Carlos Fonseca Amador (* born on June 23, 1936 in Matagalpa and died on November 7, 1976 in Zinica Matagalpa). is a Nicaraguan revolutionary, Professor and founder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). Three years after his death in combat against the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the FSLN triumphantly entered Managua, ending the dictatorial period.
Childhood and adolescence[]
Carlos Fonseca Amador was born in the El Laborío neighborhood of the city of Matagalpa, the son of the peasant Justina Fonseca, a cook by trade, and Fausto F. Amador, an accountant of a North American-owned mine.
He completed his primary studies at the Higher School for Boys in Matagalpa, where he entered when he was 6 years old. At the age of 9, he began to sell nancite candies that his mother made and later, he sells newspapers on the streets of the city to contribute to the family's finances. He stood out from his early days for his ability to work and his responsibility, he was extremely studious.
In 1950 he began secondary studies at the National Institute of the North of Matagalpa. Take advantage of the vacation periods to work in any trade, winemaker, salesman ... In the third year he is named best student of his course for obtaining the highest grades and together with his inseparable friend Tomás Borges discovers interesting readings Tomás Moro , John Steinbeck , Howard Fast ... and begins his work in opposition to the Somoza dictatorship by participating in the strike that requires the removal of a medallion representing Somoza García from the University of León campus.
Later, the discovery of Marx and Engels in the dusty bookstore of the poet Samuel Meza Lee and studies with a third friend: Ramón Gutiérrez Castro , recently arrived from Guatemala . Together with this partner he studied French to be able to access the books that were only in that language. He read so much that he was known at the Institutu as being the only one who had read the entire collection of the Library's History of the United States.
He works at the UNAP (National Union of Popular Action) in Managua trying to bring together independent youth, but the organization is dominated by right-wing elements so those on the left found the National Renovation Party.
Youth[]
At the age of 18, together with other colleagues, he founded the magazine Segovia in which he directed his first four numbers out of six that they managed to edit. He meets Marco A. Altamirano, who accompanies him to the "study circles" directed by Gutiérrez Castroy, in which he delves into the theoretical foundations of the left and begins to sell the newspaper Unidad del Partido Socialista Nicaragüense.
The 4 of March of 1955 is bachillera and gets the medal to the best bachelor of the year called "gold star". He went to Managua and was appointed inspector and director of the library of the "Ramírez Goyena" Institute. Combine work with studies at the School of Economics of the National University. He joined the Socialist Party and participated on September 14 in a patriotic operation at the San Jacinto farm as a member of "Ramírez Goyena."
The following year he moved to León (Nicaragua) and enrolled in the Law School while working at the La Prensa agency. Together with Silvio Mayorga , Tomás Borge and the Guatemalan Heriberto Carillo, he joined the first cell identified with the principles of the proletariat.
Six days after the execution of the tyrant Anastasio Somoza García by the hero Rigoberto López Pérez , he is arrested in Matagalpa and released 50 days later.
The 3 of July of 1957 takes a trip abroad is intended to attend the World Youth Festival V and Students in Moscow and then follows the August 16 participates in the Congress of Kiev. Travel to the Student Congress for Peace and Friendship in Leipzig, German Democratic Republic. Get to know East Berlin and return to Moscow in October. After visiting several European and American countries, Nicaragua returned on December 16 and was arrested at the airport.
In March 1958, he signed the Minimum Program of the Republican Mobilization party that called for a general amnesty and return of exiles and was selected to deliver the opening discussion of the university course. He intervenes in the day of repudiation of the visit to the University of the North American official Milton Eisenhower (brother of the then president of the United States). In his capacity as secretary of relations of the University Center of the National Autonomous University (CUUN), he organizes student assemblies in November to demand the freedom of university professors and a student (Tomás Borge) who have been in prison since the execution of Somoza. He is detained several times, in Managua and in Matagalpa.
In March 1959, together with other colleagues, he founded the JDN (Nicaraguan Democratic Youth), which is considered the first attempt by Nicaraguan youth to become politically independent and play a historical role. From this movement they paint legends against tyranny, lead demonstrations and point out the defects of the National Opposition Union (UNO) controlled by the Conservative Party. These actions cause him to be arrested on April 2 and deported to Guatemala. In the Guatemalan capital it is related to the Student Association.
Start in the Guerrilla[]
From Guatemala he went to Honduras and joined the guerrilla column "Rigoberto López Pérez", which has a majority of Cuban members. The column is massacred in Chaparral (Honduras) and Carlos receives a gunshot wound to the lung. It is treated in Tegucigalpa and in Havana .
After his recovery, he traveled to Costa Rica and Venezuela where he attended a convention of the Nicaraguan Unitary Front (FUN) and on February 20 he signed, as a delegate from CUUN, the "Minimum Program" of that progressive organization. He is arrested and sent to Mexico where he meets Professor Edelberto Torres, for whom he is particularly fond.
On his return to Nicaragua, he is again arrested and extradited to Guatemala where he is confined in the Petén and befriends the future commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) of Guatemala, Luis Augusto Turcios Lima. He is transferred to the capital from where he evades and goes to El Salvador . In November, he arrived in Nicaragua via Havana with the help of Tomás Borges and Julio Jerez and made contact with the recently founded Nicaraguan Patriotic Youth (JPN), which has carried out intense opposition activities.
In 1961 he founded the New Nicaragua Movement (MNN) together with other colleagues. The MNN has three cells, in Managua, León and Estelí . He publishes Sandino's first ideology .
Founding of the FSLN and the guerrillas[]
At an MNN meeting held in Honduras in July, in which Carlos Fonseca, Tomás Borge, Silvio Mayorga, Fasutino Ruiz, and Santos López participated, Carlos Fonseca proposed the name Sandinista National Liberation Front for the revolutionary armed organization that had been it comes integrating.
He activates the Revolutionary Student Front (FER) and, together with the veteran Sandinista Santos López, studies the possibility of armed struggle on the ground reaching the banks of the Coco River. Disagreements with a comrade and the need to strengthen the Inner Front prevent their participation in the rural guerrilla. Between February and August 1963, he executed the Urban Resistance and studied the Nicaraguan guerrilla movement and the revolutionary struggles of other peoples.
In 1962 he was arrested and sentenced to 6 months in prison where he wrote "I accuse the dictatorship" and "This is the truth", an essay in which he refutes a government statement.
The 6 of January of 1965 is deported, for the third time, to Guatemala and confined again to the Petén, one armed several night men lead to the bank of the river Suchiate , and after several machine - gun fire, on January 15 the swim across. The next day he arrives in Tapachula , Mexico.
On March 20, he contracted a civil marriage, by proxy, in León, with María Haydee Terán; in Mexico, where he arrives weeks before, the religious is performed. After passing through Costa Rica, he entered Nicaragua in December 1965 .
On November 24, 1966 his son Carlos was born in León. During this time, Carlos Fonseca does several research work on the poet Ruben Darío, while at the same time, together with colleagues like José Benito Escobar, Daniel and Humberto Ortega and others, they intensify tyrabajo in the Managua neighborhoods and strengthen the student movement at the same time. which determines to make the necessary preparations to implement the armed struggle in the city and in the countryside.
In 1967 the FSLN issued a statement denouncing the probocadores of the UNO and with this the traditional left was broken. In April, Carlos Fonseca moved to the mountains, to the Quiragüe area, with a guerrilla group, and on August 6 he fought in the El Bijagüe region. The presence of the Sandinista guerrillas unleashes a bloody repression among the peasants.
The 17 of January of 1968 is recognized nationally as a political and military leader of the FSLN. Along with Julio Buitrago, Ricardo Morales Avilés, and other cadres that reorganize the ranks of the FSLN after the Pancasán training sessions and issue several statements to Nicaraguan mothers and revolutionary students.
On 29 January as as 1969 born daughter Tania. The Sandinista National Liberation Front, FSLN, consolidates itself politically and ideologically, despite its military setbacks, by offering a program with fifteen points outlined by it, its statutes and strategy. Launches messages on behalf of the organization "For a victorious guerrilla first of May."
On August 31, he was captured in a house in Alajuela, in Costa Rica, and in December an operation was organized for his release that was unsuccessful. His wife María Haydee Terán, among other colleagues, falls prey to him. Different movements in France and El Salvador ask Costa Rica for the release of Carlos Fonseca and his companions, but it was not until October 21 that an FSLN cashier operation was released to Cuba via Mexico.
Lives and works in Havana until 1975 . During that time, he carried out an intense work of organizing the FSLN and publishing different communications and articles, many of them were published in the Bohemia magazine . from his pen will come articles such as "Review of the secular North American intervention in Nicaragua" (for the XXXVIII anniversary of the assassination of Sandino) or "Notes on the letter-testament of Rigoberto López Pérez"
In August 1975 he is back in Nicaragua. In November he writes "Synthesis of some current problems". Then he joined the mountain and in 1976 he wrote "Notes on the mountain" and, "Notes on some problems of today", in the month of October. He was killed in combat in the Zinica region on November 7. Eyewitnesses indicate that Carlos Fonseca was assassinated after he was captured. His corpse is mutilated and his hands are sent to Managua for identification.
In 1979 he was buried in the mausoleum in the Plaza de la Revolución in Managua where he was received by more than 100,000 people.