50,000 Died in Nicaragua’s Struggle Against Dictatorship: Sócrates Was One of the Last

By John Perry and Dan Kovalik  –  Jun 29, 2025

Nicaraguans will fill the streets later this month to celebrate the 46th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution. On July 19, 1979, the Somoza dictatorship finally fell, ending 18 years of guerilla fighting and urban insurrections. The regime had been supported for 43 years by successive US administrations (the history is told in Nicaragua: A History of Us Intervention & Resistance).

Only three weeks before, over the two days June 27-28, Sandinista forces had been forced to leave the capital, Managua, where the working-class barrios that they controlled in the east of the city came under aerial bombardment. Under cover of darkness, an enormous, silent retreat took place. More than 6,000 insurgents left the city, mostly walking in single file, making their way by alleyways and then rural pathways for 20 miles, over bare volcanic hillsides, to reach the militant neighbouring town of Masaya. On the morning of the 28th, when Somoza’s National Guard moved in for what they thought would be the final offensive, they found Managua’s eastern barrios almost deserted.

This strategic retreat, known as el repliegue, cost just six deaths among Sandinista fighters or supporters. One of these was Sócrates Espinoza Muñoz.

Sócrates was born in Masaya on July 1, 1955 into a family that, to outward appearances, supported the dictatorship. His father, Rosalío, was a sergeant in the National Guard and vehemently opposed the revolution. However, because his duties took him away from Masaya for long periods, he was unaware that the rest of the family not only supported the Sandinista uprising but used their home as a “safe house” to protect guerrilla fighters and hide weapons.

Sócrates joined the ranks of the Sandinista Front in 1977, identifying with its goals of social equality and freedom from the brutal dictatorship. He joined clandestinely, worked as a collaborator and took part in the final insurrection under the pseudonym “Edwin.” He joined a mobile unit on June 8 and learned to use the Mag 50 machine gun operated by his younger brother Rosalío (known as “Bronko”), who – 46 years later – recounted the events leading to Sócrates’ death.

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On the morning of June 28, Bronko explained, their unit was covering the retreating forces as they reached the outskirts of Masaya, tired and in some cases wounded. After running out of ammunition, the unit was ordered to return to their temporary base by their commander, the 20-year-old Miriam Tinoco Pastrana (Comandante “Delia”), who would be killed in action only a week later. Sócrates asked for more ammunition, was given a band of 100 cartridges and he and Bronko set out again to cover the exhausted fighters who were still arriving. The National Guard’s base was in an old colonial fort on the summit of a hill overlooking Masaya, El Coyotepe. Sócrates and Bronko, skirting this hill as they looked out for retreating Sandinistas, came under attack, but managed to join other fighters and reorganize. By nightfall, now in heavy rain, with the Coyotepe now covered in clouds, they were patrolling the cotton fields to its north, guided by local peasants, often finding themselves knee-deep in mud. 

As they crossed one field, a flash of lightning revealed three silhouettes in a fence about 100 yards in front of them. Believing them to be National Guard soldiers who were fleeing, they set out to try to take them as prisoners. Bronko managed to grab a gun from one of them, and Sócrates threw himself on another. But a shot rang out, and Sócrates yelled, “they hit me.” Bronko killed the culprit and the others were captured. Sócrates’ companions found an empty house, took off a door and used it to carry him to safety.

Arriving in the city, they found that all the streets were blocked and cordoned off, and no vehicles were circulating. They had to navigate roadblocks, carrying Sócrates on their shoulders, eventually reaching the hospital. Doctors found that the bullet, which had entered his neck, had killed him. The following morning, under periodic gunfire from helicopters and an aircraft, Sócrates’ body was taken to his parents’ house and then buried in the nearby cemetery.

Standing at his grave 46 years later, surrounded by present-day Sandinista activists who had just adorned it with flowers, his sister Abigail extolled Socrates’ example of courage and commitment. “Like that of many who gave their lives for the Revolution”, she said “it is a legacy that we as revolutionaries must continue. No longer with weapons and risking our lives, but through the struggles for health and education where, for the huge advances we have made today, we have to thank our Sandinista government.”

Behind Abigail in the photo are Edwin and Paola, Sócrates’ son and daughter. As well as commemorating her father’s death, Paola was marking her birthday: she was born on June 28, 1978, exactly one year before Sócrates was killed.

 

 

DK/JP/OT