Nicaragua
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CountryNicaragua
Flag
Capitalname: Managua
geographic coordinates: 12 09 N, 86 17 W
time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Population5,675,356 (July 2007 est.)
GMT-6
LocationCentral America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras

see map
Areatotal: 129,494 sq km
land: 120,254 sq km
water: 9,240 sq km
Ethnic groupsmestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 69%, white 17%, black 9%, Amerindian 5%
ReligionsRoman Catholic 72.9%, Evangelical 15.1%, Moravian 1.5%, Episcopal 0.1%, other 1.9%, none 8.5% (1995 census)
LanguagesSpanish 97.5% (official), Miskito 1.7%, other 0.8% (1995 census)
note: English and indigenous languages on Atlantic coast
Government typerepublic
National holidayIndependence Day, 15 September (1821)
Constitution9 January 1987; reforms in 1995, 2000, and 2005
Legal systemcivil law system; Supreme Court may review administrative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
BackgroundThe Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from Panama in the early 16th century. Independence from Spain was declared in 1821 and the country became an independent republic in 1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first half of the 19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region in subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas to power in 1979. Nicaraguan aid to leftist rebels in El Salvador caused the US to sponsor anti-Sandinista contra guerrillas through much of the 1980s. Free elections in 1990, 1996, and 2001, saw the Sandinistas defeated, but voting in 2006 announced the return of former Sandinista President Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra. Nicaragua's infrastructure and economy - hard hit by the earlier civil war and by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 - are slowly being rebuilt.
Internet
country code
.ni
LAST UPDATED ON 17 JUNE 2007