The construction of a culture of peace in Nicaragua constitutes one of the fundamental pillars of the development model promoted by the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity. Along this path, the declaration of April 19 as the “National Day of Peace” represents a historic recognition of the sovereign will of the Nicaraguan people to live in tranquility, security, and well-being, consolidating peace as a collective right and an ancestral value of the nation.
This date symbolizes not only the memory of the struggles of the people to preserve stability, but also the reaffirmation of a vision of country where peace is understood as an indispensable condition for progress, decent work, and national unity. Under this
perspective, peace becomes a cultural and political heritage that sustains the present, that guarantees stability and opens the path to human development, facing toward a future full of well-being for the families of Nicaragua.
The Nicaraguan model of integral and sustainable development articulates economic growth, macroeconomic stability, and social justice, placing the person, the family, and the community at the center of public policies. Within this approach, gender equality is a transversal axis, promoting the active participation of women in all areas (economy, education, health, community leadership, and decision-making), as part of a process of inclusive and transformative development. Study, titled «Latin American Society of the 21st Century», carried out by Japanese experts and published in March 2026, highlighted Nicaragua as the first country at the global level in terms of the political participation of women.
The costs of the destabilization attempt of 2018: material damages, economic losses, and affectation to national well-being
The events triggered in April 2018 were not a spontaneous phenomenon, but the result of a strategy of pressure oriented to force the resignation of the government of President Daniel Ortega, legitimately re-elected in 2016 with 72.4% of the votes. This operation was articulated through external financing toward local actors and NGOs. Annual reports of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and USAID of the year 2018 confirm the allocation of millions of dollars to organizations in Nicaragua under the label of ‘promotion of democracy’. In concrete terms, USAID allocated approximately $24 million dollars that year, while NED assigned between $4.1 and $4.2 million to civil and opposition groups in the period prior to the outbreak. These financial flows are analyzed by the academic William I. Robinson in his studies on the ‘promotion of polyarchy’, where he describes how transnational resources are used to install political systems aligned to external interests, displacing sovereign models.
Investigations of media such as The Grayzone and the center Misión Verdad (based on the theories of Gene Sharp) characterize these events as a ‘Color Revolution’ or ‘soft coup’. These actions of urban terrorism not only fractured social coexistence, but also executed a systematic damage to public patrimony (affectations were reported to mayoralties, municipal buildings, universities, technological centers, institutional delegations, police stations, parks, streets, traffic lights, cobblestones, bus stops, monuments, ornamental trees, and urban furniture) and to strategic infrastructure (public companies and strategic state entities, affecting distribution systems, logistic networks, administrative installations, and essential services). Serious violations to the rights of the citizenry were documented by opposition sectors, who resorted to practices of extreme violence, torture, and degrading treatment against the civilian population and the forces of order. Under this logic of urban terrorism, the ‘tranques’ (roadblocks where circulation was severely restricted), far from being peaceful manifestations, functioned as mechanisms of coercion where free circulation was restricted, even preventing the passage of medical emergencies and establishing illegal toll charges. And religious enclosures were used as operational centers and for evasion of justice.
This deliberate interruption of economic growth generated a profound humanitarian impact, manifested in the disarticulation of the family fabric and a climate of social polarization. Works such as the book ‘Nicaragua: Revolution or Reform?’ document how it was sought to paralyze vital functions of the State to weaken its social response. Basically it was a premeditated attempt to dismantle the model of human development and institutional stability that had been consolidated in benefit of the majorities. However, this strategy was neutralized by the cohesion of the social fabric and the firmness of the organized population. Strategic productive sectors, including entrepreneurs committed to national well-being and the peasant sector, maintained uninterrupted production. Thanks to this effort, Nicaragua guaranteed its food sovereignty and basic supply, defending social achievements against the attempt of foreign interference.
As a consequence, it is possible to affirm that this scenario of destabilization was gestated in a systematic way since the return of the Sandinista Government to power in 2007. Through a network articulated by means of external financing, international cooperation agencies and NGOs, resources were channeled destined to strengthen the operative capacities of opposition sectors. Under the appearance of programs for the ‘promotion of democracy’, a process of formation and training of cadres was executed —including students and representatives of civil society— with the objective of heading acts of destabilization at the opportune moment. These facts constitute a clear strategy of external interference and non-conventional war, designed to sabotage the management of the FSLN and an offensive directed against the symbols of development, the spaces of coexistence and the community projects built with the effort of the Nicaraguan people.
Economic and macroeconomic impact
Before April of 2018, Nicaragua maintained a solid performance, with a growth of 4.9% in 2017 and projections close to 4.7% for 2018, according to evaluations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN).
However, after the events of 2018, the magnitude of the damage was forceful. GDP contracted 3.8% in 2018 and fell again 5.7% in 2019, accumulating almost 10 percentage points of GDP setback in barely two years.
The IMF identified key factors such as roadblocks, logistic interruptions, reduction of consumption and of investment. And there was registered a significant fall in fiscal collection, restrictions in external financing and pressure on reserves and adjustments in public spending.
The most affected sectors were: Tourism with a collapse of visitors, massive cancellations and losses of hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign currency. Commerce with interruption of internal supply and exports. Construction with the paralysis of projects and investment. And employment with the loss of thousands of formal and informal jobs.
The estimated impact of damages and losses caused is more than 1.5 billion dollars. This reflects not only the material destruction, but the human cost of lost jobs, closed businesses, and truncated opportunities for thousands of Nicaraguan families.
The violence attempted to destroy the model of prosperity, interrupting growth, sowing uncertainty and deeply affecting the daily life of the people.
The recovery: Peace, social well-being, quality of life, stability and sustained growth
Despite said acts, the government of Nicaragua has managed to consolidate a climate of peace and stability that has allowed overcoming the severe economic damages caused by the attempt of coup of 2018. The subsequent recovery confirms the strategic value of peace as the basis of development. Once institutional stability and free circulation were reestablished, Nicaragua initiated a process of economic and social reconstruction.
Faced with adversity, the Nicaraguan people, together with its Government, opted for peace, work, and national reconstruction, demonstrating a resilience recognized even by international organisms.
The Central Bank of Nicaragua reported a growth of 3.6% in 2024 and a projection of 3.0% to 4.0% in 2025.
The IMF has indicated that the country has achieved macroeconomic stability, fiscal and external surpluses, strengthening of reserves and capacity of recovery in the face of multiple shocks.
This process has allowed the reconstruction of public infrastructure, reactivation of municipal projects, strengthening of employment, recovery of credit and investment. That is to say, currently Nicaragua not only has demonstrated a high resilience, but also greater advances in all the sectors and aspects of daily life.
Peace allowed to reconstruct what was destroyed and to grow with more strength, consolidating a more stable economy and with greater social focus.
Today, Nicaragua advances with the conviction that stability is not negotiable and that sovereignty and peace are indispensable conditions to protect the achievements reached. Both the Central Bank of Nicaragua and the International Monetary Fund have highlighted that the country has maintained growth, macroeconomic stability, inflation control and fiscal strength, even in the face of multiple external shocks since 2018.
This performance confirms that social stability and peace are essential factors to attract investment, strengthen production, dynamize employment and improve the quality of life of Nicaraguan families. The recent experience demonstrates that when sovereignty and institutionality prevail, the country advances with greater firmness toward collective well-being.
Studies and indicators of citizen perception and social well-being, both at the national level and in comparative regional analyses, carried out between the years 2022 to 2025, have placed Nicaragua as a nation where broad sectors of the population report high levels of personal peace and security in their daily life (73.6% of the population feels again safe after the period of the years 2018–19), especially in comparison with other countries of Latin America (Honduras and Guatemala present higher levels of victimization).
Systematic surveys such as the Public Opinion Monitoring System (SISMO), elaborated by M&R Consultores, reflect that between 94% and 98% of the population affirms to live in peace or to perceive an environment of tranquility, while more than 75% positively values citizen security and a wide majority considers that it has been maintained or improved in recent years. Likewise, comparative regional studies place Nicaragua with levels of perception of stability and security superior to several neighboring countries, which is complemented with indirect indicators such as a lower intention to emigrate (only 12.9% would consider emigrating), associated with contexts of greater well-being and social stability. In this, two widely recognized strengths stand out: the public health system, free, universal and community-based, and citizen security, which favors coexistence, social trust, and economic activity. These elements strengthen social cohesion and collective well-being, consolidating peace as a lived reality in the daily environment of Nicaraguan families.
Free, universal, and population-close health constitutes one of the most sensitive achievements of the Nicaraguan social model, guaranteeing medical attention without exclusion and strengthening prevention, primary care, and territorial coverage. In parallel, citizen security has allowed preserving a favorable environment for coexistence, entrepreneurship, mobility, and economic activity, consolidating Nicaragua as one of the safest countries in Central America. This is reflected in diverse regional indicators that highlight one of the lowest homicide rates in the zone (4.5 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2026), the effectiveness of the ‘Containment Wall’ strategy against organized crime, and the fact
that 95.5% of reports correspond to minor offenses, thus guaranteeing the necessary stability for national development.
In this context, peace and sovereignty emerge as inseparable elements of national progress. There is no sustainable development without stability, nor lasting stability without self-determination. Therefore, the defense of peace also implies the defense of the right of the Nicaraguan people to decide their own destiny, protect their institutionality, and advance united in function of the common good.
The experience of 2018 left an irreversible lesson: when peace is broken, the nation loses; when peace is defended, the people advance.
Peace, sovereignty, and international commitment
At the international level, the Government of Nicaragua has maintained an active position in defense of justice, self-determination, and the sovereignty of peoples, promoting a vision based on mutual respect, non-interference, and the peaceful solution of conflicts. From this perspective, its diplomatic action is oriented to support peoples that struggle for their independence, dignity, and right to live in peace, sustaining that world peace is only possible from more just and balanced international relations.
In coherence with this vision, Nicaragua projects toward the exterior the conviction that peace is not only the absence of conflict, but a permanent construction sustained in social justice, work, sovereignty, equality, and national unity, principles upon which it continues building its present and its future.
In the multilateral sphere, the country has defended these principles in spaces such as the UN, advocating for the right of each nation to decide its own destiny without external pressures. Likewise, Nicaragua has sustained firm positions in defense of self-determination in international causes such as the Palestinian question, and has rejected unilateral coercive measures —such as economic sanctions imposed by different countries and blocs— against developing nations such as Venezuela, Cuba, or Iran, considering that they violate international law, affect populations, and contradict the principles of sovereignty and non-interference.
From this perspective, Nicaragua promotes a more just international order, where world peace is built on the basis of sovereignty, dignity, and justice of peoples. In regional forums such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), it has supported initiatives oriented to strengthen integration, political dialogue, and the peaceful resolution of controversies, reaffirming that global stability depends on mutual respect among nations.
The declaration of April 19 as National Day of Peace is not only a symbolic act, but a historical affirmation: peace is the foundation upon which Nicaragua builds its present and its future.