the cosmogenic view of the world of the indigenous people. Some of these stories are still known in Nicaragua. Like many Latin American countries, the Spanish conquerors have had the most effect on both the culture and the literature. Nicaraguan literature has historically been an important source of poetry in the Spanish-speaking world, with internationally renowned contributors such as Rubén Darío who is regarded as the most important literary figure in Nicaragua. He is called the "Father of Modernism" for leading the modernismo literary movement at the end of the 19th century. Other literary figures include Carlos Martinez Rivas, Pablo Antonio Cuadra, Alberto Cuadra Mejia, Manolo Cuadra, Pablo Alberto Cuadra Arguello, Orlando Cuadra Downing, Alfredo Alegría Rosales, Sergio Ramirez Mercado, Ernesto Cardenal, Gioconda Belli, Claribel Alegría and José Coronel Urtecho, among others.{{cite web|url=https://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=es&tl=en&u=http://elcomercio.pe/edicionimpresa/Html/2008-01-20/nicaragua-eterna-tierra-poetas.html&act=url|title=Nicaragua, Eternal Land of Poets|publisher=Elcomercio.pe|access-date=26 June 2010|archive-date=25 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160225083118/http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=es&tl=en&u=http://elcomercio.pe/edicionimpresa/Html/2008-01-20/nicaragua-eterna-tierra-poetas.html&act=url|url-status=live}}

The satirical drama El Güegüense was the first literary work of post-Columbian Nicaragua. It was written in both Nicarao and Spanish.{{rp|21}} It's regarded as one of Latin America's most distinctive colonial-era expressions and as Nicaragua's signature folkloric masterpiece. El Güegüense is a work of resistance to Spanish colonialism that combined music, dance and theatre.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Showcasing Nicaragua's Folkloric Masterpiece – El Gueguense – and Other Performing and Visual Arts |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-150984344.html |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=3 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071216041440/http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-150984344.html |archive-date=16 December 2007 }} The theatrical play was written by an anonymous author in the 16th century, making it one of the oldest indigenous theatrical/dance works of the Western Hemisphere. In 2005 it was recognized by UNESCO as "a patrimony of humanity".{{cite news|title=Native Theatre: El Gueguense|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|url=http://www.nmai.si.edu/calendar/index.asp?month=10&year=2006&day=22|access-date=3 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071206171831/http://www.nmai.si.edu/calendar/index.asp?month=10&year=2006&day=22|archive-date=6 December 2007}} After centuries of popular performance, the play was first published in a book in 1942.{{cite news|title=El Güegüense o Macho Ratón|url=http://www.vianica.com/go/specials/21-el-gueguense-macho-raton.html|work=ViaNica|access-date=3 August 2007|archive-date=21 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221194255/https://vianica.com/go/specials/21-el-gueguense-macho-raton.html|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Nicaraguan cuisine}}

File:VIGORON.JPG, a Nicaraguan dish served with boiled yuca and chicharrones (fried pork with skin) and topped with a cabbage salad]]

File:Costa Rican Gallo Pinto.jpg, a traditional Nicaraguan dish made with rice and beans]]

Nicaraguan cuisine is a mixture of Spanish food and dishes of a pre-Columbian origin.{{cite web|title=Try the culinary delights of Nicaragua cuisine|publisher=Nicaragua.com|url=http://www.nicaragua.com/cuisine/|access-date=8 May 2006|archive-date=16 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016015343/http://www.nicaragua.com/cuisine/|url-status=live}} Traditional cuisine changes from the Pacific to the Caribbean coast. The Pacific coast's main staple revolves around local fruits and corn, the Caribbean coast cuisine makes use of seafood and the coconut.

As in many other Latin American countries, maize is a staple food and is used in many of the widely consumed dishes, such as the nacatamal, güirila, and indio viejo. Maize is also an ingredient for drinks such as pinolillo and chicha as well as sweets and desserts. In addition to corn, rice and beans are eaten very often.

Gallo pinto, Nicaragua's national dish, is made with white rice and small red beans that are cooked individually and then fried together. The dish has several variations including the addition of coconut milk or grated coconut on the Caribbean coast. Most Nicaraguans begin their day with gallo pinto. Gallo pinto is most usually served with carne asada, a salad, fried cheese, plantains or maduros.

Many of Nicaragua's dishes include indigenous fruits and vegetables such as jocote, mango, papaya, tamarindo, pipian, banana, avocado, yuca, and herbs such as cilantro, oregano and achiote.

Traditional street food snacks found in Nicaragua include "quesillo", a thick tortilla with soft cheese and cream, "tajadas" (deep-fried plantain chips), "maduros" (a sautéed ripe plantain), and "fresco" (fresh juices such as hibiscus and tamarind commonly served in a plastic bag with a straw).{{cite web|last1=Gleeson|first1=Bridget|title=How to eat like a Nicaraguan|url=https://www.lonelyplanet.com/nicaragua/travel-tips-and-articles/how-to-eat-like-a-nicaraguan/40625c8c-8a11-5710-a052-1479d276db80|website=Lonely Planet|access-date=27 May 2018|language=en|date=15 April 2016|archive-date=29 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529204450/https://www.lonelyplanet.com/nicaragua/travel-tips-and-articles/how-to-eat-like-a-nicaraguan/40625c8c-8a11-5710-a052-1479d276db80|url-status=live}}

Nicaraguans have been known to eat guinea pigs,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gpEjzy6njwwC&q=nicaragua+guinea+pig|title=Nicaragua|last=Gritzner|first=Charles F.|date=2010|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=9781604136197|language=en|access-date=27 October 2020|archive-date=5 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205140326/https://books.google.com/books?id=gpEjzy6njwwC&q=nicaragua+guinea+pig#v=snippet&q=nicaragua%20guinea%20pig&f=false|url-status=live}} known as cuy. Tapirs, iguanas, turtle eggs, armadillos and boas are also sometimes eaten, but because of extinction threats to these wild creatures, there are efforts to curb this custom.

{{Main|Media of Nicaragua}}

For most Nicaraguans radio and TV are the main sources of news. There are more than 100 radio stations and several TV networks. Cable TV is available in most urban areas.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1225218.stm#leaders|work=BBC News|title=Country profile: Nicaragua|date=2 September 2009|access-date=20 May 2010|archive-date=3 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100603034458/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1225218.stm#leaders|url-status=live}}

The Nicaraguan print media are varied and partisan, representing pro and anti-government positions. Publications include La Prensa, El Nuevo Diario, Confidencial, Hoy, and Mercurio. Online news publications include Confidencial and The Nicaragua Dispatch.

File:National baseball stadium Managua.jpg, Nicaragua's main outdoor stadium]]

Baseball is the most popular sport in Nicaragua. Although some professional Nicaraguan baseball teams have recently folded, the country still enjoys a strong tradition of American-style baseball.

Baseball was introduced to Nicaragua during the 19th century. In the Caribbean coast, locals from Bluefields were taught how to play baseball in 1888 by Albert Addlesberg, a retailer from the United States.{{cite news |first=B |last=Villa |title=LA HISTORIA DEL BÉISBOL EN LATINOAMERICA: Nicaragua |url=http://latinobaseball.com/cwb-history.php |work=Latino Baseball |access-date=29 July 2007 |language=es |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070702032726/http://www.latinobaseball.com/cwb-history.php |archive-date=2 July 2007 }} Baseball did not catch on in the Pacific coast until 1891 when a group of mostly college students from the United States formed "La Sociedad de Recreo" (Society of Recreation) where they played various sports, baseball being the most popular.

Nicaragua has had its share of MLB players, including shortstop Everth Cabrera, pitcher Vicente Padilla, and pitcher Jonathan Loáisiga, but the most notable is Dennis Martínez, who was the first baseball player from Nicaragua to play in Major League Baseball.{{cite news|last=Washburn |first=G |title='El Presidente' happy in new job |url=http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050220&content_id=946722&vkey=news_bal&fext=.jsp&c_id=bal |work=Major League Baseball |access-date=21 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012205044/http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050220&content_id=946722&vkey=news_bal&fext=.jsp&c_id=bal |archive-date=12 October 2007 }} He became the first Latin-born pitcher to throw a perfect game, and the 13th in the major league history, when he played with the Montreal Expos against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in 1991.{{cite news|title=Baseball's Perfect Games: Dennis Martinez, Montreal Expos|. Also, Everth Cabrera who MLB debut was in 2009 season with San Diego Padres |publisher=The BASEBALL Page.com |url=http://www.thebaseballpage.com/stats/lists_feats/perfect_games.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20061113020621/http://www.thebaseballpage.com/stats/lists_feats/perfect_games.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 November 2006 |access-date=21 August 2007 }}

Boxing is the second most popular sport in Nicaragua.{{cite news|title=Salon de la Fama: Deportes en Nicaragua|url=http://www.manfut.org/museos/deportes1.html|access-date=30 July 2007|language=es|archive-date=26 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926234154/http://www.manfut.org/museos/deportes1.html|url-status=live}} The country has had world champions such as Alexis Argüello and Ricardo Mayorga as well as Román González. Recently, football has gained popularity. The Dennis Martínez National Stadium has served as a venue for both baseball and football. The first ever national football-only stadium in Managua, the Nicaragua National Football Stadium, was completed in 2011.{{cite news|title=Building for tomorrow in Belize and Nicaragua|publisher=FIFA|url=https://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/president/news/newsid=1418832/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110624001931/http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/president/news/newsid=1418832/index.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 June 2011|access-date=4 January 2014}}

Nicaragua's national basketball team had some recent success as it won the silver medal at the 2017 Central American Games.[https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1058880/panama-win-mens-basketball-gold-at-central-american-games-in-managua Panama win men's basketball gold at Central American Games in Managua] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220321133108/https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1058880/panama-win-mens-basketball-gold-at-central-american-games-in-managua |date=21 March 2022 }} Michael Pavitt (insidethegames.biz), 7 December 2017. Accessed 14 August 2020. They will be taking part in the FIBA AmeriCup for the first time when Nicaragua hosts in 2025.

Nicaragua featured national teams in beach volleyball that competed at the 2018–2020 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Continental Cup in both the women's and the men's sections.{{cite news |title=Continental Cup Finals start in Africa |url=https://www.fivb.com/en/about/news/continental-cup-finals-start-in-africa?id=94414 |accessdate=7 August 2021 |work=FIVB |date=22 June 2021 |archive-date=7 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210807141038/https://www.fivb.com/en/about/news/continental-cup-finals-start-in-africa?id=94414 |url-status=live }}

{{portal|Nicaragua|Latin America}}

• Nicaraguan nationality law
• Bibliography of Nicaragua
• Index of Nicaragua-related articles
• Outline of Nicaragua

{{Notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{StateDept}}

{{sister project links|voy=Nicaragua}}

• {{Wikiatlas|Nicaragua}}
• [https://www.asamblea.gob.ni/ National Assembly of Nicaragua]

• [http://www.visitanicaragua.com/ Visit Nicaragua] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928160120/http://www.visitanicaragua.com/ |date=28 September 2007 }}
• The State of the World's Midwifery – [http://www.unfpa.org/sowmy/resources/docs/country_info/profile/en_Nicaragua_SoWMy_Profile.pdf Nicaragua Country Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512152957/http://www.unfpa.org/sowmy/resources/docs/country_info/profile/en_Nicaragua_SoWMy_Profile.pdf |date=12 May 2013 }}

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