Biographical Notes

Sandino: Figure 3

Biographical Notes

1895	Born Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino in the village of Niquinohomo, Nicaragua, of Gregorio Sandino and the peasant worker in the employment of the Sandino's, Margarita Calderón.
1904	Abandoned by mother, goes to live with maternal grandmother. He then moves into the home of his father and his family.
1921	Shoots Dagoberto Rivas, son of a prominent town Conservative. Flees Niquinohomo to avoid justice and for fear of retribution. HIs flight takes him to the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua and then to La Ceiba, Honduras, where he became employed at a sugar processing plant.
1922	Moved to Guatemala and then to Mexico, finally stopping at Cerro Azul, near the port of Tampico. He gains employment in the oil fields.
1922- 1926	He becomes involved with Seventh Day Adventists, Yoga masters and several different spiritist religious gurus. He becomes a Freemason, and through the Masonic lodges he becomes acquainted with radical revolutionary ideas such as anti-imperialism, anti-clericalism, anarchism, communism as well as "liberalism," socialism, and the glorification of his indian heritage.
1926	May: He leaves for Nicaragua as the Statute of Limitations on his attempted murder charge expires. His plan to return to the home village and to open his own business are foiled by Dagoberto Rivas, who is now a Member of the National Assembly, and by a plague of Locust invading the country from the Northeast. He wonders on to the city of León.
	June: Meets with a troop of migrating workers and travels to the mining areas in the North, finally stopping at the San Albino mine in July, where he finds employment. Sandino begins to agitate and incite the miners into sabotage and theft.
	November: With guns acquired in Honduras, Sandino and a band of miners attack the garrison at El Jícaro. The attack is repelled. After the defeat Sandino realises that he needs better weapons and travels to Puerto Cabezas to meet with the rebelling Liberal troops against the US-backed Conservatives. He hopes to obtain weapons and men.
	December: Meets with Liberal rebel Commander General José María Moncada, who denies weapons and a military commission to the unknown Sandino. By a struck of fortune and with the help of some prostitutes, Sandino recuperates some weapons from the fleeing Conservative rebels, which engratiates him with other Liberal Commanders who figure they have nothing to loose by letting the eager stranger go harass government troops in the Northeast.
1927	February: Sandino is back in the Segovia mountains, having recruited many peasants into his ranks.
	April: Sandino's troops rescue the Liberal columns advancing toward the Capital from a seemingly certain defeat. Sandino begins to have visions of himself entering the Managua victorious.
	May: The United States force the warring parties to come to an agreement (The Espino Negro Accords), signed under the sponsorship of Colonel Henry Stimson. Sandino accepts the agreement and convinces Moncada he will lay his guns down once he reaches Jinotega in the North, then reneges and cries foul because he had not been consulted for the agreement. He declares the agreement a betrayal of the fatherland.
	May 18: Sandino moves further into the mountains, to San Rafael del Norte, where he marries the telegraphists daughter on his birthday. As his troops began to desert him, he moved even further into the hills.
	May 24: Sandino proposes to surrender to the USMC Field Commander if the United States names a Military Governor to rule Nicaragua, who will then supervise new elections. He obtains no response.
	June: Presents new conditions for his surrender: the establishment of an honorable Liberal government. No response. Sandino begins to act as constituted authority in the region, appointing civil authorities, and renames El Jícaro, site of his failed attack after himself, Ciudad Sandino (Sandino City).
	July: Sandino issues his first two political manifestos proclaiming a mystical tie with the Indian race and his intention to shed the blood of others for the sake of his cause.
	September: Sandino names his band of peasants The Army in Defense of the National Sovereignty of Nicaragua, and elaborates guidelines for his fighters. He transforms his own name and becomes Augusto "César" Sandino.
	November: Sandino issues a decree identifying those he calls the "traitors to the motherland." Anyone against Sandino would be for the enemy and anyone for the enemy would be against him.
1928	January: Sandino demands the evacuation of the American Forces, the resignation of President Adolfo Diaz and elections supervised by Latin American countries.
	October: In anticipation of Moncada's victory at the polls, Sandino organises a Junta to take power in collaboration with three marginal political factions and the opportunist Nicaraguan exile Pedro J. Zepeda. In the pact establishing the Junta Sandino has himself declared Generalissimo and uncontested military authority of the Republic.
	November 4: Elections take place. Moncada wins the presidency. Sandino orders his loyal personal representative abroad, the Honduran poet Froylán Turcios, to harmonise efforts with Zepeda in Mexico.
	December: Turcios advises Sandino not to go ahead with the new Junta project and warns him that such stance would lead to a fratricidal war that he was not prepared to support.
1929	January: Sandino writes to Mexican President requesting an audience to announce his "far-reaching projects" for Latin America. January 6: Sandino declares Moncada's government unconstitutional. Claims that his peasant army is the only source of legitimacy in the country. Sandino demands the withdrawal of the US troops, the abrogation of the Bryan-Chamorro treaty and the founding of a new territory under his unconditional authority for the settlement of he and his men. He further demanded that Moncada proclaims the Union of the Central American Republics and calls for conference for the constitution of he called the "Indo-Latin American Continental and Antillean Federation."
	January 7: Sandino accepts Turcios resignation and lashes out at him, accusing him of stealing money from the cause.
	January 18: Sandino re-interprets the history of Nicaragua and creates a new calendar of his own said to have started on October 4, 1912 with Benjamín Zeledon's resistance to the occupying American troops.
	February: Sandino attacks the European nations for not coming to his aid against the United States. Threatens the lives of European nationals in Nicaragua. Sandino begins to make promises and predictions of a sweeping and devastating victory
	March: Sandino writes to all the Presidents of the Continent seeking support and announces that Nicaragua has been chosen to shed its blood for the rest of Latin America. He unveils his ambitious "Plan for the Realisation of Bolívar's Supreme Dream." Moncada organises a force of "volunteers" and goes on the offensive against Sandino.
	June: Sandino travels to Mexico. He is relegated to Mérida, Yucatán. HE receives a stipend from the MExican government, who keeps him under surveillance, but away from the political vortex. Sandino becomes involved with the spiritualist EMECU and rekindles his membership with the Freemasons. He becomes withdrawn and depressed suspecting that he has been set up by the Mexican government. His Communists affiliates contribute toward his paranoia toward his host. Still, he continues to send letters to his supporters in Nicaragua promising an imminent victory.
	December: Sandino is accused of betraying the cause of the oppressed, of taking money from the United States in exchange for his stay in Mexico.
1930	January: The Mexican Communist (PCM) proposes to pay for a European Tour for Sandino in exchange for Sandino's declarations condemning the Mexican government. Sandino waits for the trip to make the declarations, the PCM waits for the declarations before affording him the trip. Sandino declares his troops a instrument of divine punishment against the crimes of the United States.
	January 2: Sandino writes to Pedrón in Nicaragua and announces to him that he is the Incarnation of God.
	February: Sandino meet his host, the soon to be ex-president Emilio Portes Gil. None of the aid Sandino dreamed about is forthcoming. Portes Gil offers him land to work and the opportunity to remain in Mexico. Sandino is extremely disappointed.
	March: Sandino and the PCM play chicken with the European trip and the declarations against the Mexican government.
	April: The PCM leaks word that Sandino is very critical of the Mexican government. Afraid for his life, Sandino flees Mexico toward Nicaragua. Sandino and his trusted Lieutenant Farabundo Martí break off. Sandino accuses Martí of spying for the Communists. Martí heads for El Salvador.
	May 16: Sandino returns to Nicaragua.
	June: Sandino is seriously wounded in Battle. His wife Blanca is deported out of his reach.
	August: Several members of Pedrón's Clan die in an ambush.
	October 14: Sandino reveals his cosmogony to Abraham Rivera
	October 16: Sandino declares neutrality to be a crime "against his liberating struggle."
1931	January: Colonel Stimson announces the withdrawal of the US troops from Nicaragua following the election of 1932.
	February 3: Sandino reiterates to Pedrón that he is the Incarnation of God and his wife Blanca is the incarnation of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
	February 15: Manifesto Light and Truth: Sandino proclaims the coming of the end of the world and proclaims Nicaragua the seat of the judgement against the unjust.
	February 22: Sandino re-interprets his failed trip to Mexico. It was meant for him to be acquainted with the evil of the world so that he could learn its secrets. His messianic calling emerges with renewed strength.
	February: Perhaps fuel led by the new religious zeal, Sandino's men make great inroads in battle and come to control almost the entire northern region of Nicaragua, with the exception of urban centres. The number of followers swelled, which brought its own logistical problems in the field. Their inability to capture cities made Sandino impatient.
	March: Civil War begins to brew in Honduras threatening the flow of Sandino's supplies. Sandino prepares to declare the union of the Central American Republics and expects that all the labour movements of the region will follow him. March 31:An earthquake destroys Managua and Sandino takes it to be a presage in his favour.
	May 12: Sandino declares himself a prophet of the Segovian people and further elaborates on his cosmogony.
	June 22: Sandino announces that he communicates with a voice at the peak of Mount El Chipote.
	August 9: Sandino rejects political counsel from his advisors, convinced that the final conflagration is at hand. Sandino grows paranoid, even of his own advisors
	September 15: Sandino calls on the City of León to rise in arms, but the calls is not heeded.
	December: Sandino prepares a plan to take over Nicaragua and names a puppet government to be headed by Horacio Portocarrero.
1932
	Agosto 31: sandino prepares to disrupt the upcoming election and calls for a massive boycott.
	November: Sandinista General Juan Gregorio Colindres proclaims himself President of Nicaragua.
	November 6: Election takes place. Sandino prepares a wish list for the new president: Appointment of his men to ministries of War, Finance and Foreign Affairs and control of the Granada and Managua garrisons.
	November 12: Sandino demands withdrawal of US troops (already under way), instituting his peasant rebels as the national army, backing for Latin American Union conference and the right of the people to oust the president.
	December: Sandino attempts to outflank new President Sacasa and asks Salvadorean President to recognise him as provisional authority of Nicaragua. He obtains no response. Civil War in Honduras intensifies. Sandino backs the creation of the Committee for the Liberation of Nicaragua in El Salvador. Their presidential candidate for the November 1932 election swore allegiance to Sandino.
	December 25: Sandino convinces himself that the people want the new president to negotiate with him.
1933	January 1: Juan Bautista Sacasa is invested President; Anastasio Somoza is appointed Head of the National Guard.
	January: Conservatives win the electoral contest in Honduras and tighten the border to prevent the return of insurgents that sought refuge there. Sandino's supplies are not getting through. The National Guard begins to encircle Sandino. Sandino recognises the difficult conditions and makes overtures, albeit still in tone of superiority. He demanded that the President made his governing plans known and resurrected his own plan to found a new territory in the north, which would be called Light and Truth. The president, recognising the crucial opportunity and plagued by internal problems, named Sandino sympathiser Sofonías Salvatierra as negotiator. Persuaded by his pleading wife, Sandino accepted to meet the presidential envoy.
	February 2: Sandino announced at dawn that he has to make peace or he will kill himself. Salvatierra rushed him to Managua. A few minutes before midnight the peace was signed.
	February: By the peace accords, Sandino pledged his loyalty to President Sacasa and the surrender of his weapons, Sandino's men were granted amnesty for the crimes they committed since 1927 and were allowed to settle in the Rio Coco basin, where they would establish an "agricultural cooperative." Sandino was allowed to keep 100 armed men, recognised as auxiliaries under presidential command, but headed by Sandino's trusted man Francisco Estrada. The status of the auxiliary force would be reviewed in a year. All other men would surrender their weaponry by February 23.
	Sandino turned in his run-down weapons and was allowed to keep the few good weapons that he presented for his auxiliaries. Although under the jurisdiction of the Department of Jinotega, Sandino's 36,000 sq. kms virtually granted him his own dominion.
	Sandino secured large amounts of funding in public works money for the region and salaries to his auxiliary force. The Rio COco project, as it was sometimes called, was part of Sandino's grand scheme. In Sandino's plan, they would create a commune that would serve as a prototype to the rest of mankind, and from which the world-redemptive mission would continue. Sandino had not given up his dream of Latin America Union and now embraced Trincado's Unión Hispano-América Oceánica. Furthermore, the commune would welcome revolutionaries from all the corners of the world.
	The dreams did not abate, and neither did the conspiratorial scenarios. Sandino was still convinced that the American withdrawal was only an opportunity to rest and gather energy, but they would come back. So he continued to make preparations for that eventuality. He tried to form a common front of left-wing organizations, the Partido Autonomista, to counter-balance the weight of the traditional parties. He expected to be able to take over the reigns of the country through this means. But Sandino had no political skills and his charismatic authority somehow did not translate well to urbanites.
	Sandino also believed that there was a movement to unite Central America, fostered by the United States, in order to make more expedient the subjugation of the region. He had also convinced himself that the United States maintained control of Nicaragua through the National Guard. The Guard became thus his principal enemy. To be sure, Somoza wanted to eliminate Sandino, whose auxiliaries' existence ridiculed his Guard and his own position as the guardian of the state. Sandino and Somoza were on a collision course.
	June: Sandino's wife Blanca dies giving birth to a daughter, Blanca Segovia Sandino. Sandino's own health, afflicted by malaria, deteriorates.
	August 1: Fire consummed the military arsenal in Managua. Sandino reacts thinking that it's the beginning of a coup and mobilises 600 armed men placing them at the disposal of the president. Sandino's weapons cache was exposed. Somoza's Guard became even more suspicious of Sandino's motives.
	August 16: Sandino proclaims the Union of the Central American Republics and establishes what he calls the Autonomist Army of Central America two days later. Sandino allocated ministry portfolios to each country and outlined electoral rules to choose the new entity's president. He declared himself Supreme Commander of the new army and "Supreme Moral Authority of Central America."
	He travel led to Managua to reduce tensions between he and the Director of the National Guard.
1934	January: The situation became tense as the deadline to review the status of Sandino's Auxiliaries drew near. Supporters urged Sandino to resume the armed struggle, but Sandino was ambivalent. HE wrote to the President questioning the legitimacy of the Guard and hinted that he might not surrender his weapons. Angered, Sacasa summoned Sandino to the Capital.
	February 18: Sandino arrives in Managua and publicly challenges the constitutionality of National Guard, and makes claims that he is the third authority of the state with the president and the Guard.
	Sandino remained in the capital for talks with the president. On February 20 Sandino reached an agreement with the President: the size of the National Guard would be reduced within three months, and a Sandino sympathiser would be placed in charge of the northern departments, eroding Somoza's power. As Sandino and his entourage made their way out of the Presidential compound, they were rounded up by Somoza's men and executed that same night.
	On the next day, the National Guard descended on the northern commune razing the cooperative and killing most of its members. The Sandino question was seemingly brought to an end.