Augusto César Sandino
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Augusto César Sandino (May 18, 1895 - February 21, 1934) was a leader of a Nicaraguan rebellion against various Nicaraguan governments, and led a resistance to U.S. military presence in Nicaragua between 1927 and 1933.
Sandino, born Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino in the Nicaraguan village of Niquinohomo (department of Masaya), was the son of Gregorio Sandino, a coffee grower, and Margarita Calderón, one of the employees on his father's plantation.
In 1921, after attempting to murder the son of a prominent conservative townsman, he fled to Honduras, Guatemala, and eventually Mexico. There he became involved with various religious groups such as the Seventh-Day Adventists, spiritist gurus, the Freemasons, and anti-imperialist, anarchist, and communist revolutionaries. He returned to Nicaragua in 1926 after the statute of limitation in his charges expired. He became involved in the Constitutionalist War on the side of the Liberals against the U.S.-backed Conservative regime, and later he would rebel against the constitutional government of Liberal Jose Maria Moncada.
His emblem showed a U.S. Marine being beheaded. Despite great effort, the U.S. military never was able to catch or kill him, although he felt it necessary at one point to stage a fake funeral for himself, as an American plane observed from above.
After the United States forces left Nicaragua in January 1933, he put down his arms the following February, and asked to set up a commune in a portion of northeast Nicaragua as a reward for his efforts. After talks with the Sacasa government, he was captured and executed in Managua on 21 February 1934 by the National Guard under the command of Anastasio Somoza García. Somoza García established a dynasty in Nicaragua. He is father to Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who in 1979 was overthrown by a revolutionary group originally founded in 1961 by Carlos Fonseca and Tomas Borge, among others, and later led by Daniel Ortega. It took the name of Sandinistas from Sandino.
Augusto C. Sandino International Airport, in Managua, is named for him.
Quotes
- Addressed to the American forces in Nicaragua: "Come on you pack of drug fiends, come on and murder us on our own land. I am waiting for you on my feet at the head of my patriotic soldiers, and I don't care how many of you there are. You should know that when this happens, the destruction of your mighty power will make the Capitol shake in Washington, and your blood will redden the white dome that crowns the famous White House where you plot your crimes." (quoted in Zimmermann)
References
- Hodges, Donald C. Sandino’s Communism: Spiritual Politics For The Twenty-First Century. University of Texas Press (1992)
- Macaulay, Neil. The Sandino Affair. Duke University Press. (1985) [1967].
- Navarro-Génie, Marco. Augusto César Sandino: Messiah of Light and Truth. Syracuse University Press (2002).
- Wünderich, Volker. Sandino: Una biografía política. Editorial Nueva Nicaragua (1995). In Spanish.
- Zimmermann, Matilde. Sandinista: Carlos Fonseca and the Nicaraguan Revolution. Duke University Press (2000).
