NICARAGUA

NICARAGUA. -

I. GEOGRAPHY

It is the largest (148,000 sq. km.) but least densely populated (1.2 million inhabitants; 7.8 per sq. km.) state of the isthmus.

The territory, situated between Honduras and Costa Rica, is divided into two unequal parts by the long tectonic furrow in which lie the two great Lakes of Managua (1,134 sq. km.) and Nicaragua (8,400 sq. km.): to the east is a plateau with a gentle slope toward the swampy and deserted coast; to the west, a narrow fringe of mountains and plains, where the population is concentrated. At the narrowest point, between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific, the two sides of the volcanic mountain barrier (running from northwest to southeast) are separated by a threshold only 51 m. high: a new interoceanic canal could relatively easily be built here, a project which has been considered several times. The climate is tropical, hot, and uniform, with abundant rainfall; however, differences in altitude cause significant local variations. The humid eastern regions are covered with dense forests (about one-third of the total area), rich in valuable woods (mahogany, cedar, rosewood); the zones along the Pacific are devoted to cultivation, among which coffee, cocoa, tobacco, sugar cane, and bananas predominate. Of the minerals, only gold is exploited (6-7,000 kg. annually), which heads the exports. The population is composed of half mestizos, one-third Amerindians, and one-tenth blacks. The main centers, all on the Pacific side, are Managua (150,000 inhabitants), which is the capital, and León (40,000 inhabitants), both university seats.

Independent since 1821, Nicaragua is organized as a republic with a president and a bicameral congress, both elective and serving six-year terms.

II. HISTORY

Discovered by Christopher Columbus on his fourth American voyage on 12 Nov. 1502 (when he sighted the Nicaraguan coasts), Nicaragua began to attract the attention of the Spanish only on 21 Jan. when Gil González de Ávila (or Dávila), having set out from the Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama, landed on the Nicaraguan coasts and began a systematic exploration of the region. On 1 June 1527, Nicaragua was organized with its own governor.

The Spanish had not occupied the coastal region inhabited by the Miskito Indians (= Mosquito Coast); the English, in the 17th century, attempted several occupations there, but due to the hostile attitude of the natives, they limited themselves to placing the entire coast under their protectorate. This situation lasted until 1848. Then, in 1860, with the Treaty of Managua, England recognized Nicaragua’s full and absolute sovereignty over the Mosquito Coast on the essential condition of complete autonomy for these tribes.

As in other Central and South American regions, Nicaragua also experienced the desire for independence, but on 15 Sept. 1821, following the Mexican insurrection of Agustín de Iturbide, Nicaragua was occupied by the Mexican general Filisola, and only on 8 Apr. 1826 did Nicaragua succeed in freeing itself from Mexican subjection and adopting an effectively independent constitution.

From that year onward, Nicaragua’s internal life shared many points of contact with that of the other Spanish-American states: internal uprisings, dictatorships, periods of economic depression, and more or less lengthy intervals of tranquility. In the second half of the 19th century, to put an end to the continuous bloody antagonisms, the entire population decided to found a new capital, Managua, on the site of an ancient Andean settlement, in a central and equidistant position from the two oceans; a city that soon fulfilled the purpose for which it had been conceived.

With the outbreak of the First World War (1914-18), the United States, through the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty of 1914 (ratified in 1916), obtained from the Republic, in exchange for three million gold pesos, the exclusive right to build an interoceanic canal through Nicaragua (San Juan River-Lake Nicaragua-Brito), the lease for ninety-nine years of some Nicaraguan islands in the Caribbean Sea, and the right to establish a naval base in the Gulf of Fonseca. With this Treaty, the Republic practically lost its independence, becoming a North American protectorate. After the First World War, José María Moncada was elected president in 1928; despite the continued presence of North American troops, he initiated a period of good governance: in December 1932, the United States withdrew its troops from the region, and in January of the following year (1933), the new president, Juan Bautista Sacasa, succeeded in ending the internal insurrection, restoring conditions of life less tense than in the past. With the outbreak of the Second World War, Somoza aligned himself with the United States, declaring war on Germany, Japan, and Italy in December 1941. Supplies for the North Americans, along with intensified cultivation and increased labor demands, neutralized the agricultural crisis so that Nicaragua’s situation rapidly improved.

III. EVANGELIZATION

On 3 Nov. 1534, Paul III established the diocese of Nicaragua and León as suffragan to Mexico; its first bishop was Diego Álvarez. Benedict XIV made it dependent on Guatemala. The most zealous missionaries in Nicaragua were the Franciscans, who founded in 1575 the province of St. George of Nicaragua, which by the end of the 16th century already had 12 houses. To the Franciscans were later added the Dominicans and other religious orders, which were expelled in 1872. Pius XI, on 2 Dec. 1913, reorganized the hierarchy by establishing the ecclesiastical province of Nicaragua, with the archbishop of Managua and two suffragan sees, León and Granada, as well as the apostolic vicariate of Bluefields. On 19 Dec. 1924, the diocese of Matagalpa was established and also placed under Managua.

The vast majority of the population is Catholic, which is the state religion according to the Concordat of 1861, ratified in 1862. Freedom of worship is recognized. The principal part of the population consists of mestizos, who make up 50% of the inhabitants, who number about 1,500,000. The apostolic vicariate of Bluefields, erected by decree of the Consistorial Congregation on 2 Dec. 1913, also includes the islands belonging to the country and is entrusted to the Capuchins of the Province of Catalonia.

For literature, V. HISPANO-AMERICANA, LETTERATURA.

IV. LEGAL STATUS OF THE CHURCH

Article 8 of the current Constitution (promulgated on 1 Nov. 1950) sanctions the principle of the separation of Church and State, which does not recognize any official religion.

Art. 110 guarantees freedom of conscience, the expression of every belief, and the practice of all cults, provided they do not oppose morality, good customs, or public order. Those cults incompatible with human life or physical integrity are excluded. The same article explicitly forbids the enactment of laws that favor or restrict particular cults. However, there are provisions of favor applying to all religious confessions. Art. 84, in fact, exempts from taxation places intended for worship; it forbids the State from converting these places and objects of worship to other purposes; churches, confessions, and religious institutions of any cult that enjoy legal personality have the same rights over their goods as private individuals.

Art. 95, dealing with workers' rights, recognizes the obligation of weekly rest but does not recognize Catholic religious holidays, including Sunday.

Secularism is more pronounced in provisions concerning education and marriage. Regarding the former, Art. 100, which reproduces Art. 88 of the 1939 Constitution, states that primary education is compulsory, and that provided by the State and public corporations is free and secular. In theory, according to an authentic declaration inserted in the official parliamentary records under the previous Constitution, “Secular education does not prevent ministers of religion from imparting their doctrines in schools, since the State does not prohibit it”;

in practice, this declaration never took effect, and with the promulgation of the new Constitution it must be considered obsolete. Religious instruction in public schools remains officially abolished; it is imparted in some schools thanks to the goodwill of teachers and the authorization granted by President Somoza to Catholic Action of the Republic in 1942. Also noteworthy, and not without unfortunate effects, has been the State’s intervention in Catholic private schools, numerous in number, which in September 1949 united into a national federation affiliated with the international one in Bogotá (C.I.E.C.).

Nicaraguan legislation admits divorce. In June 1941, moreover, a law was promulgated prescribing, with severe penalties, the precedence of the civil act over religious marriage. The Constitution, in Art. 80, also establishes the same obligations for parents toward legitimate children and those born out of wedlock.

Finally, the Constitution does not recognize the religious character of public cemeteries, in which ministers of all cults may conduct their respective rites (Art. 112).

The Republic of Nicaragua maintains diplomatic relations with the Holy See through the Apostolic Nuncio resident in Managua and the minister plenipotentiary accredited to the Supreme Pontiff.