Mónica Baltodano was a commander of the guerrilla revolutionary group known as 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 ...

during the

Nicaraguan 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 ...

. She worked in the movement for several decades, and after experiencing the corruption and authoritarianism within the movement, she left in 2005 to form the

Sandinista Renovation Movement UNAMOS, the Democratic Renewal Union (), formerly the Sandinista Renovation Movement (), is a Nicaraguan political party founded in 1995. It defines itself as a democratic and progressive party, made of people of all genders, that promotes the con ...

(Movimiento para la Renovación Sandinísta), known as El Rescate.

Biography

Baltodano was born in Leon, Nicaragua on August 14, 1954. She is one of nine children, two boys and seven girls. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a shop owner. She attended Catholic school in La Pureza with her six sisters while her two brothers studied in La Salle. Her family moved 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, ...

in 1972 when her mother split from her father due to what she saw as a lack of acceptance of her involvement in the war. All of Baltodano's siblings were revolutionaries as well, with her sister Alma losing her hands while building a contact bomb at age 15 and her sister Zulemita losing her life in a bombing at age 16. Baltodano has four children of her own, including environmental lawyer and activist Mónica López Baltodano.

Political involvement

Baltodano became politically involved in high school when she worked on the campaign to free Doris Tijerino, a Sandinista revolutionary, from prison. She joined the Revolutionary Students Front, an armed group of young revolutionaries in 1972. Baltodano went underground with the Sandinista movement in 1974, compelled to action by the nation's declining political and economic conditions. In 1977 she was captured, arrested, and tortured for nine months while leading the North Front of the FSLN. After her release, she was put in charge of the capital, leading the movement's activities in Managua. By then a Guerrilla Commander, she led the final offensive of the revolution in 1979. When the war ended, Baltodano took a more political role and was appointed Secretariat of Mass Organizations. In 1994 she was elected to the national directorate of the SNLF as part of a movement to increase women's representation at the highest levels of the SNLF; other women elected at the same time included

Dorotea Wilson Dorotea Wilson Tathum (born 1948) is a Nicaraguan politician and women's rights activist. She was a congresswoman and member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). She has founded and co-founded a wide range of organisations that ra ...

Mirna Cunningham Myrna Kay Cunningham Kain is a Miskito people, Miskito Indigenous feminism, feminist, indigenous rights activist and medical surgeon from Nicaragua. She has participated in political-social processes linked to the struggle for the rights of women ...

Benigna Mendiola Benigna Mendiola (born 1944) is a Nicaraguan socialist, revolutionary, peasant leader and member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Spanish: ''Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional'', FSLN). She participated in guerrilla action agai ...

and Dora Maria Tellez. After several decades in the FSLN, Baltodano took issue with what she described as an authoritarian, vertical leadership style rife with corruption. Because of this, she left the party in 2005 to form the Movement to Rescue Sandinismo, known in Nicaragua as El Rescate.

Legacy

Baltodano was one of several FSLN women featured in the 2018 documentary ''¡Las Sandinistas!''. In March 2022 she was amongst 151 international feminists signing ''Feminist Resistance Against War: A Manifesto'', in solidarity with the Russian

Feminist Anti-War Resistance Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR or FAWR, ) is a group of Russian feminists founded in February 2022 to protest against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In its first month, FAR became "one of Russia’s fastest-growing anti-war campaigns", a ...

Biography

Political involvement

Legacy

Notes

References

Further reading