Sandinista Communism and Rural Nicaragua

Subjects:

• History » Latin American History
• Multicultural Studies » Latin American Studies

Reviews:

• Bugajski has written a brief but solid piece of research on Sandinista rural policy. He concentrates on the effort of the Sandinistas to move the ladino peasantry and the indigenous minorities of the Atlantic Coast region toward the Marxist-Leninist model of agricultural organization and production. In the course of the book Bugajski documents the failure of the Nicaraguan leftist government to create a collectivist agricultural sector and to deal with the secessionist proclivities of the Atlantic Coast Indian groups. Although Bugajski shows quite effectively the limitation of Sandinista rule in the rural areas and the willingness of the leftist leaders to compromise their principles in the face of unworkable communist dogma, the book suffers somewhat because it was written before the electoral defeat of Daniel Ortega and the collapse of Marxist-Leninism in Nicaragua. To complete the volume it would be necessary to include a chapter evaluating rural policy in light of the Sandinista defeat as well as comments on the future direction that the Chamorro government will have to take to reconstruct the devastated agricultural section. Graduate students and faculty.
  —Choice
• . . . Bugajski offers an important analysis of the inevitable agrarian failure of one Marxist-Leninist regime. It points to the need for parallel studies of other such regimes in the Third World and in Eastern Europe.
  —Orbis

Table of Contents:

• Foreword
• Introduction: A Brief Overview of Marxism-Leninism
• Sandinismo: History and Ideology
• Sandinismo: The Levers of Control
• Sandinista Policies: The Peasantry
• Sandinista Policies: Indigenous Peoples
• Sandinistas and Contras
• Index