Volume 1 of Nicaragua, 1961 1990 provides an in-depth coverage of military history during the first phase of one of major armed conflicts of Latin America in modern times. In the wake of the US invasion of Nicaragua in 1912, the country came under the rule of the Somoza family, which imposed a brutal, corrupt military dictatorship. A low-scale insurgency of students, supported by peasants and other anti-Somoza elements of the society developed already in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the country became embroiled in a brutal insurgency. Supported by Cuba, a coalition of students, farmers, businessmen, clergy and a small group of Marxists launched a major war in 1978, which resulted in the downfall of the Somozas a year later. AUTHOR: David Francois, from France, earned his PhD in Contemporary History at the University of Burgundy and specialised in studying militant communism, its military history and relationship between politics and violence in contemporary history.
110 photographs, 12 colour profiles