Augusto Cesar Sandino portrait in mural by Susan Greene in SF

Photo: Scott Braley

Augusto César Sandino

Augusto C. Sandino (born in 1895 and executed in 1934) fought against the American troops occupying Nicaragua in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was acclaimed in revolutionary circles and volunteers from many countries rushed to join him in his fight. One such a man was Salvadorean-born Augustín Farabundo Martí (1893–1932), a persuasive law-school drop-out who became a trusted advisor and Sandino’s personal secretary.

A farmer and a mining engineer, Sandino joined the liberal revolution (1926) against the conservative government headed by Adolfo Díaz and Emiliano Chamorro. He protested against the new U.S. intervention in Nicaragua in 1926 and rejected the Stimson-Moncada agreement for the elections of 1927.

On this score Sandino broke with the liberal leader, José María Moncada, and conducted vigorous guerrilla campaigns (1927–1933) against the occupying U.S. Marines. Never captured but finally reconciled after the withdrawal of the marines, he headed a cooperative farming scheme. In 1934 he was invited to meet with General Anastasio Somoza, and when he did so, he was seized and executed. It is from his name that the Nicaraguan revolutionary group, the Sandinistas, derives its name.

Augusto César Sandino photo

 

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