Humberto Ortega

General Humberto Ortega Saavedra (January 10, 1947) is a Nicaraguan military leader, leading Latin American revolutionary strategist and published writer.

Biography

Humberto Ortega and his brother, current President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, founded the Tercerista tendency of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in 1975. He crafted the urban insurrection strategy that ignited civil war in Nicaragua in October 1977, leading to the fall of the Somoza dynastic dictatorship in July 1979. As Minister of Defense during the decade of Sandinista rule, Ortega oversaw the build up of the Sandinista Popular Army (EPS) and the prosecution of the war against the "contra" resistance factions and their peasant support base.

Following the electoral defeat of Daniel Ortega and the Sandinista Party in 1990, Humberto maintained control of the military. He retired in 1995, turning the job over to his second in command, Joaquín Cuadra. General Humberto Ortega started transforming the EPS into the non-political Nicaraguan National Army.

Published writer

In December 2004 he released a book titled "La Epopeya de la Insurrección" (Epic of the Insurrection). Ortega says he worked 10 hours a day on the book for two years using his own records, meeting notes, archives and analytical schemes to reconstruct the history of the struggle that ultimately brought down the 43-year Somoza family dictatorship. [cite news | title=The General's Book | url =http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/2805 | work =Revista Envío | accessdate = 2008-01-15] Among his other books are, "50 Años de Lucha Sandinista", "Sobre la Insurrección" and "Nicaragua Revolución y Democracia". [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=General Humberto Ortega Saavedra | date= | publisher= | url =http://generalhumbertoortega.com/biogrph.html | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2008-01-15 | language = ]

References

External links

* [http://generalhumbertoortega.com/index.html General Humberto Ortega.com]