The Sandinista National Liberation Front (Spanish: Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, or FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the United States occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s.
The FSLN overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, ending the Somoza dynasty, and established a revolutionary government in its place. Following their seizure of power, the Sandinistas ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as part of a Junta of National Reconstruction. Following the resignation of centrist members from this Junta, the FSLN took exclusive power in March 1981. They instituted a policy of mass literacy, devoted significant resources to health care, and promoted gender equality. Oppositional militias, known as Contras, formed in 1981 to resist the Sandinista's Junta and received support from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The 1984 elections, described by international observers as fair and free, were nevertheless boycotted by the main opposition. The FSLN won the majority of the votes. Those who did oppose the Sandinistas won approximately a third of the seats. Despite the clear electoral victory for the Sandinistas, the Contras continued their violent attacks on both state and civilian targets, until 1989. The FSLN lost elections in 1990 to Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, after revising the constitution in 1987 and after years of resisting the United States–supported Contras, but they retained a plurality of seats in the legislature.
Where would you go if the gun fell in your hands?
Home to the kids or to sympathetic friends?
Oh sandinista, oh sandinista
Oh sandinista, take my side
Deep through the clouds hear them marching up slowly
Fresh with the blood of your father so holy
Oh sandinista, oh sandinista
Sandinista, you can hold your head up high
You have given back their Freedom
You have lived up to your name
Sandinista, may your spirit never die
Hold the candle to the darkness
You're the keeper of the flame
Sandinista, keep believing in the dream
The truth is stronger than the shadows
Keep it shining in your eyes
Sandinista, may the soldiers disappear
May your children live forever
May their laughter fill your lives
Sandinista, los fuerzas de la oscuridad
nunca pueden extinguir la puridad de tu llama revolutionara
con su terror y sus mentiras
con su dinero y sys maquinas
la libertad en tus ojus
el amor caliente en tu corozon
son fuerzas mas poderosas
que las armas de la guerra
Sandinista, you can hold your head up high
You have given back their Freedom
You have lived up to your name
Sandinista, may your spirit never die
Hold the candle to the darkness
You're the keeper of the flame
Saw a movie, "Top of the World"
But I found it didn't lift me,
Jimmy Cagney's mother died,
It didn't move, it didn't shift me
And Santiago fell 10 years ago, or more
And it seems we've been falling ever since
And now there's something stirring in Managua
It's got the power, it's got the power to convince.
How we ever gonna thank you enough
You've shown us that the good can get tough
Sandinista!
The future seems so far away, sometimes
Without a guide and with no example
But your work, can take so many there and give
Washington more than a sample.
How we ever gonna thank you enough
You've shown us that the good can get tough
Sandinista!
If we could only brush away
The dust of 50 years
We'd be on a road in Spain
With a white hot sun above
And all around are voices
Other accents and other tongues
Here to say that this republic
Needs our arms, and it needs our love...
How we ever gonna thank you enough
You've shown us that the good can get tough
When I was waiting for your phonecall
The one that never came
Like a man about to burst
I was dying of thirst
Though I will never fade
Or get lost in this daze
Though I will disappear
Into the street parade
It's not too hard to cry
In these crying times
I'll take a broken heart
And take it home in parts
But I will never fade
I was in this place
By the first church of the city
I saw tears on the face
The face of a visionary
Though I will disappear
To join the street parade
Disappear and fade
Into the street parade