In 1979, the Frente Sandinista Liberacion Nacional overthrew the incredibly brutal US-backed Somoza family and freed Nicaragua. They ruled the country for 11 years in spite of US backing of the Contra rebels. In 1990, the FSLM succumbed to their own ineptness and was voted out of power, but people still fondly remember there role in ending the dictatorship. Today, the conservatives that beat the FSLM has joined with the former FSLM members that aren't commie nuts to create the Conservative-Liberal Alliance in an effort to keep the FSLM from ever taking power again.