Beyond the Barricades: Nicaragua and the Struggle for the Sandinista Press, 1979-1998

Hailed by Kent Norsworthy as a groundbreaking work that fills a huge gap in the published scholarship on the Nicaraguan Revolution, Beyond the Barricades tells the fascinating story of Barricada, the official daily newspaper of the ruling Sandinista Front. Throughout the 1980s, Barricada played the standard role of an official party organ, seeking to mobilize the Nicaraguan public to support the revolutionary agenda. Adams Jones shows that even during this period of sweeping transformation and outside military siege, another, more professional, agenda also motivated Barricada’s journalists and editors. It resulted in the establishment of a series of firewalls to limit party interference in the day-to-day operations of the paper. When the Sandinistas unexpectedly fell from power in the 1990 elections, Barricada gained a substantial degree of autonomy, which allowed it to explore a more balanced and nuanced journalism in the national interest. This new orientation, however, ran afoul of more orthodox party leaders, who gradually gained the upper hand in the bitter internal struggle that wracked the Sandinista Front in the early 1990s. The paper folded in January 1998. Based on extensive archival research and dozens of in-depth interviews, Beyond the Barricades offers an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at Barricada’s two decades of evolution and dissolution. It also presents an intimate portrait of a key revolutionary institution and the memorable individuals who composed it.