4th C. AD | Moravia settled by Germans and Celts. | |
6th C. | Slavs (ancestors of the present occupants) settle in Bohemia. | |
late 8th C. | Slavs arrive in Moravia. | |
mid 9th C. | Great Moravian Empire established, including Bohemia and parts of Poland and Hungary. Broken up in 906. | |
10th C. | Kingdom of Bohemia expands to include Moravia and part of Poland. | |
11th C. | Slovakia falls under Hungarian domination. | |
1200-1400 | Many German miners and artisans settle in Sudeten region of Bohemia and Moravia. | |
14th C. | Kingdom of Bohemia incorporated into Holy Roman Empire. | |
1355 | Prague becomes imperial capital under Charles IV (Charles I of Bohemia). | |
15th C. | Religious wars between Roman Catholics and Hussites. | |
1526 | Bohemia and Moravia fall under the control of the Austrian Hapsburg monarchy. | |
1620 | Czech revolt against Austria harshly put down. Defeat at the Battle of the White Mountain results in Bohemia and Moravia becoming provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. | |
1742 | Industrialisation of Bohemia and Slovakia accelerated. | |
1848 | European revolutions inspire Czechoslovak nationalists. | |
19th C. | Bohemia and Moravia become the arsenal of the Hapsburg Empire. | |
Jan 1916 | Czechoslovak National Council (CNC) formed for the creation of an independent nation from the provinces of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. | |
28 Oct 1918 | CNC declares itself the government of Czech lands, with the imminent defeat of Austro-Hungary in WW1 looming. | |
14 Nov 1918 | Union with Slovakia formed. | |
1919 | National assembly established. | |
1919-1920 | Military dispute with Poland. | |
29 Feb 1920 | New constitution adopted. | |
June 1920 | Ruthenia added to Czechoslovakia from Hungary (Treaty of Trianon). | |
Sept 1920 | Treaty of St Germain – Allied powers and Austria recognise Republic of Czechoslovakia. | |
1929-32 | Severe recession sparks Sudeten German separatist movement and Slovak resentment of Czech-dominated government. | |
1935 | Edvard Benes becomes President. | |
30 Sept 1938 | Munich Agreement – Sudetenland ceded to Nazi Germany. | |
5 Oct 1938 | Benes resigns as President. | |
Oct 1938 | Teschen (Cesky Tesin) ceded to Poland. | |
Nov 1938 | Autonomy given to Slovakia – Czechoslovakia reorganised as Federated Republic of Czecho-Slovakia. | |
Mar 1939 | Germany invades Czechoslovakia without resistance. Bohemia & Moravia becomes a German Protectorate, while Slovakia becomes an independent fascist state. | |
Mar 1939 | Part of Slovakia (Ruthenia, renamed Carpatho-Ukraine) ceded to Hungary. | |
1940 | Benes establishes government in exile in London. | |
May 1942 | Savage reprisals follow assassination of ‘Protector’ Heydrich. | |
1944 | Soviet troops liberate Slovakia. | |
5 May 1945 | National uprising against German occupation starts in Prague. | |
9 May 1945 | Soviet troops enter Prague, while US forces liberate much of Bohemia. | |
May 1945 | Czechoslovakia reconstituted from liberated lands. | |
May 1945 | Anti-fascist ‘Popular Front’ government appointed by Edvard Benes. | |
July 1945 | Carpathian Ruthenia (Zakarpatska) incorporated into the Soviet Union. | |
Oct 1945 | Benes restored as President. Orders the expulsion of more than 2.5 million Sudeten Germans and over 500,000 ethnic Hungarians. | |
1945-46 | Two thirds of industry, banking and public utilities pass into state ownership, through the expropriation of ‘collaborators’, ‘profiteers’ and expelled Germans and Hungarians. | |
early 1946 | Soviet and US troops withdraw from Czechoslovakia. | |
May 1946 | National elections result in communist-socialist coalition government. A communist becomes Prime Minister. | |
Feb 1948 | Communist party seizes power in advance of scheduled elections. | |
March 1948 | Fraudulent elections see communists secured in power. Harsh Stalinist regime imposed. | |
7 June 1948 | Benes resigns as President. Replaced by a communist. | |
9 May 1948 | New constitution establishes People’s Democratic Republic of Czechoslovakia. | |
1952 | Leading communists executed after show trials. | |
1953 | Repression of workers protests in Plzen and Ostrava. | |
1955 | Czechoslovakia joins the Warsaw Pact. | |
1960 | Czechoslovakia becomes Czechoslovak Socialist Republic under new constitution. | |
Jan 1968 | Alexander Dubcek becomes communist party leader, and launches a programme of reforms known as the Prague Spring. | |
20 August 1968 | Soviet-led Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia. Dubcek taken to Moscow and forced to end reforms. Censorship imposed. Liberal leaders ousted. | |
1968 | Federal constitution introduces Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic. | |
17 April 1969 | Dubcek replaced as communist party leader. One third of communist party members expelled. | |
1977 | Charter 77 human rights group founded, including playwright Vaclav Havel. | |
April 1987 | Mikhail Gorbachev visits Czechoslovakia, raising hopes of imminent reforms. | |
Aug 1988 | Mass demonstrations mark 20th anniversary of 1968 invasion. | |
early 1989 | Police disperse numerous mass protests against human and civil rights violations. Police brutality sparks further protests. | |
Oct 1989 | Fall of East German communist regime. | |
17 Nov 1989 | Peaceful student protest in Prague violently put down by Police. Widespread mass protests and strikes in favour of free elections follow. | |
19 Nov 1989 | Civil Forum anti-government coalition formed, calling for resignation of communist party leader and introduction of democracy. | |
24 Nov 1989 | New government includes some non-communists. | |
25-27 Nov 1989 | Mass demonstrations and general strike. | |
29 Nov 1989 | Communist constitutional hold on political power abolished. | |
10 Dec 1989 | ‘Government of National Unity’ takes power. Interim government without a communist majority. | |
29 Dec 1989 | Vaclav Havel elected interim President. ‘Velvet Revolution’ completed. | |
April 1990 | Country renamed Czech and Slovak Federal Republic (CSFR). | |
June 1990 | First free parliamentary elections since 1946, won by Civic Forum and its allies. | |
July 1990 | Vaclav Havel publicly elected President. | |
Feb 1991 | Civic Forum disbanded. Privatisation of state-owned enterprises begun. | |
June 1991 | Soviet forces (present since 1968) complete their withdrawal. | |
June 1992 | Slovak separatists gain strong support in elections. | |
23 July 1992 | Agreement reached on separating Czech and Slovak lands. | |
Nov 1992 | Legislation adopted to allow federation to be disbanded. | |
1 Jan 1993 | Czechoslovakia splits into two separate countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. ‘Velvet Divorce’ |
Key Dates
Venezuela Key Dates
1 August 1498 | Christopher Columbus was the first European to set foot on the South American mainland. | |
1567 | Santiago de León de Caracas was established. | |
5 July 1811 | A congress convoked by the junta declared Venezuelan independence from Spain. | |
21 December 1811 | A constitution marked the official beginning of Venezuela’s First Republic | |
25 July 1812 | Miranda surrendered with his troops to the Spanish commander, General Domingo Monteverde. | |
1819 | The Congress at Angostura established the Third Republic and named Simón Bolívar as its first president | |
August 1821 | Delegates from Venezuela and Colombia met at the border town of Cúcuta to formally sign the Constitution of the Republic of Gran Colombia, with its capital in Bogotá and Bolívar was named president. | |
1829 | Gerneral Páez led Venezuela in its separation from Gran Colombia. | |
1858 – 1863 | Local caudillos engaged in a power struggle known as the Federal War. | |
1918 | The foreign exploitation of Venezuela’s petroleum reserves began. | |
1940s | Many political partys were formed. | |
18 October 1945 | The AD in conjunction with junior military officers suddenly overthrew Medina. | |
15 February 1948 | Rómulo Gallegos became president. | |
1 January 1958 | Air force planes dropped bombs on the capital to signal the start of a military insurrection. The anticipated coup d’état failed to materialize | |
22 January 1958 | When the navy revolted a group of army officers forced Pérez to resign. | |
13 February 1959 | Betancourt became president. | |
1960 | Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation (Corporación Venezolana de Petróleos–CVP) was formed. | |
11 March 1964 | Raúl Leoni became president. | |
1974 | Pérez beame president. | |
January 1975 | The government cancelled the iron ore concessions of subsidiaries of two United States-owned firms (United States Steel Corporation and Bethlehem Steel). | |
August 1975 | Congressional approved a bill, nationalizing the petroleum industry. | |
1979 | Luis Herrera Campins became president. | |
1992 | Military officers staged two unsuccessful coup attempts. | |
December 1993 | Rafael Caldera Rodríguez was elected president. | |
1999 | Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías took office as president. | |
December 2001 | Business and labor organizations held a work stoppage to protest Chavez’s increasingly authoritarian government. | |
December 2006 | Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was reelected. |
United States of America Key Dates
date | Summary of event | |
date | Summary of event | |
date | Summary of event |
Uruguay Key Dates
1516 | Juan Díaz de Solís entered the Río de la Plata by mistake and thus discovered the region. | |
1520 | The Portuguese captain Ferdinand Magellan cast anchor in a bay of the Río de la Plata at the site that would become Montevideo. | |
1680 | The Portuguese, seeking to expand Brazil’s frontier, founded Colonia del Sacramento on the Río de la Plata, across from Buenos Aires. | |
1726 | With the founding of San Felipe de Montevideo, Montevideo became the port and station of the Spanish fleet in the South Atlantic. | |
1776 | The establishment of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, with Buenos Aires as its capital, took place. Montevideo was authorized to trade directly with Spain instead of through Buenos Aires. | |
1807 | A 10,000-member British force captured Montevideo in early 1807 and occupied it until that July, when it left and moved against Buenos Aires. | |
18 May 1811 | Artigas’s army won its most important victory against the Spaniards in the Battle of Las Piedras. | |
June 1814 | Montevideo surrendered to the troops of Buenos Aires. | |
1821 | Portuguese Brazil annexed the Banda Oriental as its southernmost Cisplatine Province. | |
25 August 1825 | Representatives from the Banda Oriental declared independence from Brazil and its incorporation into the United Provinces of Río de la Plata. | |
4 October 1828 | Uruguay became an independent state. | |
18 July 1830 | The constitution was approved, after having been ratified by Argentina and Brazil. It established a representative unitary republic–the República Oriental del Uruguay (Oriental Republic of Uruguay) | |
1836 | The first political groups, known as Colorados and Blancos because of the red and white hatbands, were formed. | |
1843-52 | The Great War centered on the nineyear-long siege of Montevideo. | |
1903 | José Batlle y Ordóñez became president. | |
1910 | Civic Union of Uruguay (Unión Cívica del Uruguay–UCU) and the Marxist-inspired Socialist Party of Uruguay (Partido Socialista del Uruguay–PSU) were founded. | |
1931 | Gabriel Terra became president. | |
1939 | The badly damaged German battleship Graf Spee, cornered by a British naval force was blown up and scuttled by its own crew just outside the harbor. | |
1943 | Juan José Amézaga became president. | |
1952 | The new constitution was approved by plebiscite in 1951 and went into effect in 1952. |
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1962 | Raúl Antonaccio Sendic, formed the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros (Movimiento de Liberación Nacional-Tupamaros–MLN-T), a clandestine urban guerrilla movement. | |
1967 | General Oscar Gestido became president. | |
27 June 1973 | President Bordaberry dissolved the General Assembly and replaced it with the Council of State. | |
1981 | Retired Lieutenant General Gregorio Alvarez Armelino became president. | |
November 1999 | Jorge Batlle became president. | |
March 2005 | Tabaré Vázquez became president. |
Trinidad & Tobago Key Dates
about 5500 B.C. | Trinidad and Tobago having been settled by Amerindians. | |
1498 | Christoph Columbus landed in Trinidad. | |
1532 | Spanish colony was founded on Trinidad. | |
1592 | First Spanish settlement established at San Josef. | |
1595 | Colony was destroyed by Sir Walter Raleigh. | |
1802 | Trinidad was formally ceded to the British crown under the treaty of Amiens. | |
1888 | Tobago was amalgamated with Trinidad and administered as a single colony. | |
31 August 1962 | Trinidad and Tobago became fully independent state. | |
1 August 1976 | Trinidad and Tobago got a new constitution and became a presidential republic. | |
July 1990 | Attempted coup, staged by a 100-strong group of Islamic extremists, under leadership of Yasin Abu Bakir. | |
October 2002 | Patrick Manning won elections. |
Suriname Key Dates
1500 | Yáñes Pinzón explored the coast of what is todays Suriname. | |
1593 | Spain explored Suriname again. | |
1602 | The Dutch began to settle the land, followed by the English. | |
1667 | The English transferred sovereignty to the Dutch in 1667 (the Treaty of Breda) in exchange for New Amsterdam (New York). | |
1948 |
Dutch Guiana, the colony was integrated into the kingdom of the Netherlands. | |
25 November 1975 | Suriname became independent from the Netherlands. | |
1980 | A coup d’état brought military rule under the control of Lieut. Col. Dési Bouterse. | |
1991 | Runaldo Venetiaan became president. | |
1992 | A peace treaty was signed between the government and several guerrilla groups. | |
1996 | Jules Wijdenbosch became president. | |
May 2000 | Runaldo Venetiaan became president again. | |
January 2004 | The government introduced a new currency, the Surinamese dollar. |
Peru Key Dates
950 B.C. to 450 B.C. | Kingdom of Chavín emerged in the northern highlands. | |
1150 to 1450 | As loose confederation of cities scattered along the coast of northern Peru and southern Ecuador, the Chimú flourished from about 1150 to 1450. | |
1438 to 1471 | Under Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui rule and that of his son, Topa Inca Yupanqui (1471-93), the Incas came to control upwards of a third of South America, with a population of 9 to 16 million inhabitants under their rule. | |
1528 to 1532 | Huáscar (from Cusco) and the illegitimate Atahualpa (from Quito) fought a five-year civil war, were Atahualpa (1532-33) emerged victorious. | |
1531 | Francisco Pizarro arrived in northern Peru. | |
15 November 1532 | Pizarro arrived in Cajamarca, the Inca’s summer residence. | |
15 November 1533 | Pizarro captured the imperial city Cusco. | |
1535 | Pizarro founded Lima as the capital of the new viceroyalty. | |
1538 | Diego de Almagro was executed. | |
1541 | Pizzaro was assassinated. | |
1776 | Creation of a new viceroyalty in the Río de la Plata (River Plate) region. | |
1780 to 1782 | Túpac Amaru rebellion. | |
28 July 1821 | General José de San Martín proclaimed Peru independent. | |
9 December 1824 | Peruvian independence was completed by defeating royalist forces at the hacienda of Ayacucho near Huamanga. This battle in the remote southern highlands effectively ended the long era of Spanish colonial rule in South America. | |
1845 to 1851 | General Marshal Ramón Castilla became president. | |
1866 | Peruvian victory over Spain’s attempts to seize control of the guano-rich Chincha Islands in a tragicomic venture to recapture some of its lost empire in South America. | |
1883 | Treaty of Ancón. | |
1895 to 1914 | Aristocratic Republic. | |
1914 to 1915 | Colonel Oscar Raimundo Benavides (1914-15, 1933-36, and 1936-39) seized power. | |
1932 to 1934 | "Leticia Incident". | |
1941 to 1942 | Border conflict with Ecuador that led to a brief war. | |
1963 | Fernando Belaúnde Terry became president. | |
1968 | General Velasco Alvarado overthrew the Belaúnde government. | |
1969 | The Andean Pact was created. | |
1975 | General Francisco Morales Bermúdez Cerrutti became president. | |
1980 | Appearance of the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso–SL). | |
1981 | Peru Ecuador border conflict. | |
1985 | Alan García Pérez became president. | |
1990 | Alberto Kenya Fujimori became president. | |
September 1992 | Abimael Guzmán was captured. | |
2001 | Alejandro Celestino Toledo Manrique became president. | |
28 July 2006 | Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez became president. | |
August 2007 | Coastal Peru was hit by a devastating earthquake. |
Panama Key Dates
1501 | Rodrigo de Bastidas was the first of many Spanish explorers to reach the isthmus. | |
1 September 1513 | Balboa set out with 190 Spaniards,and after twenty-five days gazed on the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. | |
1538 | All Spanish territory from Nicaragua to Cape Horn was to be administered from an audiencia in Panama. | |
29 January 1671 | Henry Morgan appeared at Panama City and with 1,400 men he defeated the garrison. | |
1718-1722 | Panama’s temporary loss of its independent audiencia and the country’s attachment to the Viceroyalty of Peru | |
1739 | Spain again suppressed Panama’s autonomy by making the region part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (encompassing present-day Colombia, Venezula, Ecuador, and Panama). | |
28 November 1821 | Official date of independence fom Spain. Panama thus became part of Colombia, then governed under the 1821 Constitution of Cúcuta, and was designated a department with two provinces, Panamá and Veraguas. | |
1846 | Bidlack-Mallarino Treaty was signed between the United States and Panama. | |
1 January 1880 | Ferdinand de Lesseps starts to built the Panama Canal. | |
1884 | Rafael Nuñez became president of Colombia, supported by a coalition of moderate Liberals and Conservatives. | |
1886 | The new constitution established the Republic of Colombia as a unitary state. | |
1899-1902 | Panama was drawn into Colombia’s War of a Thousand Days (1899-1902). | |
6 November 1903 | The United States recognized the new Panamanian junta as the de facto government on November 6, 1903. | |
23 February 1904 | The rights granted to the United States in the so-called Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty were extensive. They included a grant "in perpetuity of the use, occupation, and control" of a sixteenkilometer-wide strip of territory and extensions of three nautical miles into the sea from each terminal "for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, and protection" of an isthmian canal. | |
1904 | The provisional governing junta selected when independence was declared governed the new state until a constitution was adopted in 1904. Under its terms, Amador became Panama’s first president. | |
1904 | Threats to constitutional government in the republic by a Panamanian military leader, General Estéban Huertas, had resulted, at the suggestion of the United States diplomatic mission, in disbanding the Panamanian army in 1904. | |
15 August 1914 | The first ship made a complete passage through the Panama Canal. | |
1932 | Harmodio Arias Madrid was elected to the presidency in 1932. | |
1942 | Among the major facilities granted to the United States under the agreement of 1942 were the airfield at Río Hato, the naval base on Isla Taboga, and several radar stations. | |
1948 | By 1948 the United States had evacuated all occupied bases and sites outside the Canal Zone. | |
1952 | National Police Commander José Antonio Remón became president. | |
23 January 1955 | Treaty of Mutual Understanding and Cooperation was signed. | |
1964 | Marcos Aurelio Robles became president. | |
1968 | Arnulfo Arias beacme president but removed by the National Guard after only 5 months in office. | |
1969 | Omar Torrijos took power in Panama as commander of the National Guard. | |
7 September 1977 | President Carter and Torrijos met in Washington to sign the Panama Canal Treaty | |
October 1978 | The National Assembly elected a lawyer, Aristides Royo, to become president after Torrijos stepped down. | |
August 1983 | Colonel Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno was appoianted commander of the National Guard. | |
1984 | Noriega formed the Fuerzas de Defensa de Panamá. | |
11 October 1984 | Ardito Barletta became president. | |
27 September 1985 | Ardito Barletta resigned, after only eleven months in office. He was succeeded the next day by his first vice president, Eric Arturo Delvalle Henríquez. | |
December 1989 | U.S. President George Bush authorised an invasion of the country (Operation "Just Cause"). Guillermo Endara was installed as the head of a new administration. | |
1992 | Noriega was tried, convicted and sentenced to 40 years of imprisonment in the USA. | |
1999 | Mireya Elisa Moscoso Rodriguez became Panama’s first female president and the Panama Canal Zone returned to Panama. |
Nicaragua Key Dates
about 5500 B.C. | Different tribes live in Nicaragua. | |
about 3000 B.C. | The Pipil were a subgroup of a nomadic people known as the Nahua, who had migrated into Central America about 3000 B.C. | |
12 September 1502 | Christoph Columbus first visit to eastern Nicaragua. | |
1522 | Gil González Dávila led the Spanish conquest of Nicaraguan territory. | |
1524 | Hernández de Córdoba led an expedition that succeeded in establishing the first permanent Spanish settlement in Nicaragua. | |
15 September 1821 | Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala declare their independence from Spain and became members of the Empire of Mexico. | |
1 July 1823 | United Provinces of Central America (Costa Rica, El Salcador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras) declared their independence from Mexico. | |
30 April 1838 | The federation finally dissolved in 1837, and a Constituent Assembly formally declared Nicaragua’s independence from the United Provinces of Central America. | |
1855 | A group of armed United States filibusters headed by William Walker, a soldier of fortune from Tennessee who had previously invaded Mexico, sailed to Nicaragua intent on taking over the government. | |
1857 | The final battle of what Nicaraguans called the "National War" (1856-57) took place in the spring of 1857 in the town of Rivas, after which Walker left Nicaragua. | |
1858 | Managua became the capitol of Nicaragua. | |
1893 | General José Santos Zelaya became president after a revolt. | |
1895 | El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua formed the "Greater Republic of Central America" (República Mayor de Centroamerica) via the Pact of Amapala. | |
1909 | The United States broke diplomatic relations with the Zelaya administration after two United States mercenaries serving with the rebels were captured and executed by government forces. Soon thereafter, 400 United States marines landed on the Caribbean coast, which led to the resignation of President Zelaya. | |
August 1912 | A force of 2,700 United States marines once landed at the ports of Corinto and Bluefields to support President Diaz and remain in country until 1925. | |
1916 | The Chamorro-Bryan Treaty omitting the intervention clause, was finally ratified by the United States Senate in 1916. This treaty gave the United States exclusive rights to build an interoceanic canal across Nicaragua. | |
May 1926 | United States sent marines, who landed on the Caribbean coast, ostensibly to protect United States citizens and property. | |
May 1927 | Pact of Espino Negro signed. | |
1927 | Army for the Defense of Nicaraguan Sovereignty (Ejército Defensor de la Soberanía de Nicaragua-EDSN) was formed as a guerilla army by Augusto Sandino. | |
February 1934 | Sandino was arrested and later executed by members of the National Guard under the command of Anastasio "Tacho" Somoza García. | |
December 1936 | Anastasio Somoza García became president of Nicaragua. | |
January 1937 | President Somoza resumed control of the National Guard, combining the roles of president and chief director of the military. | |
1 May 1947 | Leonardo Argüello became president and Somoza García remained as chief director of the National Guard. | |
21 September 1956 | Anastasio Somoza García was assassinated. | |
1957 | Luis Somoza Debayle beacme president and his brother Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle became dircetor of the National Guard. |
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1961 | The Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional–FSLN) was formally organized in Nicaragua. | |
1967 | Anastasio Somoza Debayle became president. | |
23 December 1972 | A powerful earthquake shook Nicaragua, destroying most of the capital city. | |
10 January 1978 | Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal was assassinated. | |
17 July 1979 | Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigned and fled to Miami. | |
23 January 1981 | Reagan administration suspended all United States aid to Nicaragua. | |
1981 | Later that year, the Reagan administration authorized support for groups (Contras) trying to overthrow the Sandinistas. | |
1983 | Daniel Ortega leads a three members junta. | |
10 January 1985 | Daniel Ortega began his six-year presidential term. | |
August 1987 | The Arias Plan was signed by the presidents of the five Central American republics (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica) at a presidential summit held in Esquipulas, Guatemala. | |
25 February 1990 | Violeta Barrios de Chamorro won election against Daniel Ortega and became first president of Nicaragua after the end of the civil war. | |
26 June 1990 | Contras completed their demobilization. | |
1996 | Daniel Ortega was again defeated by Arnoldo Aleman Lacayo leading an alliance of liberal and centrist parties. |
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November 2001 | Enrique Bolanos Geyer became president of Nicaragua. |