Astorga, Nora (1949–1988)

Nicaraguan diplomat and revolutionary. Born Nora Astorga Gadea in 1949; died of cancer in Managua on February 14, 1988; studied law and became an attorney; married Jorge Jenkins; children: five, including one adopted son.

Assisted in the assassination of General Reynaldo Perez Vega, notorious security chief for the Somozas and a sadistic torturer; founding member of the Association

of Women Confronting the National Problem (AMPRONAC), the Sandinista organization of women supporters of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN); served as deputy minister of foreign affairs.

Born Nora Astorga Gadea into an affluent family of the Nicaraguan oligarchy in 1949, Nora had a contented, secure childhood. Her father, a wealthy lumber exporter and rancher, came from a family that had prospered for decades under the long-established Somoza regime. Nora's grandfather served the Somozas as minister of defense. Like many members of her nation's economic and political elite, she studied in the United States, at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. When she began studying for a law degree at Managua's Universidad Centroamericana, Nora became increasingly convinced that the brutal rule of the Somoza family and its political dynasty must be terminated.

The Somoza clan had ruled Nicaragua since 1937, when Anastasio Somoza (1895–1956) became president until 1947, and again from 1951 until his assassination in 1956. Speaking excellent English, Somoza began working for the U.S. Marines who occupied Nicaragua from 1912 until 1933 to protect American corporate and strategic interests in an impoverished "banana republic." A nationalist movement that attempted to free Nicaragua was led by one of the most effective guerrilla leaders of modern history, Agusto César Sandino (1895–1934). From 1927 through 1933, Sandino was at the head of a successful national insurrection. Lured to the capital city of Managua for a peace conference, Sandino was seized and shot in February 1934. Despite his murder and the demise of his movement, the Sandino myth grew with each passing year as Nicaraguan intellectuals, many of them from oligarchic families, thrilled to novels, plays and songs celebrating their martyred leader.

While growing up, Nora Astorga idealized and romanticized the legend of the Sandinista forces. She also read about courageous women: Sandino's wife Blanca Araúz , a trained telegrapher who ran the rebel forces communications units; Teresa Villatoro , a Salvadorean who led one of the guerrilla columns (and was incidentally also Sandino's mistress); and Maria Altamirano , who was placed in charge of one of the rebel base camps.

By the time she graduated from law school, Astorga was a confirmed social radical. At age 22, she married Jorge Jenkins, a student radical, with whom she had two children. The couple studied together for a year in Italy, he studying architecture and she banking law. The marriage ended after five years. As a law student, Astorga joined a revolutionary cell, passing messages and buying illegal supplies. Whereas student radicalism has been shown to often fizzle once students move into adult roles, this was not the case with Nora Astorga, though she benefitted from her status in the ruling class. By this time, the Somoza dynasty's corruption had reached monumental proportions; even a normally indulgent U.S. State Department began to characterize the Nicaraguan regime as a "kleptocracy," which relentlessly plundered the poor nation. The largest country in Central America, Nicaragua was endowed with sufficient natural resources to support all of its citizens in a decent manner, but not when the Somozas amassed a private fortune of at least $500 million. The regime was tolerated because of the emergence of an assertive revolutionary state in Cuba in 1959 under young and charismatic leaders Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

When a massive earthquake in Nicaragua devastated the capital city of Managua on Deceber 23, 1972, leaving many thousands dead and even more homeless, the Somoza government's response was inept and corrupt. The old regime finally went too far, as international aid earmarked for earthquake victims was pocketed by the dynasty and its hangers-on. From this point on, the political opposition grew rapidly, and soon a full-scale guerrilla organization, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) was born. Nora Astorga quickly joined the rebel group.

A successful lawyer for a leading construction company, she had an ideal cover for her work as a clandestine member of the FSLN. At the center of Nicaragua's oligarchic system, she was able to gather political and economic intelligence and pass it on to her friends in the revolutionary movement. As the government began to fail, her work grew increasingly dangerous. On March 8, 1978—International Women's Day (surely not a coincidence)—Astorga played a central role in an important assassination. The Sandinistas wanted to kidnap the notorious security chief and sadistic torturer General Reynaldo Perez Vega. Astorga lured Vega to her bedroom, where he was strangled when he resisted. His death would remain a celebrated but also controversial part of Nora Astorga's revolutionary career for the rest of her life. In later years, she remarked, "It was not murder but political justice." Assisted by the under-ground, Astorga escaped to a rebel training camp to become commander of a military squad. After the triumph of the revolution, she received the title of Comandante Guerrillero, of which she was extremely proud. For Sandinista loyalists, she had become an instant heroine. The other side labeled her an immoral, scheming Marxist femme fatale who unfairly lured a soldier to his doom.

In January 1978, Somoza henchmen murdered the regime's most outspoken critic, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, who published the newspaper La Prensa. In August 1978, Sandinista partisans captured the National Palace. Taking hostages, they forced the regime to pay a large cash ransom and provide safe conduct for them out of the country. A national uprising erupted, and the corrupt Somoza system rapidly collapsed. In July 1979, Anastasio Somoza, Jr. fled to the United States. Power was transferred to a five-member junta of National Reconstruction, which pledged political democracy and economic justice. The junta included Sandinista leaders but also Violetta Barrios de Chamorro , the widow of the slain editor of La Prensa. In 1980, Nora Astorga was appointed chief special prosecutor for the trials of some 7,500 members of Somoza's National Guard, many of whom drew long prison terms.

Although the response of the U.S. government to the new situation in Managua was initially cautious because of the nationalistic and leftist components of Sandinista policy, it still appeared that the two nations could move to create a more stable and just political and social order in Central America. This situation changed significantly in 1981, however, when the staunchly conservative Reagan administration decided that the Sandinista government represented a direct threat to American security interests in the region. Of the new situation in Central America, some Washington strategists took a hard-line Cold War view, postulating that Managua was another Cuba and would destabilize a region long subservient to American economic and strategic interests. American-funded contra mercenaries and massive CIA involvement throughout the 1980s were a sad chapter in the region's history.

Araúz, Blanca

Nicaraguan rebel. Name variations: Arauz.

A trained telegrapher, Blanca Araúz ran the rebel forces communications units for her husband Agusto César Sandino (1895–1934), one of the most effective guerrilla leaders in modern history; he was assassinated in 1934.

Nora Astorga regarded her work as a founding member of the Association of Women Confronting the National Problem (AMPRONAC), the Sandinista organization of women supporters of the FSLN, as the most important part of her work for the national rebirth of the Nicaraguan people. In July 1979, AMPRONAC had no more than 8,000 members and supporters (a small number in a national population of 2,400,000); yet women played an important role in the revolution and comprised 30% of the total number of FSLN combat forces in the summer of 1979 when the guerrillas marched into Managua in triumph. Despite that fact, few women were assigned important roles in the new government. Nora Astor-ga was joined by Lea Guido who served as minister of health, Daisy Zamora who became deputy minister of culture, and Dora Maria Tellez who advanced to the position of vice president of the Council of State. (Daisy Zamora would honor the memory of her friend "Norita" after her 1988 death with a deeply felt poem.) These were tangible signs of progress, but even the creation of a new organization—the Luisa Amanda Espinosa Association of Nicaraguan Women (AMNLAE) in September 1979—failed to fully mobilize many of the poor, malnourished, and illiterate rural women who constituted the bulk of women in a nation where traditional machismo and male dominance still reigned.

Nora Astorga served as deputy minister of foreign affairs, and was an intelligent but glamorous speaker for the beleaguered Sandinista revolution. Conversing in idiomatic American English (as well as Italian), she wore high heels and was smartly dressed. As one of the few women diplomats of such high rank, she presented the Sandinista point of view cogently and persuasively, especially in 1983 and 1984 when the Contadora group of Latin American nations sought a peaceful settlement to Central America's bloody politics. Many observers believed that she would be an effective ambassador to Washington, but the Reagan administration rejected her on "moral grounds," arguing that she had been involved in a murder and had had several children out of wedlock. It seems possible that the real reason for her rejection was her potential as a very effective speaker for the Sandinista cause. But she remained persona non grata to the CIA because of her involvement in the death of General Perez Vega, one of the agency's key men in Central America.

In 1986, Astorga was appointed chief Nicaraguan delegate to the United Nations. That same year, she discovered that she had breast cancer, a disease she would fight with valor. Back at work seven weeks after surgery, she impressed her fellow delegates with her diligence. Her approach to diplomacy was unique. Astorga often sent red roses with personally signed diplomatic notes. Aware of American antagonism towards her country, she argued: "Revolutions are not exportable like Coca-Cola or paperbacks or something like that. You don't produce it internally and send it away. Revolutions are made in a country when the conditions in that particular country are for a process of change."

Nora Astorga was a passionate speaker for the rights of small nations. In many ways, she was a typical Latin American revolutionary from the ruling elite. While serving at the UN, she lived in a large house in the exclusive suburb of Scarsdale with her mother and five children, including an adopted son, the child of a revolutionary comrade who had died fighting Somoza. Despite the growing tensions between Washington and Managua, she felt at home in the United States and had many American friends who sympathized with the Sandinista revolution. In ill health, she continued to speak before warmly appreciative American audiences, including feminist groups. Nora Astorga died of cancer in Managua on February 14, 1988. Two years later, the Sandinistas voluntarily relinquished power and free elections were held, a fitting tribute to Astorga and those like her who struggled to free Nicaragua from tyranny.

sources:

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Cox, Jack. Requiem in the Tropics: Inside Central America. NY: UCA Books, 1987.

Garvin, Glenn. Everybody Had His Own Gringo: The CIA & the Contras. Washington, DC: Brassey's (United States), 1992.

Meyer, Harvey K. Historical Dictionary of Nicaragua. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1972.

Molyneux, Maxine D. "Women's Role in the Nicaraguan Revolutionary Process: The Early Years," in Promissory Notes: Women in the Transition to Socialism. Edited by Sonia Kruks, Rayna Rapp, and Marilyn B. Young. NY: Monthly Review Press, 1989, pp. 127–147.

"Nora and the Dog," in Time. Vol. 123, no. 14, April 2, 1984, p. 24.

Randall, Margaret. Sandino's Daughters: Testimonies of Nicaraguan Women in Struggle. London: Zed Press, 1981.

——. Sandino's Daughters Revisited: Feminism in Nicaragua. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994.

——. "When art meets politics: three worlds, three stories," in Women's Review of Books. Vol. 7, Nos. 10–11, July 1990, pp. 21–22.

Rohter, Larry. "Managua Journal: Ghosts in Nicaragua? No, Somozas in the Flesh," in The New York Times. July 28, 1995, p. A2.

Saxon, Wolfgang. "Nora Astorga, a Sandinista Hero And Delegate to U.N., Dies at 39," in The New York Times Biographical Service. February 1988, p. 199.

Sciolino, Elaine. "Nicaragua's U.N. Voice," in The New York Times Magazine. September 28, 1986, pp. 28ff.

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John Haag , Associate Professor of History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia