Leticia Herrera Sánchez (born 11 March 1949) is a Nicaraguan politician and former guerrilla leader. She was one of the first women commanders of the

Sandinista National Liberation Front The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, 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 resistan ...

(FSLN) against the dictatorial government of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua from 1974 to 1979.

Early years

Leticia Herrera was born in

Puntarenas Province Puntarenas () is a province of Costa Rica. It is located in the western part of the country, covering most of Costa Rica's Pacific Ocean coast, and it is the largest province in Costa Rica. Clockwise from the northwest, it borders on the province ...

, Costa Rica during the exile of her father, a Nicaraguan worker and

syndicalist Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goal of gainin ...

who was persecuted during

Somoza The Somoza family () is a political family which ruled Nicaragua under a dictatorship over a period of forty-three years, from 1936 to 1979. Founder, Anastasio Somoza García – who served as the President of Nicaragua from 1937 until 1956 – ...

's dictatorship. She went through a large part of her primary and secondary education in Costa Rica where, at age 14, she had already formed a socialist organization at the institute where she studied.

Militancy

Thanks to a scholarship, Herrera traveled to the USSR to study at what is now the

Peoples' Friendship University of Russia The Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (Russian language, Russian: Российский университет дружбы народов имени Патриса Лумумбы), also known as RUDN University and until 1 ...

in Moscow, where she graduated with a degree in law. During her time at the Soviet university, she was recruited by an

FSLN The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, 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 resistan ...

cell in 1968 to join the Nicaraguan guerrilla movement. Her participation required military training, for which she traveled to Lebanon to be instructed by the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

. In 1970, she began her return to Nicaragua, passing through Italy, Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, until in 1974, she joined Juan José Quezada's command. Once integrated into the unit, she was given the ''

noms de guerre A ''nom de guerre'' (, 'war name') is a pseudonym chosen by someone to use when they are involved in a particular activity, especially fighting in a war. In ''ancien régime'' France it would be adopted by each new recruit (or assigned to them by ...

'' "Vichy" and "Miriam" in order to protect her identity. That same year, she was one of the leaders of Operation December Victory, an assault on President Somoza's residence in which senior government officials were taken hostage. As a result of this raid, there were negotiations between the Somoza regime and the guerrilla command that led to the exchange of the officials for FSLN

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...

s. Its success was an important political victory for the FSLN, although the

Sandinista Revolution The Nicaraguan Revolution () began with rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the ouster of the dictatorship in 1978–79, and fighting between the government and the Contras from 1981 to 1990. The revolution r ...

would not take place until almost five years later. Throughout her participation in the Sandinista Front, where she spent 10 years in hiding, Herrera performed multiple tasks, including being responsible for security of

Daniel Ortega José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (; ; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguan politician and dictator who has been the president of Nicaragua, co-president of Nicaragua since 18 February 2025, alongside his wife Rosario Murillo. He was the 54th an ...

after his return to

Managua Managua () is the capital city, capital and largest city of Nicaragua, and one of the List of largest cities in Central America, largest cities in Central America. Located on the shores of Lake Managua, the city had an estimated population of 1, ...

following his release. A short time later, the politician would become the father of the second of Leticia's three children.

Post-revolution

With the triumph of the FSLN, Leticia Herrera was removed from military work and reassigned to carry out literacy and health campaigns of the new regime, aimed at reducing infant and maternal mortality in Nicaragua. From 1985 to 1996, she was a deputy of the

National Assembly of Nicaragua The National Assembly () is the legislative branch of the government of Nicaragua founded in January 1985. History The unicameral National Assembly replaced the bicameral National Congress of Nicaragua which was disbanded following the overt ...

, and was its vice president from 1985 to 1990. She was head of the Sandinista Defense Committee, where she worked with regions, communities, and municipalities to develop brigades for health, literacy, and revolutionary vigilance. In 2007, she was appointed by Ortega's government as

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

of Nicaragua in Costa Rica, and was appointed consul in Panama in 2010. She was head of the Directorate of Alternate Conflict Resolution (DiRAC) until her dismissal in 2014.

Works

* ''Guerrillera, mujer y comandante de la Revolución sandinista, memorias de Leticia Herrera'' (2013), Icaria, . A book in which the Nicaraguan offers her testimony and that of her companions about the transcendental role played by women in the armed conflict from a gender perspective.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herrera Sanchez, Leticia 1949 births 21st-century Nicaraguan women writers 21st-century Nicaraguan writers 20th-century Costa Rican women politicians 20th-century Costa Rican politicians Living people Members of the National Assembly (Nicaragua) 20th-century Nicaraguan lawyers Nicaraguan non-fiction writers Nicaraguan women diplomats 20th-century Nicaraguan women politicians 20th-century Nicaraguan politicians People from Puntarenas Province Peoples' Friendship University of Russia alumni Sandinista National Liberation Front politicians Nicaraguan women lawyers 20th-century women lawyers