Nicaragua 1985 (Part 2)

Despite the overwhelming lack of interest in the first set, here are some more photos from Nicaragua in 1985...


Coffee pickers depart Leon for the fields. Reagan's terrorists were targeting coffee plantations as part of an effort to wreck the Nicaraguan economy; coffee was pretty much Nicaragua's only export item, and their best shot at getting hard currency in the country. The pickers were sent off with a big patriotic rally beneath a banner reading something like "We will win the battle of coffee!"

More below the fold...


A whole passel of revolutionary heroes. I had no idea who the martyrs of July 23 1959 were; an explanation is here. Short version: they were student demonstrators killed by Somoza's National Guard.


Leon was the first city to be captured by the Sandinistas, so it saw the fiercest fighting in the revolution. Paying homage to Franco, Somoza had the city bombed. Ruined buildings, walls with bullet holes, and this dead jeep all stood witness to the conflict.


An abandoned guard post near the Costa Rican border. The Nicaraguan border guards told us they were expecting an invasion from Costa Rica any day now, and the Costa Rican border guards said they expected an invasion from Nicaragua.


This mural explains everything.

[That's all, folks]