September-October 1957

Before the Flood, Nicaragua's population was concentrated in the lowlands of the country's western coast, between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean. When the Flood subsumed these lowlands, the population was forced one of two directions--either to the west to the capital of Managua, which now lies under the thumb of an American-backed dictator, or to the east, into the smaller communities in the foothills of the Isabella and Amerrisque, and Chantalena mountains. It was the latter area where the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional and their Centroamerican backers first asserted their authority. Here, ousting the remnants of the Colombian military occupation was a rather straightforward affair.

Where things became more complicated was the vast jungles and mountains of eastern Nicaragua. Much like had occurred in Honduras to the north during the collapse of the dictatorship there, the rough terrain here made projecting power into the Nicaraguan hinterlands difficult. The collapse of the central Colombian command did not mean that the Colombian military disappeared overnight, only that there was no larger organizing principle behind them. Consequently, many of the old Colombian units took to the countryside, becoming either bandits that preyed on the free peoples of Nicaragua, or scattered cells hoping to reunite with each other and reestablish their military fiefdom. In the eyes of the Nicaraguan and Centroamerican people, these groups were more or less identical.

As occurred in Honduras, so too must occur in Nicaragua. The bandits must be rooted out. FSLN and their allies in the Centroamerican Armed Forces will take to the mountains and see it done.

MAP