Portal:Nicaragua

Republic of Nicaragua
*República de Nicaragua* (Spanish)
Republic of Nicaragua República de Nicaragua (Spanish)
	Flag Coat of arms
	Motto: En Dios confiamos (Spanish); "In God We Trust"
	Anthem: Salve a ti, Nicaragua (Spanish); "Hail to Thee, Nicaragua";
ISO 3166 code	NI

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The Nicaragua Portal

Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest country in Central America, comprising 130,370 km² (50,340 sq mi). With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America after Guatemala and Honduras.

Nicaragua is bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean and shares maritime borders with El Salvador to the west and Colombia to the east. The country's largest city and national capital is Managua, the fourth-largest city in Central America, with a population of 1,055,247 as of 2020. Nicaragua is known as "the breadbasket of Central America" due to having the most fertile soil and arable land in all of Central America. Nicaragua's multiethnic population includes people of mestizo, indigenous, European, and African heritage. The country's most spoken language is Spanish, though indigenous tribes on the Mosquito Coast speak their own languages and English. (Full article...)

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Clockwise from top left: FSLN guerrillas entering León, bodies of people executed in León possibly by the FSLN or Nicaraguan National Guard, a government spy captured by guerrilla forces, destruction of towns and villages taken by guerrilla forces, a bombing by the National Guard air force, an FSLN soldier aiming an RPG-2

The Nicaraguan Revolution (Spanish: Revolución Nicaragüense or Revolución Popular Sandinista) 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 revealed the country as one of the major proxy war battlegrounds of the Cold War.

The initial overthrow of the Somoza dictatorial regime in 1978–79 cost many lives, and the Contra War of the 1980s took tens of thousands more and was the subject of fierce international debate. Because of the political turmoil, failing economy, and limited government influence, during the 1980s both the FSLN (a leftist collection of political parties) and the Contras (a rightist collection of counter-revolutionary groups) received aid from the Soviet Union and the United States. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

...that the first woman to be popularly elected as President of a Latin American nation was Violeta Chamorro who served her term from 1990-1997 in Nicaragua. As of 2007 she is the only woman to have served in the role?
...that in 1972, nearly 90% of the capital city of Managua was destroyed in an earthquake?
...that Lake Nicaragua is the largest freshwater lake in Central America (19th largest in the world) and is home to the world's only freshwater sharks?
...that Nicaragua's Bosawas Biosphere Reserve protects 1,800,000 acres (7,300 km²) of Mosquitia forest - almost seven percent of the country's area - making it the second largest Biosphere reserve in the world after the Amazon in Brazil?
...that most Nicaraguans begin and end every day with Gallo pinto, a meal of rice and beans cooked separately and then fried together, and that on the Atlantic coast it is common to add coconut oil to the dish?
...that one of the world's finest rums, Ron Flor de Caña, is produced in Nicaragua?
...that in the 19th century the United States had plans to build a waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the country. The Nicaragua Canal concept was abandoned after the U.S. opted to back the construction of the Panama Canal instead?

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Image 1A view of Ometepe Island
Image 2A bus in the city of Granada
Image 3Trees of Life at night on Avenida Bolívar, Managua, 2016
Image 4Cerro Negro volcano in 2011
Image 5León Cathedral is a significantly important and historic landmark in Nicaragua that was awarded World Heritage Site status with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Image 6Some Nicaraguan cuisine: seafood soup, bread and beer
Image 7Cathedral in Granada, Nicaragua
Image 8A view of Telica, 2011
Image 9A railway tunnel in Nicaragua, built under President José Santos Zelaya (1893-1909)
Image 10U.N. map of Nicaragua
Image 11Rotonda Rubén Darío in Managua

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- High Importance: Culture of Nicaragua, Departments of Nicaragua, Ernesto Cardenal
- Top Importance: History of Nicaragua, FSLN, Iran–Contra affair, Daniel Ortega
- Nicaragua stubs, Nicaragua geography stubs, Nicaraguan people stubs

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Departments

Nicaragua is a unitary republic. For administrative purposes it is divided into 15 departments (departamentos) and two self-governing regions (autonomous regions).

(Department capitals in parentheses)