Joaquín Cuadra Lacayo, (Managua, April 11, 1951) a scion of

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

's elite, joined the rebel

Sandinista National Liberation Front The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a Socialism, socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after ...

(FSLN) in late 1972. After their victory in 1979, he became army chief of staff.

Biography

Cuadra studied at Colegio Centro America, a Jesuit high school in Nicaragua, where he became interested in politics, liberation theology, and

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

. While attending the

University of Central America José Simeón Cañas Central American University ( es, Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas"), also known as UCA El Salvador, is a private university, private university with Nonprofit organization, nonprofit purposes in San Salvado ...

, he and other students were impressed by one of their professors, Father Uriel Molina, who lived among the poor in

Managua ) , settlement_type = Capital city , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Nicara ...

's El Riguero barrio. In November 1971, they established a commune with him in El Riguero. Cuadra was recruited into the FSLN by Ricardo Morales and Oscar Turcios in late 1972, and went underground early the next year. He was a member of the Sandinista Commando that raided the Christmas party of a major Somoza supporter in 1974, exchanging imprisoned Sandinistas for the prominent guests. As the FSLN divided over questions of strategy, he aligned himself with the Tercerista faction. In 1977, he recruited his father to politically support the FSLN as one of ''

Los Doce ''El Grupo de los Doce'', or Group of Twelve, were a dozen members of the Nicaraguan establishment whose support for the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) against President Anastasio Somoza Debayle played a pivotal role in the acceptance ...

''. As leader of the Sandinista Internal Front, he helped support Eden Pastora's capture of the National Palace in August 1978, and coordinated urban guerrilla actions during the 1979 Nicaraguan Revolution. After the victory he was promoted to general and chief of staff of the new

Sandinista Popular Army The Sandinista Popular Army (SPA) (or People's Army; , EPS) was the military forces established in 1979 by the new Sandinista government of Nicaragua to replace the Nicaraguan National Guard, following the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. I ...

. He assumed leadership of the Nicaraguan army from the hands of Humberto Ortega on February 21, 1995. After retiring from the army, he founded the National Unity Movement in 2000. He criticized the candidacy of

Daniel Ortega José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguans, Nicaraguan revolutionary and politician serving as President of Nicaragua since 2007. Previously he was leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as coordinator of the ...

in the

2006 Nicaraguan general election General elections were held in Nicaragua on 5 November 2006. The country's voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and 90 members of the National Assembly. Daniel Ortega (FSLN) won the election with 37.99% of the vote, ...

alleging that the new government imposed its criteria and was intolerant of criticism. During the Protests in Nicaragua in 2018, the retired general questioned the government's decision to send the armed forces to counter the demonstrations.

References

*Shirley Christian, ''Nicaragua: Revolution in the Family'', Vintage Books, 1986. *Margaret Randall, ''Christians in the Nicaraguan Revolution'', New Star Books, 1983. Living people Members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front National Unity Movement (Nicaragua) politicians Nicaraguan military personnel Year of birth missing (living people) People educated at Colegio Centro América Central American University (Managua) alumni {{Nicaragua-bio-stub