The interference of the Christian Right in Nicaragua in the 1980s and 1990s

Seminar paper from the year 2023 in the subject History - America, grade: 2,3, University of Erfurt (Philosophische Fakultät), course: Race and Religion in American History, language: English, abstract: The motivation for this paper is the organization "Concerned Women for America", the connection between the Christian Right and foreign policy and how they influenced the foreign policy making regarding Nicaragua in the 1980s and 1990s. To answer this question, it is necessary to answer another one first: how do the terms anticommunism, evangelicals, foreign policy and humanitarian aid work together and influence each other?

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union tried to gain as much power and influence as they possibly could. Consequently, when Communism started to spread in Central America, the USA started to get worried. The USA has a long history of interfering with matters in countries in Central America, whether with missionary missions or military intervention, like Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Especially Nicaragua, which had two US-American military occupations in the first half of the 20th century, managed to partially free themselves of US-American influence. The revolution in the late 1970s changed their relationship again. This revolution resulted in a Civil War ¿ which was promoted from outside powers ¿ in the 1980s and in a communist dictatorship.

What ¿promoted from outside powers¿ actually means, is, that powers like the USA or other organizations were not only interested in the situation of Nicaragua, but influenced the developments and the outcome. The 40th President of the USA, Ronald Reagan, took actions, which changed the political situation in Nicaragua. He does not only play a crucial part in this paper, because he was the current President at that specific time, but also because he, as an individual, choose to interfere in the Nicaraguan Civil War.

Another phenomenon of that time was the rise of the evangelicals as a political movement, who tried to influence not only politics in the USA, but also outside of it. This phenomenon was at first close with the democratic President Jimmy Carter, but he turned out to be a disappointment for the evangelicals. After Carter, they started to have closed ties with the Republican party, counting back to Ronald Reagan. The Christian Right organization Concerned Women for America started a humanitarian aid program in 1987, with the main goal to send Love, Hope and Apples to Nicaraguan refugees in Costa Rica. It is one of the few Christian Right organizations which survived the 1990s and is still active.