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Travel to Nicaragua — Unbiased reviews and
great deals from TripAdvisorNicaragua
| Republic of Nicaragua National
name: República de Nicaragua President: Daniel Ortega (2007)
Current government officials
Land area: 46,430 sq mi (120,254 sq km);
total area: 49,998 sq mi (129,494 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 5,780,586 (growth
rate: 1.8%); birth rate: 23.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 26.2/1000;
life expectancy: 71.2; density per sq km: 48
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Managua, 1,390,500 (metro. area), 1,146,000
(city proper) Monetary unit: Gold
cordoba
Languages:
Spanish 98% (official); English and indigenous
languages on Atlantic coast (1995)
Ethnicity/race:
mestizo 69%, white 17%, black 9%, Amerindian
5%
Religions:
Roman Catholic 73%, Evangelical 15%, Moravian
2%, none 9% (1995)
National Holiday:
Independence Day, September 15 Literacy rate: 68% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$15.84 billion; per capita $2,600. Real growth rate: 3.8%.
Inflation: 11.1%. Unemployment: 3.6% plus
underemployment of 46.5% (2007 est.). Arable land: 15%.
Agriculture: coffee, bananas, sugarcane, cotton, rice, corn,
tobacco, sesame, soya, beans; beef, veal, pork, poultry, dairy
products; shrimp, lobsters. Labor force: 2.262 million;
agriculture 29%, industry 19%, services 52% (2006 est.).
Industries: food processing, chemicals, machinery and metal
products, textiles, clothing, petroleum refining and distribution,
beverages, footwear, wood. Natural resources: gold, silver,
copper, tungsten, lead, zinc, timber, fish. Exports: $2.235
billion f.o.b.; note - includes free trade zones (2007 est.): coffee,
beef, shrimp and lobster, tobacco, sugar, gold, peanuts.
Imports: $3.647 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): consumer goods,
machinery and equipment, raw materials, petroleum products. Major
trading partners: U.S., El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica,
Venezuela, China, Guatemala (2006). Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 247,900 (2006); mobile cellular: 1.83 million (2006). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 63, FM 32, shortwave 1 (1998).
Radios: 1.24 million (1997). Television broadcast stations:
3 (plus seven low-power repeaters) (1997). Televisions:
320,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 27,941
(2007). Internet users: 155,000 (2006). Transportation: Railways: 6 km (2006).
Highways: total: 19,032 km; paved: 2,094 km; unpaved: 16,938 km
(2005). Waterways: 2,220 km (including 2 large lakes). Ports
and harbors: Bluefields, Corinto, El Bluff, Puerto Cabezas, Puerto
Sandino, Rama, San Juan del Sur. Airports: 163 (2007). International disputes: territorial disputes
with Colombia over the Archipelago de San Andres y Providencia and
Quita Sueno Bank region; with respect to the maritime boundary
question in the Golfo de Fonseca, the ICJ referred to the line
determined by the 1900 Honduras-Nicaragua Mixed Boundary Commission
and advised that some tripartite resolution among El Salvador,
Honduras, and Nicaragua likely would be required; legal dispute over
navigational rights of San Juan River on border with Costa Rica.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Largest but most sparsely populated of the
Central American nations, Nicaragua borders on Honduras to the north and
Costa Rica to the south. It is slightly larger than New York State.
Nicaragua is mountainous in the west, with fertile valleys. Two big lakes,
Nicaragua and Managua, are connected by the Tipitapa River. The Pacific
coast is volcanic and very fertile. The swampy Caribbean coast is aptly
called the “Mosquito Coast.”
Government
Republic.
History
Nicaragua, which derives its name from the chief
of the area's leading Indian tribe at the time of the Spanish Conquest,
was first settled by the Spanish in 1522. The country won independence in
1838. For the next century, Nicaragua's politics were dominated by the
competition for power between the Liberals, who were centered in the city
of León, and the Conservatives, centered in Granada.
To back up its support of the new Conservative
government in 1909, the U.S. sent a small detachment of marines to
Nicaragua from 1912 to 1925. The Bryan-Chamorro Treaty of 1916 (terminated
in 1970) gave the U.S. an option on a canal route through Nicaragua and
naval bases. U.S. Marines were sent again to quell disorder after the 1924
elections. A guerrilla leader, Gen. César Augusto Sandino, fought
the U.S. troops from 1927 until their withdrawal in 1933.
After ordering Sandino's assassination, Gen.
Anastasio Somoza García was dictator from 1936 until his own
assassination in 1956. He was succeeded by his son Luis, who alternated
with trusted family friends in the presidency until his death in 1967. He
was succeeded by his brother, Maj. Gen. Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The
Somozas ruled Nicaragua with an iron fist, reducing its dependence on
banana exports, exiling political foes, and amassing a family fortune.
Sandinista guerrillas, leftists who took their
name from Sandino, launched an offensive in 1979. After seven weeks of
fighting, Somoza fled the country on July 17, 1979. The Sandinistas
assumed power two days later. On Jan. 23, 1981, the Reagan administration
suspended U.S. aid, charging that Nicaragua, with the aid of Cuba and the
Soviet Union, was supplying arms to rebels in El Salvador. The Sandinistas
denied the charges. Later that year, Nicaraguan guerrillas known as
“Contras” began a war to overthrow the Sandinistas. Elections
were finally held on Nov. 4, 1984, with Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista
junta coordinator, winning the presidency. The war intensified in
1986–1987. Negotiations sponsored by the Contadora (neutral Latin
American) nations foundered, but Costa Rican president Oscar Arias
promoted a treaty signed by Central American leaders in Aug. 1987.
Violetta Barrios de Chamorro, owner of the
opposition paper La Prensa, led a broad anti-Sandinista coalition
to victory in the 1990 elections, ending 11 years of Sandinista rule.
Enthusiasm for Chamorro gradually faded. Business groups were dissatisfied
with the pace of reforms; Sandinistas, upset with what they regarded as
the dismantling of their earlier achievements, threatened to take up arms
again; and many people were disillusioned over governmental
corruption.
Former Managua mayor and Conservative candidate
Arnoldo Alemán won the 1996 election. Former Sandinista leader
Daniel Ortega was his closest rival.
In 1998, Hurricane Mitch killed more than 9,000
people, left 2 million people homeless, and caused $10 billion in damages.
Many people fled to the U.S., which offered Nicaraguans an immigration
amnesty program until July 1999. Nicaragua remains one of the poorest
countries in the Western Hemisphere.
In the Nov. 2001 presidential elections, Enrique
Bolaños, the ruling Liberal Party leader, defeated Ortega, who was
attempting a comeback.
In Aug. 2002, former president Arnoldo
Alemán was charged with fraud and embezzlement, and in 2003 he was
sent to prison for 20 years. Current president Bolaños triumphantly
called it the “frying of the Big Fish.” The anticorruption
watchdog, Transparency International, ranks Alemán among the most
corrupt leaders of the past two decades.
The country received an enormous show of support
from the international community in 2004 when the IMF and World Bank
forgave $4.5 billion of Nicaragua's debt. In April 2006, a free-trade
agreement with the U.S. (CAFTA) went into effect.
Former Sandinista president Daniel Ortega won
the November 2006 presidential election with 38% of the vote and took
office in Jan. 2007.
On March 7, 2008, during a summit meeting in the
Dominican Republic, the leaders of Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and
Nicaragua ended their diplomatic dispute over Colombia's raid into Ecaudor
that occurred on March 1, 2008.
See also Encyclopedia: Nicaragua
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Nicaragua
National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (In
Spanish Only) http://www.inec.gob.ni/ .
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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