D'Escoto Brockmann, Miguel (1933–)

Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann (b. 5 February 1933), Nicaraguan priest active in the Sandinista revolution; foreign minister of Nicaragua (1979–1989). Born in California to Nicaraguan parents, D'Escoto was educated in Managua, California, and New York. He studied theology, education, and political economy and became a Catholic priest in the Maryknoll Order. During the 1960s, he worked first for Maryknoll in New York, then in the slums of Brazil and Mexico. Returning to his own country, he established the Nicaraguan Foundation for Integral Community Development in 1973. In 1975 he became an active supporter of the Sandinista movement. He was a leader of the Group of Twelve (Los Doce), which organized resistance to the Somoza government. When the Sandinistas came to power in 1979 he was named foreign minister, a post he held for ten years. In 1980 he became a member of the party's political group, the Sandinista Assembly.

The Vatican made known in 1980 its desire that priests not be involved in politics. This policy was relayed to D'Escoto; Ernesto Cardenal, the minister of culture; and two other priests who were participating in the Nicaraguan government at the time. D'Escoto and the others proposed that they take a leave of absence from the church and continue with their work in the government. The Nicaraguan bishops accepted this compromise. Cardenal was subsequently expelled from the Jesuit order, but the Maryknollers did not expel D'Escoto. Throughout the 1980s, D'Escoto was a forceful spokesman for the Sandinista cause. Because of his fluency in English and his understanding of the political system of the United States he was particularly successful in communicating Sandinista positions to audiences in that nation. In 2006 the Sandinista presidential candidate Daniel Ortega was elected for a second time (his first term was 1985 to 1990). D'Escoto serves as a presidential advisor and continues to be a critic of neoliberalism and United States foreign policy towards Latin America.

See alsoCardenal, Ernesto; Maryknoll Order; Nicaragua, Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Teofilo Cabestrero, Un grito a Dios y al mundo (1986).

Thomas P. Anderson, Politics in Central America, rev. ed. (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Canin, Eric. "'Work, a Roof, and Bread for the Poor': Managua's Christian Base Communities and the 'Revolution from Below.'" Latin American Perspectives 24: 2 (March 1997), 80-101.

Murphy, John W., and Manuel J. Caro. Uriel Molina and the Sandinista Popular Movement in Nicaragua. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006.

                                     David L. Jickling