SPATIAL INEQUALITIES IN SANDINISTA NICARAGUA

When the Sandinistas came to power in Nicaragua in 1979, one implicit goal was to redress the spatial inequalities of development. It was widely believed that the Sandinistas had an alternative model of development that emphasized a grass-roots approach. Although much blame for the economic failings of the Sandinistas has been placed on the United States-financed contra insurgency, the economic policies enacted by the Sandinistas did not incorporate a grass-roots approach and thus did not address the underlying factors that had originally produced spatial inequalities.