Immediately following the fall of the Somoza regime , Nicaragua was largely in ruins . The country had suffered both war and , earlier , natural disaster in the devastating 1972 Nicaragua earthquake . In 1979 , approximately 600,000 Nicaraguans were homeless and 150,000 were either refugees or in exile , out of a total population of just 2.8 million
1972 Nicaragua earthquake
1972 Nicaragua earthquake
Nicaraguan Revolution