Portal:Nicaragua

Republic of Nicaragua
*República de Nicaragua* (Spanish)
Republic of Nicaragua República de Nicaragua (Spanish)
	Flag Coat of arms
	Motto: En Dios confiamos (Spanish); "In God We Trust"
	Anthem: Salve a ti, Nicaragua (Spanish); "Hail to Thee, Nicaragua";
ISO 3166 code	NI

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The Nicaragua Portal

Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest country in Central America, comprising 130,370 km² (50,340 sq mi). With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America after Guatemala and Honduras.

Nicaragua is bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean and shares maritime borders with El Salvador to the west and Colombia to the east. The country's largest city and national capital is Managua, the fourth-largest city in Central America, with a population of 1,055,247 as of 2020. Nicaragua is known as "the breadbasket of Central America" due to having the most fertile soil and arable land in all of Central America. Nicaragua's multiethnic population includes people of mestizo, indigenous, European, and African heritage. The country's most spoken language is Spanish, though indigenous tribes on the Mosquito Coast speak their own languages and English. The mixture of cultural traditions has generated substantial diversity in folklore, cuisine, music, and literature, including contributions by Nicaraguan poets and writers such as Rubén Darío. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

The Nicaraguan contras in 1987

In the history of Nicaragua, the Contras (Spanish: La contrarrevolución, the counter-revolution) were the right-wing militias who waged anti-communist guerilla warfare (1979–1990) against the Marxist governments of the Sandinista National Liberation Front and the Junta of National Reconstruction, which came to power after the Nicaraguan Revolution in 1979.

Months after the political dynasty (1936–1979) of the Somoza family lost the Nicaraguan Revolution to the Sandinistas, the US government sponsored the remaining national-guard soldiers and Somocista politicians of the losing side as la Contra, the right-wing counter-revolution. The American military assistance and financial aid granted the Contras a measure of political credibility and military utility as anti-communist militias useful to U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. In 1986, consequent to complaints of the Contras' regular violation of the human rights of Nicaraguan civilians, the Boland Amendment (1982–1986) ended U.S. financing of the Contras; yet the Reagan government illegally continued financing the anti-communist secret war of the Contras against Sandinista Nicaragua, known in the US as the Iran–Contra affair. By 1987, the CIA had organized most of the Contra militias into the anti-communist Nicaraguan Resistance, within which the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) was the greatest militia. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

edit

Did you know...

...that the first woman to be popularly elected as President of a Latin American nation was Violeta Chamorro who served her term from 1990-1997 in Nicaragua. As of 2007 she is the only woman to have served in the role?
...that in 1972, nearly 90% of the capital city of Managua was destroyed in an earthquake?
...that Lake Nicaragua is the largest freshwater lake in Central America (19th largest in the world) and is home to the world's only freshwater sharks?
...that Nicaragua's Bosawas Biosphere Reserve protects 1,800,000 acres (7,300 km²) of Mosquitia forest - almost seven percent of the country's area - making it the second largest Biosphere reserve in the world after the Amazon in Brazil?
...that most Nicaraguans begin and end every day with Gallo pinto, a meal of rice and beans cooked separately and then fried together, and that on the Atlantic coast it is common to add coconut oil to the dish?
...that one of the world's finest rums, Ron Flor de Caña, is produced in Nicaragua?
...that in the 19th century the United States had plans to build a waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the country. The Nicaragua Canal concept was abandoned after the U.S. opted to back the construction of the Panama Canal instead?

edit

Related portals

edit

WikiProjects

WikiProject Central America

Selected image - show another

Image 1León Cathedral is a significantly important and historic landmark in Nicaragua that was awarded World Heritage Site status with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Image 2A bus in the city of Granada
Image 3A view of Telica, 2011
Image 4Cathedral in Granada, Nicaragua
Image 5A view of Ometepe Island
Image 6U.N. map of Nicaragua
Image 7Cerro Negro volcano in 2011
Image 8Rotonda Rubén Darío in Managua
Image 9Trees of Life at night on Avenida Bolívar, Managua, 2016
Image 10A railway tunnel in Nicaragua, built under President José Santos Zelaya (1893-1909)
Image 11Some Nicaraguan cuisine: seafood soup, bread and beer

edit

Subcategories

Category puzzle

Select [►] to view subcategories

edit

Nicaragua news

edit

Things you can do

Expand
- High Importance: Culture of Nicaragua, Departments of Nicaragua, Ernesto Cardenal
- Top Importance: History of Nicaragua, FSLN, Iran–Contra affair, Daniel Ortega
- Nicaragua stubs, Nicaragua geography stubs, Nicaraguan people stubs

edit

Nicaragua Topics

edit

Departments

Nicaragua is a unitary republic. For administrative purposes it is divided into 15 departments (departamentos) and two self-governing regions (autonomous regions).

(Department capitals in parentheses)