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Latin America and Caribbean
In the 1980s, the Central American country of Nicaragua became a symbol of the polarised Cold War world: when the dictatorship ended with the overthrow of the Somoza dynasty, the Sandinistas took control of the country in 1979. The Sandinistas' revolutionary ideology – such as their radical commitment to expropriating wealthy landlords – won them many supporters among ordinary Nicaraguans. These supporters included prominent figures and artists, such as the writers Ernesto Cardenal and Sergio Ramirez.
The "Contras" – paramilitary groups funded from abroad – tried to topple the Sandinista regime. This plunged Nicaragua into armed conflict which claimed thousands of lives and devastated the economy. A 1988 peace treaty ended the civil war, and free elections have been taking place since 1990.
Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean, after Haiti. Corruption is widespread. The political climate tends to be characterised by extremely strong countercurrents. In past years, the country was hard to govern because the president, parliament and judiciary often obstructed one another. In the presidential and parliamentary elections of November 2006, the party FSLN, headed by former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, was elected to power and its leader was installed as President for the second time since being voted out of office in 1990. However, his Government of Reconciliation and National Unity (GRUN) does not have the backing of a parliamentary majority.
Cooperation with Nicaragua
Relations between Nicaragua and Germany are positive. However, the German government is critical of the Ortega government's increasing shift away from democratic and rule-of-law principles and structures. Among other things, the government is alleged to have manipulated the municipal elections in November 2008 and to be undermining the constitutional separation of powers.
The failure to address the allegations of electoral fraud and the authoritarian style of governance prompted some donors – including Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the European Commission – to freeze their budget support for Nicaragua at the end of 2008. Germany has made no new budget support commitments since 2007. Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Austria intend to cease all development cooperation with Nicaragua.
From the German government’s perspective, the staging of free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections in November 2011, with appropriate national and international election monitoring, is of particular relevance to its further development policy engagement in Nicaragua.
The activity areas of Nicaraguan-German development cooperation consist of strengthening the rule of law and promoting decentralisation. The two countries also cooperate on environmental policy, sustainable management of natural resources, development of the drinking water supply, and sanitation.
German Embassy

German Embassy in Nicaragua
Reparto Bolonia,
contiguo a la Óptica Nicaragüense
Apartado Postal 29
Managua
Nicaragua
Phone: 00 505 / 22 66 39 17
Fax: 00 505 / 22 66 76 67






