Carlos Fonseca

Carlos Fonseca Amador (born June 23, 1936 - died November 7, 1976), a revolutionary, teacher and a founder of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN, Sandinista National Liberation Front), was assassinated by the Guardia Nacional three years before the FSLN took power in Nicaragua. He is considered to be one of the major martyrs of the Nicaraguan Revolution.

Early Years

Born in Matagalpa, a town in northwestern Nicaragua, Fonseca was the son of Augustina Fonseca Ubeda, "an unmarried twenty-six year old washerwoman from the countryside." His father, Fausto Amador Aleman, a member of the prominent coffee-growing Amador family, did not acknowledge Fonseca until his elementary school years. As a child, Fonseca's eyesight began to deteriorate. forcing him to wear heavy eyeglasses for the rest of his life.

In 1950, Fonseca entered secondary school and slowly became involved with political groups. In the early 1950s Fonseca attended meetings for a Conservative Party youth group and joined the Union Nacional de Acción Popular (UNAP, National Union of Popular Action). Fonseca became increasingly intersted in Marxism and joined the Partido Socialista Nicargüense (PSN, Nicaraguan Socialist Party). He left the UNAP in 1953 or 1954, complaining they were too "bourgeoisified." In 1954, he and several school friends founded and began to publish a "cultural journal," "Segovia." While the journal did center around social issues (the poor, the student movement, etc.) it "did not take on the Somoza government directly."

After graduating in 1955, Fonseca took a librarian position at a high school in Managua. He began speaking to students, encouraging them to explore Nicaraguan history. He hoped to "build a national movement of high school students." The following year, Fonseca left his position and moved to León to attend law school.

Once in León, Fonseca "threw [him]self" into student activism, becoming editor in chief of a student newspaper and organized "the first all student cell of the PSN in Nicaragua." The short lived group organized the study of Marxist works, but recieved little support from the national party organization.

In Spetember 1956, President Anastasio Somoza Garcia was assassinated in León. Although the assassin was executed on the spot, a state of siege was declared and a search began for suspected conspirators. Fonseca, who did not know the assassin nor had any knowledge of the assassination plot, was arrested by the Guardia Nacional and held for nearly two months. According to Zimmermann, at this point, Fonseca remained "committed to nonviolent methods and believed the PSN provided the leadership Nicaragua needed."

In 1957, Fonseca traveled to the Soviet Union as a PSN delegate to a student/youth conference. Fonseca later wrote a book chronicling his visit to the USSR. The book praised the accomplishments of the Soviet government.

Cuba Libre

Fidel Castro and the 26th of July Movement took power in Cuba on January 1, 1959. The Cuban Revolution was a major event all over Latin America and sparked celebrations around Nicaragua. The Cuban Revolution was a central event in Fonseca's political evolution as it "convinced [him] that revolution was possible and that a new organization was needed to lead it." Just as the Cuban revolution "had been organized outside the framework of the Cuban Communist Party," a Nicaraguan revolutionary movement could be created outside of the PSN and other pre-existing groups.

The rebel victory in Cuba was mirrored by an increase in armed anti-Somoza actions in Nicaragua. Fonseca took part in one such uprising in 1959. In February 1959, Fonseca, as well as many other more prominent Nicaraguan radicals, traveled to Cuba.

In mid-1959, Fonseca joined a Nicaraguan guerrilla brigade that was, in part, organized by Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The brigade had a training camp in southern Honduras. On June 24, 1959, the brigade was ambushed by Honduran and Nicaraguan troops in Honduras, ending in the death of several rebels and the wounding and capturing of many others, including Fonseca.

This incident marks the end of Fonseca's relationship with the PSN. Whereas Fonseca's revolutionary zeal increased in the aftermath of the ambush, the PSN became convinced that a revolution in Nicaragua was "impossible." Labelling Fonseca and other Nicaraguans who fought in the brigade as too "guerrilla-ist," the PSN expelled Fonseca and the others.

It is a bit unclear how, but Fonseca managed to leave the military hospital in Honduras where he was taken after the June 24th ambush and went to Cuba. It is at this point that Fonseca "began a serious study of Sandino." Fonseca also began to host political meetings in a small apartment in the Miramar section of Havana. The meetings were frequented by people who would later become part of the FSLN.

Sandinista!

Between 1959 and 1963, Fonseca and those who would become the earliest members of the FSLN, "experimented with a variety of different organizational forms" in the hopes of forming a true revolutionary organization. Having formed several short-lived groups, the FSLN came to be in 1963. Originally, Fonseca hoped to "duplicate the Cuban revolution" in Nicaragua, drawing up battle plans based on the Cuban experience.

In mid-1963, a guerrilla cadre entered the Rios Coco y Bocay area of Nicaragua. Poorly prepared and having done little advanced work in the area, several guerrillas were killed by the Guardia Nacional, while others were able to escape across the Honduran border. This incident would highlight the error of having an "excessive emphasis on military actions without corresponding political work."

References

• Zimmermann, Matilde. Sandinista: Carlos Fonseca and the Nicaraguan Revolution. Duke University Press (2000).