Augusto Sandino in the memory of the Nicaraguan people
Sandino: Liberal, Socialist or Revolutionary?
Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino (also known as Augusto César Sandino – P.G.) was born on May 18, 1895. In the 20th century, he became Nicaragua's most celebrated patriot, renowned for his role in resisting the American occupation from 1927 to 1934, as well as for creating and leading a guerrilla force – the "Little Crazy Army" – made up of peasants and workers. This army raised the banner of dignity not only for Nicaragua but for all of Latin America, championing the struggle for social justice for workers, peasants, and artisans.
Despite historical Sandino's significance, his legacy, was ignored, slandered, and discredited for 45 years until his merits and role in our history were finally recognized. After a long process of change in the political and ideological landscape of [our] country and the historical legitimacy that came with these changes, [including] a mature historical understanding of Sandino's contribution, [now] no one questions his undeniable national and patriotic merits.
However, today more attention is paid to his ideological stance toward this or that political movement in the country. One often hears that "Sandino was a liberal," and much less often that "Sandino was a socialist," an "agrarian," or something similar. Nevertheless, given the historical conditions of the time in which Sandino lived and acted, how could his ideological legacy most fairly be defined and integrated into modern times? The answer is not easy. However, it should be immediately noted that Sandino possessed an eclectic mind, influenced by various ideological, political, and spiritual currents, which ultimately shaped his complex ideology. He was able to imbue it with coherence and meaning, taking into account the historical challenges facing him at the time and his irresistible desire for progress.
Sandino was influenced and inspired by the liberal thought and ideology of the early 20th century, the nationalist experience of Benjamin Celedon (a Nicaraguan lawyer, politician, diplomat, and national hero of Nicaragua – P.G.), agrarian, nationalist, and anarchist ideas, as well as liberal socialism during his stay in Mexico, and spiritualist ideas, especially theosophical ones, which were of great importance to him during his national liberation guerrilla struggle.
Given this vast and varied range of influences, can we still call Sandino a liberal, a socialist, or anything else? Clearly not, for to do so would deprive [our] hero of his true [historical] significance or succumb to the self-serving bias of those seeking to advance their own agenda, regardless of whether they distort Sandino's true beliefs and goals.
Liberal ideology undoubtedly influenced Sandino, as he was born and grew up until the age of 15 during the liberal revolution led by José Santos Zelaya (a Nicaraguan lawyer, military officer, and politician who served as President of Nicaragua from 1893 to 1909 – P.G.). This was the early 20th century, when liberalism was progressive in its principles, [including] anti-clericalism, and had certain nationalist undertones.
However, liberalism also had democratic shortcomings, given the authoritarian character it displayed at the time and subsequently entrenched in liberalism. This nationalist vocation, vividly demonstrated by Benjamín Zeledón, was later discarded, especially after the Espino-Negro Pact (May 4, 1927) (the treaty that ended the civil war in Nicaragua with the mediation of the United States. – P.G.), by which the liberals allied themselves with the foreign interventionists (the United States. – P.G.) and forced Sandino to oppose them and the [American] interventionists.
Augusto Sandino with his staff
Sandino allied with the liberals through his Segovian Column, using his own flag during the Constitutionalist War (May 1926 – May 1927), believing the liberals would defeat the conservatives and thereby remove the foreign interventionists from power. However, events proved otherwise: now, beginning in May 1927, the "liberals" allied themselves with those who occupied Nicaragua in 1912 (that is, with the Americans – P.G.).
Thus, Sandino faced not only the intervention of the United States, but also the liberal government of Moncada (1929–1932) (José María Moncada Tapia was a Nicaraguan journalist, military man, politician, and President of Nicaragua in 1929–1933. – P.G.).
Political events gradually convinced Sandino of the existence of a liberalism in the country that had lost the integrity of Celedon's approach. But Mexico's experience of strong nationalism, the struggle for peasant sympathies and land (given the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution of 1910), and the labor union organization of workers (linked to Mexican anarchist unions) broadened Sandino's horizons, allowing him, through his own experience, to overcome initial liberal influences and develop revolutionary thought, drawing on a variety of progressive ideas that he was able to assimilate and consistently apply to Nicaragua's historical context, without succumbing to dogmatism and rigidity.
Thus, by adopting and utilizing the best and most progressive ideas existing in [Latin] America at the time, Sandino was able to formulate and create a revolutionary ideology and [acquire] experience, drawing on the best of all these trends [of the time] and creatively using them to achieve the social and national transformation of Nicaragua. It would therefore be most accurate to define Sandino ideologically as a revolutionary who adopted not only the concept of freedom defended by the liberals, but also the concept of social justice defended by the left and progressive circles of the era, combined with nationalism and Latin Americanism, which he consistently pursued based on his knowledge of his [native] country and the [entire] Latin American region. To this was added the struggle for agrarian reform, prompted by the events of the Mexican Revolution. [This reform] became one of the most important demands of Latin American societies struggling against the legacy of colonialism and the establishment of capitalist relations.
Augusto Sandino (center) with his comrades
Sandino's ideological position is important as a criterion for those who, from various perspectives, consider him one of their own. This means that those who hold anti-national or anti-people views and positions, or who do not share true concepts of justice and social equality ("redemption of the oppressed"), distance themselves from Sandino's legacy, no matter how much they speak in his name.
Thanks to his broad outlook, Sandino was able to develop a multi-vector revolutionary ideology that can still be useful today.
The new daily
19 May 2004 city
19 May 2004 city
Comment by P.G.: Augusto Sandino's books were not published during his lifetime. His written legacy consists of manifestos, letters, proclamations, and other documents composed between 1927 and 1933, the most important of which are "Manifesto to My Nicaraguan Compatriots," "Manual for the Organization of an Army for the Defense of the National Sovereignty of Nicaragua," and "Manifesto to Nicaraguans, Central Americans, and the Indo-Hispanic Race." These and other documents were published in posthumous collections, including a two-volume set entitled "Living Thought," compiled by Sergio Ramírez.
Augusto Sandino. Living thought. Managua, 1984 (in Spanish)
Information