11^th International Summit on Global Warming and Environmental Science December 19-20, 2023 Nicaragua, Nicaragua

Nicaragua, country of Central America. It is the largest of the Central American republics. Nicaragua can be characterized by its agricultural economy, its history of autocratic government, and its imbalance of regional development. Almost all settlement and economic activity are concentrated in the western half of the country. The country’s name is derived from Nicarao, chief of the indigenous people living around present-day Lake Nicaragua during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Nicaragua has a unique history in that it was the only country in Latin America to be colonized by both the Spanish and the British. Nicaragua’s population is made up mostly of mestizos (people of mixed European and indigenous ancestry). The national capital is Managua, which also is the country’s largest city and home to about one-sixth of the population. The family of Anastasio Somoza García dominated Nicaragua from 1936 to 1979, when it was toppled by an insurrection led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional; FSLN). The land, economic, and educational reforms initiated by the socialist-oriented Sandinista regime were negated when it became embroiled in guerrilla warfare with a U.S.-backed insurgency beginning in the early 1980s. The Sandinista-dominated government was finally defeated by the U.S.-funded National Opposition Union, a coalition of parties, in the 1990 presidential elections. The election results, which were deemed free and fair by the international community, signaled an end to the armed conflict in Nicaragua. The Sandinistas returned to power in 2007, having promised to uphold many of the economic reforms of their predecessors. While reinstating robust social welfare programs, the government of Daniel Ortega adopted a largely neoliberal economic approach; however, it became increasingly authoritarian and repressive.