The Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from Panama in the early 16th century. Independence from Spain was declared in 1821 and the country became an independent republic in 1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first half of the 19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region in subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas to power in 1979. Nicaraguan aid to leftist rebels in El Salvador caused the US to sponsor anti-Sandinista contra guerrillas through much of the 1980s. Free elections in 1990, 1996, and 2001, saw the Sandinistas defeated, but voting in 2006 announced the return of former Sandinista President Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra. The 2008 municipal elections were characterized by widespread irregularities. Nicaragua's infrastructure and economy - hard hit by the earlier civil war and by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 - are slowly being rebuilt, but democratic institutions face new challenges under the ORTEGA administration.

Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras

13 00 N, 85 00 W

Central America and the Caribbean

slightly smaller than New York state

910 km

tropical in lowlands, cooler in highlands

extensive Atlantic coastal plains rising to central interior mountains; narrow Pacific coastal plain interrupted by volcanoes

gold, silver, copper, tungsten, lead, zinc, timber, fish

610 sq km (2003)

196.7 cu km (2000)

destructive earthquakes; volcanoes; landslides; extremely susceptible to hurricanes

deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution

largest country in Central America; contains the largest freshwater body in Central America, Lago de Nicaragua

5,891,199 (July 2010 est.)

1.784% (2010 est.)

23.25 births/1,000 population (2010 est.)

4.3 deaths/1,000 population (July 2010 est.)

-1.11 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2010 est.)

2.51 children born/woman (2010 est.)

0.2% (2007 est.)

7,700 (2007 est.)

fewer than 500 (2007 est.)

mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 69%, white 17%, black 9%, Amerindian 5%

Roman Catholic 58.5%, Evangelical 21.6%, Moravian 1.6%, Jehovah's Witness 0.9%, other 1.7%, none 15.7% (2005 census)

Spanish 97.5% (official), Miskito 1.7%, other 0.8% (1995 census)

3.1% of GDP (2003)

republic

15 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento) and 2 autonomous regions* (regiones autonomistas, singular - region autonoma); Atlantico Norte*, Atlantico Sur*, Boaco, Carazo, Chinandega, Chontales, Esteli, Granada, Jinotega, Leon, Madriz, Managua, Masaya, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, Rio San Juan, Rivas

15 September 1821 (from Spain)

Independence Day, 15 September (1821)

9 January 1987; revised in 1995, 2000, and 2005

civil law system; Supreme Court may review administrative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations

16 years of age; universal

unicameral National Assembly or Asamblea Nacional (92 seats; 90 members elected by proportional representation and party lists to serve five-year terms; 1 seat for the previous president, 1 seat for the runner-up in previous presidential election)

Supreme Court or Corte Suprema de Justicia (16 judges elected for five-year terms by the National Assembly)

Alliance for the Republic or APRE; Conservative Party or PC [Azalia AVILES Salmeron]; Independent Liberal Party or PLI [Indalecio RODRIGUEZ]; Liberal Constitutionalist Party or PLC [Jorge CASTILLO Quant]; Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance or ALN [Alejandro MEJIA Ferreti]; Sandinista National Liberation Front or FSLN [Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra]; Sandinista Renovation Movement or MRS [Enrique SAENZ Navarrete]

National Workers Front or FNT (a Sandinista umbrella group of eight labor unions including: Farm Workers Association or ATC, Health Workers Federation or FETASALUD, Heroes and Martyrs Confederation of Professional Associations or CONAPRO, National Association of Educators of Nicaragua or ANDEN, National Union of Employees or UNE, National Union of Farmers and Ranchers or UNAG, Sandinista Workers Central or CST, and Union of Journalists of Nicaragua or UPN); Permanent Congress of Workers or CPT (an umbrella group of four non-Sandinista labor unions including: Autonomous Nicaraguan Workers Central or CTN-A, Confederation of Labor Unification or CUS, Independent General Confederation of Labor or CGT-I, and Labor Action and Unity Central or CAUS); Nicaraguan Workers' Central or CTN (an independent labor union); Superior Council of Private Enterprise or COSEP (a confederation of business groups)

BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, PetroCaribe, RG, SICA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, Union Latina, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue with the national coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms features a triangle encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA on the top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom; the banner is based on the former blue-white-blue flag of the Federal Republic of Central America; the blue bands symbolize the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, while the white band represents the land between the two bodies of water

Nicaragua, the poorest country in Central America, has widespread underemployment and poverty. GDP fell by almost 3% in 2009, due to decreased export demand in the US and Central American markets, lower commodity prices for key agricultural exports, and low remittance growth - remittances are equivalent to almost 15% of GDP. The US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) has been in effect since April 2006 and has expanded export opportunities for many agricultural and manufactured goods. Textiles and apparel account for nearly 60% of Nicaragua's exports, but increases in the minimum wage during the ORTEGA administration will likely erode its comparative advantage in this industry. Nicaragua relies on international economic assistance to meet internal- and external-debt financing obligations. Foreign donors have curtailed this funding, however, in response to November 2008 electoral fraud. In early 2004, Nicaragua secured some $4.5 billion in foreign debt reduction under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, and in October 2007, the IMF approved a new poverty reduction and growth facility (PRGF) program.

$16.51 billion (2009 est.)

$16.91 billion (2008 est.)

$16.39 billion (2007 est.)

$6.151 billion (2009 est.)

-2.4% (2009 est.)

3.2% (2008 est.)

3.2% (2007 est.)

$2,800 (2009 est.)

$2,900 (2008 est.)

$2,900 (2007 est.)

2.283 million (2009 est.)

8.2% (2009 est.)

6.1% (2008 est.)

48% (2005)

43.1 (2001)

60.3 (1998)

23.4% of GDP (2009 est.)

63.1% of GDP (2009 est.)

56.1% of GDP (2008 est.)

3.7% (2009 est.)

19.8% (2008 est.)

NA%

13.17% (31 December 2008)

13.04% (31 December 2007)

$507.5 million (31 December 2008)

$465.1 million (31 December 2007)

$1.81 billion (31 December 2008)

$1.802 billion (31 December 2007)

$4.272 billion (31 December 2008)

$4.133 billion (31 December 2007)

$NA

coffee, bananas, sugarcane, cotton, rice, corn, tobacco, sesame, soya, beans; beef, veal, pork, poultry, dairy products; shrimp, lobsters

food processing, chemicals, machinery and metal products, textiles, clothing, petroleum refining and distribution, beverages, footwear, wood

-2.8% (2009 est.)

3.286 billion kWh (2007 est.)

2.569 billion kWh (2007 est.)

0 kWh (2008 est.)

63.95 million kWh (2007 est.)

0 bbl/day (2008 est.)

29,000 bbl/day (2009 est.)

213 bbl/day (2007 est.)

29,570 bbl/day (2007 est.)

0 bbl (1 January 2009 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (1 January 2009 est.)

-$802 million (2009 est.)

-$1.513 billion (2008 est.)

$2.384 billion (2009 est.)

$2.538 billion (2008 est.)

coffee, beef, shrimp and lobster, tobacco, sugar, gold, peanuts; textiles and apparel

US 61.98%, El Salvador 7.74%, Costa Rica 3.67% (2009)

$3.93 billion (2009 est.)

$4.749 billion (2008 est.)

consumer goods, machinery and equipment, raw materials, petroleum products

US 22.63%, Venezuela 12.27%, Mexico 9.05%, Costa Rica 8.66%, China 7.16%, Guatemala 6.59%, El Salvador 5.63% (2009)

$1.573 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$1.141 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$4.7 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$4.596 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

cordobas (NIO) per US dollar - 20.336 (2009), 19.374 (2008), 18.457 (2007), 17.582 (2006), 16.733 (2005)

312,000 (2008)

3.108 million (2008)

multiple privately-owned terrestrial television networks, supplemented by cable TV in most urban areas; of more than 100 radio broadcast stations, nearly all are privately owned; Radio Nicaragua is government-owned and Radio Sandino is controlled by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) (2007)

.ni

157,162 (2010)

185,000 (2008)

143 (2010)

oil 54 km (2009)

2,220 km (including lakes Managua and Nicaragua) (2008)

Bluefields, Corinto, El Bluff

National Army of Nicaragua (Ejercito Nacional de Nicaragua, ENN; includes Navy, Air Force) (2010)

17 years of age for voluntary military service; tour of duty 18-36 months (2008)

0.6% of GDP (2006)

memorials and countermemorials were filed by the parties in Nicaragua's 1999 and 2001 proceedings against Honduras and Colombia at the ICJ over the maritime boundary and territorial claims in the western Caribbean Sea, final public hearings are scheduled for 2007; the 1992 ICJ ruling for El Salvador and Honduras advised a tripartite resolution to establish a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca, which considers Honduran access to the Pacific; legal dispute over navigational rights of San Juan River on border with Costa Rica

transshipment point for cocaine destined for the US and transshipment point for arms-for-drugs dealing