Daniel Ortega: 1945—: Former Nicaragua President, Revolutionary Biography

Daniel Ortega: 1945—: Former Nicaragua president, revolutionary.

Daniel Ortega joined the revolutionary Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista Liberación National—FSLN) in 1963, dedicating himself to the overthrow of the oppressive Somoza dictatorship, which had been governing Nicaragua since the 1930s. After years of imprisonment and exile for his revolutionary activities, Ortega led the Sandinista revolution, which resulted in the collapse of the Somoza regime in 1979. Serving as president of Nicaragua from 1985 to 1990, throughout the years of bloody conflict between the leftist Sandinistas and the U.S.-backed contra rebels, Ortega secured himself a position as both an international icon and an influential leader of the Sandinista movement and Nicaraguan politics.