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On July 19, 1979, massive crowds flooded the square now known as Plaza de la Revolucion in the Nicaraguan capital Managua to celebrate the success of the revolution that overthrew one of the most brutal dictatorships in the region.

The Sandinistas, headed by Daniel Ortega, emerged victorious from a bitter conflict that had left tens of thousands of people dead promising social justice and freedom.

They launched a revolutionary project unprecedented in Central America, but their socialist policies, close alignment with communist Cuba and suspicions they were assisting Marxist rebels in neighbouring El Salvador concerned the US which had long-influenced government in Nicaragua.

Washington responded by funding counter-revolutionaries from the former national guard of the deposed dictator, Anastasio Somoza Debayle known as Contras.

A bitter civil conflict ensued only two years after the revolution which lasted until 1990 when a war-weary public handed the Sandinistas a heavy defeat in elctions.

Broken promises

Seventeen years on and Daniel Ortega was once more in power but Nicaragua remains one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere.

Despite still portraying himself as a revolutionary Ortega himself is now accused of being as conservative in his policies as the governments that succeeded him in the 1990s.

Many of the former Sandinista leadership are now critical of the president saying he has abandoned his original aims and compromised the principles of the Sandinista revolution.

Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman visits Nicaragua and speaks with former combatants and leaders in the country’s civil conflict and to ordfinary citizens about how their lives have been impacted by 30 years of broken promises from across the political spectrum.