The Nicaraguan Revolution at the End of the Cold War: Esquipulas, Elections, and Europe

On 7 August 1987, in Guatemala City, the presidents of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras signed a historic peace treaty, known as the Esquipulas II Peace Accords. The Central American presidents agreed on an ambitious document that included promises to implement amnesty decrees, the organization of free elections, and processes of national reconciliation and democratization. For the Nicaraguan revolutionaries of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), the Accords offered a unique opportunity to end the Contra War and fix the country’s spiraling economy, both of which dramatically undermined the social basis of the revolution. Yet, the Sandinistas’ willingness to adapt and give in to the demands of their critics was not enough to safeguard the revolution. On 25 February 1990, Nicaraguans voted the FSLN out of power, thereby ending the country’s decade-long revolutionary experiment.

Drawing on oral histories and archival records in Nicaragua, Cuba, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States, this paper analyzes how the end of the Cold War impacted the trajectory of the Nicaraguan Revolution. Zooming in on the Sandinistas’ outreach to Western Europe, it shows how the decline of superpower tensions limited the revolutionaries’ space for maneuver in the international arena. As a consequence, the Sandinistas were pushed towards further concessions regarding elections, press freedom, and negotiations with the Contras. But, to the FSLN’s surprise and frustration, these concessions had little impact on Western Europe’s treatment of the revolutionaries. Indeed, because Western European countries were no longer preoccupied with preventing Nicaragua’s alignment to the Soviet bloc, they simply withheld further economic aid until the elections of February 1990. Ultimately, then, the paper reveals the trials and tribulations of a small revolutionary state in Central America as the new post-Cold War order started to take shape.