Sandinistas

Sandinistas, leftist Nicaraguan rebel group that in 1979 toppled the 43-year-old Somoza dynasty dictatorship. Formed in the early 1960s and named for guerrilla leader Augusto Sandino, the Sandinistas were nearly wiped out by the National Guard late in the decade. They revived in the early 1970s, staging dramatic raids in 1974 and again in 1978 that not only netted them large sums of money for their operations and the release of captured comrades but also profoundly embarrassed the Somoza regime. By late 1978 the Sandinistas were in open rebellion. When the United States withdrew backing from the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, it promptly collapsed, and the Sandinistas formed a national government. See also Nicaragua.