title: Gennady Golovkin

text: On fight night, in front of a sold out crowd of 22,358, Golovkin and Álvarez fought to a split draw (118–110 Álvarez, 115–113 Golovkin, and 114–114). ESPN's Dan Rafael and HBO's Harold Lederman scored the fight 116–112 in favor of Golovkin. Judge Adalaide Byrd's scorecard of 118–110 in favor of Álvarez was widely ridiculed. Many observers felt that Golovkin had won a closely contested fight, and while a draw was justifiable, a card that wide in favor of Álvarez was inexcusable. Nevertheless, Bob Bennett, director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, said that he had full confidence in Byrd going forward. Despite the controversy, several mainstream media outlets referred to the bout as a "classic". The fight started with both boxers finding their rhythm, Álvarez using his footwork and Golovkin establishing his jab. During the middle rounds, particularly between 4 and 8, Álvarez started each round quick, but seemed to tire out after a minute, with Golovkin taking over and doing enough to win the rounds. The championship rounds were arguably the best rounds and Álvarez started to counter more and both fighters stood toe-to-toe exchanging swings, the majority of which missed. The draw saw Golovkin make his 9th consecutive defence. CompuBox stats showed that Golovkin was the busier of the two, landing 218 of 703 thrown (31%), while Álvarez was more accurate, landing 169 of his 505 thrown (34%). Golovkin out punched Álvarez in 10 of the 12 rounds. The replay, which took place a week later on HBO averaged 726,000, peaking at 840,000 viewers.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: Speaking to Max Kellerman after the fight, Golovkin said, "It was a big drama show. [The scoring] is not my fault. I put pressure on him every round. Look, I still have all the belts. I am still the champion." Álvarez felt as though he won the fight, "In the first rounds, I came out to see what he had. Then I was building from there. I think I won eight rounds. I felt that I won the fight. I think I was superior in the ring. I won at least seven or eight rounds. I was able to counterpunch and made Gennady wobble at least three times. If we fight again, it's up to the people. I feel frustrated over my draw." Golovkin's trainer Abel Sanchez believed judge Byrd had her scorecard filled out before the first bell rang. Álvarez ruled out another fight in 2017, claiming he would return on Cinco de Mayo weekend in May 2018. At the post-fight press conference, Álvarez said through a translator, "Look, right now I wanna rest. Whatever the fans want, whatever the people want and ask for, we’ll do. You know that’s my style. But right now, who knows if it’s in May or September? But one thing’s for sure – this is my era, the era of Canelo." Golovkin's promoter Tom Loeffler stated that they would like an immediate rematch, but Golovkin, who prefers fighting at least three times in a calendar year, reiterated his desire to also fight in December. WBO middleweight champion Saunders said he was ready for Golovkin and looking to fight in December too.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: The fight surpassed Mayweather-Álvarez to achieve the third highest gate in boxing history. ESPN reported the fight generated $27,059,850 from 17,318 tickets sold. 934 complimentary tickets were given out, according to the NSAC. Mayweather vs. Álvarez sold 16,146 tickets to produce a live gate of $20,003,150. The replay, which took place a week later on HBO averaged 726,000, peaking at 840,000 viewers. The "LA Times" reported the fight generated 1.3 million domestic PPV buys. Although HBO didn't make an official announcement, it is believed that the revenue would exceed $100 million.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: Immediately after the controversial ending, talks began for a rematch between Álvarez and Golovkin. Álvarez stated he would next fight in May 2018, whereas Golovkin was open to fighting in December 2017. ESPN reported that Álvarez, who only had the rematch clause in his contract, must activate it within three weeks of their fight. On 19 September, Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez told ESPN that everyone on their side was interested in the rematch and they would hold discussions with Tom Loeffler in the next coming days. Ringtv reported that the negotiations would begin on 22 September. On 24 September, Gomez said the rematch would likely take place in the first week of May 2018, or if a deal could be worked, we could see the fight take place as early as March. Despite ongoing negotiations for the rematch, at the 55th annual convention in Baku, Azerbaijan on 2 October, the WBC officially ordered a rematch. Golden Boy president Eric Gomez told ESPN, "Regardless of if they did or didn't order the rematch, we are going to try to make it happen. We'll do whatever it takes to make it happen." On 7 November, Eric Gomez indicated the negotiations were going well and Álvarez would make a decision in regards to the rematch in the coming weeks. It was believed that Golden Boy would wait until after David Lemieux and Billy Joe Saunders fought for the latter's WBO title on 16 December 2017, before making a decision. On 15 November, Eddie Hearn, promoter of Daniel Jacobs stated that he approached Tom Loeffler regarding a possible rematch between Golovkin and Jacobs if the Álvarez-Golovkin rematch failed to take place. On 20 December, Eric Gomez announced that the negotiations were close to being finalized after Álvarez gave Golden Boy the go-ahead to write up the contracts. On 29 January 2018, HBO finally announced the rematch would take place on 5 May on the Cinco de Mayo weekend. On 22 February, the T-Mobile Arena was again selected as the fight's venue. According to WBC, unlike the first bout, Álvarez would fight for their title.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: On 5 March 2018, Álvarez tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol ahead of the fight. Adding to the controversy, Golovkin's trainer Abel Sanchez claimed that Álvarez had his hands wrapped in an illegal manner for the first fight. On 23 March, the Nevada State Athletic Commission temporarily suspended Álvarez due to his two positive tests for the banned substance clenbuterol. Álvarez was required to appear at a commission hearing, either in person or via telephone, on the issue on 10 April. The commission would decide at the hearing whether the fight would be permitted to go ahead as scheduled. Tom Loeffler stated that Golovkin intended to fight on 5 May, regardless of his opponent being Álvarez or anyone else. On 26 March, former two-time light middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade (25-0, 16 KOs), who started campaigning at middleweight in 2017, put himself into the equation and offered to fight Golovkin on 5 May. On 29 March, IBF mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko's manager Keith Connolly told Boxing Scene that Derevyanchenko would be ready to replace Álvarez and fight Golovkin in his place if the fight was to get postponed on 10 April. On 28 March, MGM Resorts International, who owns the T-Mobile Arena, started to offer full refunds to anyone who had already purchased tickets for the bout. They wrote, "In the event a fan requested a refund, they could get one at the original point of sale and in full." The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported the news. Álvarez's hearing was rescheduled for 18 April, as Bob Bennett filed a complaint against Álvarez. On 3 April, Álvarez officially withdrew from the rematch. Golden Boy mentioned during a press conference it was hinted that Álvarez would likely not be cleared at the hearing and they would not have enough time to promote the fight. At the hearing, Álvarez was given a six-month suspension, backdated to his first drug test fail on 17 February, meaning the ban would end on 17 August 2018. His promoter De La Hoya then announced that Álvarez would return to the ring on the Mexican Independence Day weekend.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: On 2 April, before Álvarez withdrew from the rematch, Loeffler stated that Golovkin would fight on 5 May, regardless of whether it would be Álvarez or another boxer and the fight would take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise. On fighting, Golovkin said, "I am looking forward to returning to Las Vegas for my 20th title defense and headlining my first Cinco De Mayo event on 5 May. It is time for less drama and more fighting," On 5 April, ESPN reported that Mexican boxer, Jaime Munguia (28-0, 24 KOs), a 21 year old untested prospect who previously fought at welterweight and light middleweight was going to step in and fight Golovkin. Later that day, Lance Pugmire of LA Times stated sources close to NSAC, although Tom Loeffler hadn't submitted any names forward, if Munguia's name was mentioned, it would not be approved. Derevyanchenko's promoter, Lou DiBella petitioned to the IBF to force a mandatory. With less than a month before the scheduled fight date, the NSAC cancelled the fight, meaning it would not take place at the MGM Grand. Prior to the NSAC cancelling the bout, Lance Pugmire of LA Times reported that Golovkin would still fight on 5 May, however it would take place at the StubHub Center in Carson, California on regular HBO. Former light middleweight world title challenger and California local Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) became a front runner to challenge Golovkin. The IBF stated they would not sanction their belt if the fight was made and Golovkin could potentially be stripped of his title. Martirosyan was criticised as an opponent as he had been a career light middleweight, he was coming off a loss and he had not fought in two years. The WBC approved Martirosyan as a late replace opponent. On 18 April, Martirosyan was confirmed as Golovkin's opponent, with the event being billed as 'Mexican Style 2' on 5 May, at the StubHub Center. A day later the IBF stated that neither Golovkin or Loeffler made any request for exception, however if and when they did, the IBF would consider the request. On 27 April, the IBF agreed to sanction the bout as long as Golovkin would make a mandatory defence against Derevyanchenko by 3 August 2018.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: On fight night, in front of 7,837 fans, Golovkin knocked Martirosyan out in round 2. Golovkin applied pressure immediately backing Martirosyan against the ropes and landing his jab. Martirosyan had short success at the end of round 1 when he landed a combination of punches. Again at the start of round 2, Golovkin started quick. He landed a right uppercut followed by a body shot. He then connected with nine power shots which were unanswered and eventually Martirosyan fell face first to the canvas. Referee Jack Reiss made a full 10-count. The time of stoppage was 1 minute 53 seconds. Speaking of Golovkin's power in the post-fight, Martirosyan said it felt like he was 'being hit by a train.' Golovkin said, "It feels great to get a knockout. Vanes is a very good fighter. He caught me a few times in the first round. In the second round, I came out all business after I felt him out in the first round." For the fight, Golovkin landed 36 of 84 punches thrown (43%) and Martirosyan landed 18 of his 73 thrown (25%). Golovkin's purse for the fight was $1 million and Martirosyan earned a smaller amount of $225,000. The fight averaged 1,249,000 viewers and peaked at 1,361,000 viewers, making most-watched boxing match on cable television in 2018.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: According to Golovkin on 27 April, before he defeated Martirosyan, a fight with Álvarez in the fall was still a priority. During a conference call, he stated it was the 'biggest fight in the world' and beneficial for all parties involved. Although Golovkin stated the rematch had a 10% chance of happening, Eric Gomez and Tom Loeffler agreed to meet and start negotiating after 5 May. One of the main issues preventing the rematch to take place was the purse split. Álvarez wanted 65-35 in his favor, the same terms Golovkin agreed to initially, however Golovkin wanted a straight 50-50 split.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: On 6 June, Golovkin was stripped of his IBF world title due to not adhering to the IBF rules. The IBF granted Golovkin an exception to fight Martirosyan although they would not sanction the fight, however told Golovkin's team to start negotiating and fight mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko by 3 August 2018. The IBF released a statement in detail. On 7 June, Golovkin's team stated they would accept a 55-45 split in favor of Álvarez. The split in the initial rematch negotiations, Golovkin accepted a 65-35 split in favor of Álvarez. On 12 June, Golden Boy gave Golovkin a 24-hour deadline to accept a 57½-42½ split in Álvarez's favor or they would explore other fights. At this time, Golden Boy were already in light negotiations with Eddie Hearn for a fight against Daniel Jacobs instead. At the same time, Loeffler was working closely with Frank Warren to match Saunders with Golovkin for the end of August. Golovkin declined the offer and De La Hoya stated there would be no rematch. Despite this, some sources indicated both sides were still negotiating after a "Hail Mary" idea came to light. Hours later, De La Hoya confirmed via his Twitter account that terms had been agreed and the fight would indeed take place on 15 September, at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada. Golovkin revealed to ESPN he agreed to 45%. Álvarez started training for the bout on 14 June, and stated his intention to apply for his boxing license on 18 August. It was confirmed that both boxers would not physically come face to face with each other until the fight week. A split-screen press conference took place on 3 July. On 3 September, due to a majority vote of the panel, it was announced The Ring Magazine's vacant middleweight title would be contested for the bout. Doug Fischer wrote, "We posed the question to the Ratings Panel, which, in a landslide, voted in favor the magazine’s 160-pound championship being up for grabs when the two stars clash at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas."


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: In front of a sell out crowd of 21,965, the fight was again not without controversy as Álvarez defeated Golovkin via majority decision after 12 rounds. Álvarez was favored by judges Dave Moretti and Steve Weisfeld, both scoring the bout 115–113, the third judge Glenn Feldman scored it 114–114. The result was disputed by fans, pundits and media. Of the 18 media outlets scoring the bout, 10 ruled in favor of Golovkin, 7 scored a draw, while 1 scored the bout for Álvarez. The scorecards showed how close the bout was, with the judges splitting eight rounds. After 9 rounds, all three judges had their scores reading 87–84 for Álvarez


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: The fight was much different to the first bout in terms of action. Álvarez, who was described by Golovkin's team as a 'runner', altered his style and became more aggressive. Both boxers found use of their respective jabs from the opening round with Golovkin using his jab more as the fight went on. Big punches were landed by both fighters during the bout, with both Álvarez and Golovkin showing excellent chins. Despite the tense build up, both boxers showed each other respect after the fight. Álvarez made good use of his body attack, landing 46 compared to Golovkin's 6 landed. Compubox Stats showed that Golovkin landed 234 of 879 punches thrown (27%) and Álvarez landed 202 of his 622 punches (33%). In the 12 rounds, not once did Golovkin's back touch the ropes. Alvarez backed to the ropes twice late in the fight. In eight of the 12 rounds, Golovkin outlanded Álvarez. Harold Lederman scored this second fight, as he did the first, 116-112 in favor of Golovkin.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: In the post-fight interviews, through a translator, Álvarez said, "I showed my victory with facts. He was the one who was backing up. I feel satisfied because I gave a great fight. It was a clear victory." He continued, "That was a great fight. But in the end, it was a victory for Mexico. And again, it was an opportunity. And I want to shout out to my opponent, the best in the sport of boxing. I am a great fighter, and I showed it tonight. If the people want another round, I’ll do it again. But for right now, I will enjoy time with my family." Golovkin did not take part in the post fight and made his way backstage, where he received stitches for a cut over his right eye. He later responded to the defeat, "I'm not going to say who won tonight, because the victory belongs to Canelo, according to the judges. I thought it was a very good fight for the fans and very exciting. I thought I fought better than he did." Golovkin's trainer Abel Sanchez, who was very critical of Álvarez following the first fight, said, "We had a great fight, the one we expected the first time around. I had it close going into the 12th round. We had good judges, who saw it from different angles. I can’t complain about the decision, but it’s close enough to warrant a third fight. Canelo fought a great fight. Congratulations." Both fighters were open to a trilogy.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: The fight generated a live gate of $23,473,500 from 16,732 tickets sold. This was lower than the first bout, however the fourth largest-grossing gates in Nevada boxing history. The fight sold 1.1 million PPV buys, lower than the first bout, however due to being priced at $84.95, it generated more revenue at around $94 million.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: In January 2019, Oscar De La Hoya instructed Golden Boy president Eric Gomez to start negotiating a deal for a third fight between Golovkin and Álvarez. Golden Boy had already booked in 4 May, Cinco De Mayo weekend at the T-Mobile Arena. A few days later, Gomez posted on social media, after preliminary talks with Golovkin's team, he felt as though Golovkin did not want a third fight. On 17 January, it was announced that Álvarez would take part in a middleweight unification bout against Daniel Jacobs on 4 May 2019.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: On 1 February, theblast.com reported that Golovkin had filed a lawsuit against his former managers Maximilian and Oleg Hermann, seeking $3.5 million in damages. In the suit it claimed the Hermann brothers had taken advantage of Golovkin financially, taking higher percentages and 'intentionally failing to account for revenue' from previous fights. At the same time, it was reported that Golovkin was negotiating a broadcast deal with DAZN, Showtime/FOX and ESPN.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: On 27 February, Tom Loeffler stated Golovkin was close to securing a deal, with some reports suggesting he was going to sign with DAZN. On 8 March, DAZN announced they had signed Golovkin on a 3-year, 6-fight agreement, worth around $100 million, which would see Golovkin fight twice a year on the platform. It was revealed part of the agreement was Golovkin would earn a purse of $30 million for a trilogy fight against Álvarez. Apart from Golovkin's own fights, the agreement also included for 2-fight cards per year in 2020 and 2021 for GGG Promotions, to showcase talent from Golovkin's own promotional company. It was rumoured that Golovkin was offered equity in DAZN through his fight purses. Golovkin's first bout under the new contract was scheduled for June 2019. Golovkin praised DAZN's global vision and highlighted that as one of the key reasons he signed with them.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: On 21 March, Golovkin advised that he wanted to fight the best of the middleweight division, regardless of belts. He wanted to close out the remainder of his career, not chasing titles, but to only fight the best and be the best middleweight. On 16 April, Golovkin announced he would fight 35 year old Canadian boxer Steve Rolls (19-0, 10 KOs) on 8 June 2019, at Madison Square Garden in New York at a catchweight of 164 pounds. Other names in the running to fight Golovkin were Brandon Adams (21-2, 13 KOs), Kamil Szeremeta (19-0, 4 KO) and former world champion Hassan N'Dam. It was then reported that Adams would challenge Jermall Charlo (28-0, 21 KOs) instead. Speaking to Fight Hub TV, Loeffler explained Rolls was chosen as Golovkin's opponent to increase subscriptions in Canada. On 24 April, Golovkin released a statement announcing he had split with longtime trainer Abel Sanchez, after nine long years. Sanchez called Golovkin 'Greedy and ungrateful', also advising ESPN, Golovkin had offered him a pay cut, which he refused. In May, during a press conference, Golovkin revealed Johnathon Banks as his new trainer. Banks was best known for having trained former world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Golovkin weighed 163 pounds, and Rolls came in at 163¾ pounds. Golovkin's official purse was listed as $2 million, however it was reported he would earn closer to $15 million. Rolls was paid $300,000.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: There was an announced crowd of 12,357 in attendance. Golovkin won the bout via knockout in round 4. From round 1, Golovkin began closing the gap on Rolls and looked to hurt Rolls with body shots. Round 2 was fought in similar fashion by Golovkin, who managed to land many clean shots. Rolls also had success in round 2, landing a number of clean shots, notably a left hand to the head, which pushed Golovkin back. By round 4, Rolls was feeling Golovkin's power. Golovkin backed Rolls up against the ropes and began throwing with both hands. Golovkin landed a shot to the temple on Rolls, the same shot he knocked out Marco Antonio Rubio, causing Rolls to cover up. With Golovkin's continued attack against the ropes, he landed a left hook to Rolls' chin, dropping Rolls face first on to the canvas. Rolls tried to beat the count, but ultimately fell towards the ropes. Referee Steve Willis stopped the bout at 2 minutes and 9 seconds into round 4, declaring Golovkin the winner. After 3 rounds, Golovkin was ahead 29–28, 30–27, and 30–27 on all three judges' scorecards. During the post-fight in-ring interviews, Golovkin said, "I feel great. I feel like a new baby. Right now, I feel completely different because I came back to my knockout. I love knockouts, and I love New York. It was a great night all around [...] The fans know who they want me to fight next, I'm ready for September. I'm ready for Canelo. Just bring him, just ask him. I'm ready. If you want big drama show, please tell him." New trainer Banks was pleased with the knockout. CompuBox statistics showed that Golovkin landed 62 of 223 punches thrown (28%) and Rolls landed 38 of his 175 thrown (22%).


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: On 5 October 2019, Golovkin defeated Ukrainian Sergiy Derevyanchenko by unanimous decision for the vacant IBF and IBO middleweight titles at Madison Square Garden, New York. After a tentative start to the opening round, which saw both fighters sizing each other up with probing jabs, Golovkin fired off a six punch combination ending with a right hook to Derevyanchenko's head, dropping the Ukrainian with 1 minute left in the first round. Derevyanchenko rose to his feet within seconds, showing no signs of being hurt. The knockdown appeared to spur Derevyanchenko into action as he began to answer Golovkin's punches with his own shots for the remainder of the round. In round two, Derevyanchenko began putting three and four punch combinations together behind a single and double jab, while Golovkin stuck to single punches, landing the occasional eye-catching hook. Towards the end of the round, Golovkin opened a cut above Derevyanchenko's right eye. The action replay appeared to show the cut was caused by a left hook, however, the New York State Athletic Commission deemed it to be the result of an accidental clash of heads, meaning if the fight was stopped due to the cut before the fourth round then the fight would be ruled a no contest, after the fourth, the result would be determined by the scorecards with a technical decision rather than a technical knockout win for Golovkin if the cut was deemed to be the result of a punch. After Golovkin started the opening seconds of the third round as the aggressor, Derevyanchenko quickly fired back to the body, appearing to hurt Golovkin as he backed up and kept his elbows tucked in close to his body to protect his mid-section. Derevyanchenko took advantage of Golovkin's defensive posture, landing several clean punches to the former champion's head. Towards the end of the round Golovkin had some success with a couple of sharp hooks to the head and a right uppercut. Golovkin was the aggressor for the majority of the fourth round, having partial success, with Derevyanchenko picking his moments to fire back with two and three punch combinations and continuing to work the body. In the last minute of the round, Derevyanchenko appeared to momentarily trouble Golovkin with a straight-left hand to the body. At the beginning of the fifth round, the ringside doctor gave the cut above Derevyanchenko's right-eye a close examination before the action resumed. Derevyanchenko controlled the pace of the round with a high punch-output, continuing with three and four punch combinations with lateral movement. Golovkin, meanwhile, stuck with single hooks and probing jabs, landing a solid uppercut halfway through the round. In the final 20 seconds, Derevyanchenko landed another body shot which again appeared to hurt Golovkin, who reeled backwards with his elbows down at his side, protecting his body. The sixth was an evenly fought round with both fighters landing several clean punches to the head, although Golovkin appeared to land the more significant blows which caught the attention of the crowd. Rounds seven, eight and nine were much of the same, back and forth engagements with Golovkin seeming to land the more eye catching blows. The tenth saw Derevyanchenko apply the pressure and back Golovkin up for the first half of the round. Golovkin had success in the last minute with left and right hooks landing on Derevyanchenko's head, only to see the Ukrainian answer with his own solid shots and back Golovkin up once again in the final 30 seconds of the round. The eleventh and twelfth were closely contested, both fighters having success, with Golovkin again appearing to land the more catching punches in the twelfth and final round. After twelve hard fought rounds, Golovkin won by unanimous decision with two judges scoring the bout 115–112 and the third scoring it 114–113, all in favour of Golovkin. According to CompuBox stats, Golovkin landed a total of 243 (33.7%) punches out of 720, with 136 (43.3%) of 314 power punches, while Derevyanchenko landed a total of 230 (31.2%) punches out of 738, with 138 (29.3%) out of 472 power punches—the most an opponent has landed on Golovkin to date. In a post fight interview, promoter Eddie Hearn, who lead the promotion of DAZN in the U.S., stated: "...he won't say it, but Gennady has been ill, basically all week", alluding to the reason Golovkin did not appear on top form during the fight.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: Golovkin faced mandatory IBF challenger Kamil Szeremeta on 18 December 2020. Quickly establishing his powerful jab, Golovkin dropped Szeremeta to the canvas at the end of the first round from an uppercut followed by a left hand. Golovkin scored another knockdown in round two from a right hand followed by two more knockdowns in rounds four and seven. Between rounds seven and eight, the referee walked to Szeremeta's corner and stopped the bout. CompuBox statistics showed that Golovkin outlanded Szeremeta 228 to 59 and outlanded in jabs 94 to 10. Golovkin landed 56% of his power punches through the fight.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: After multiple rumors of a unification match between Golovkin and WBA (Super) champion Ryōta Murata, it was announced on 27 October 2021 that a deal had been agreed between the two to stage the bout in the latter's home country of Japan, at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama on 29 December 2021. On 2 December 2021, it was announced that the bout was postponed indefinitely due to announced restrictions in response to the rising Omicron variant of Covid-19 that prohibited foreigners from visiting Japan. The fight was eventually rescheduled for 9 April 2022.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: On the night, Golovkin defeated Murata by ninth-round technical knockout. In his first fight in over a year, Golovkin made a slow start, with Murata landing the more meaningful punches in the early rounds, sustaining attacks to the body of Golovkin. From the fifth round onward, Golovkin settled into the fight, hurting his opponent as Murata's output dropping as the fight progressed. In the ninth round, Golovkin knocked his opponent down, prompting Murata's corner to throw in the towel.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: On 24 May 2022, it was announced that Golovkin would be moving up to compete in the super middleweight division for the first time in his career, to face Canelo Álvarez on 17 September at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada in a trilogy bout for the latter's undisputed super middleweight titles.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: Golovkin lost the fight via unanimous decision with two judges scoring the fight 115–113 and the other judge had it 116–112, all in Álvarez's favor.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: Golovkin is known for his hard sparring sessions, in which he often sparred with much larger opponents. His biggest sparring partner was a heavyweight, "Vicious" Vincent Thompson, who was a 243 lb prospect with a 13–0 professional record at the time. Golovkin's other notable regular sparring partners include Darnell Boone, David Benavidez, and brothers John and Julius Jackson. He occasionally sparred with Canelo Álvarez, Julio César Chávez Jr., Sergey Kovalev, Shane Mosley, Peter Quillin, and other top-ranked boxers. According to David Imoesiri, a heavyweight who worked as a sparring partner for Alexander Povetkin and completed six different training camps in Big Bear, sparred for a total of about a hundred rounds with Golovkin. Imoesiri said Golovkin routinely dispatched of heavyweights and hit harder than Povetkin.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: Will Clemons, a cruiserweight, who worked with both Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Golovkin, told: "You know it's an experience of a lifetime, Floyd would definitely make you work, make you think a lot. 'Triple G' make[s] you fear for your life. For real, that's the kind of power he has, and everything is hard from the jab. ... I wanted to feel that power, which I did, I got what I was asking for. Usually they make you wear rib protectors. My heart's had it I didn't wanna wear one, and then I learned my lesson. I got hit with a body shot that felt like ... it was a missile. ... It was a great experience to be in there with the hardest-hitting middleweight in history."


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: Golovkin's ex-trainer Abel Sanchez praised him for his work ethic and humbleness: "He has been that way since I first got him eight years ago. He is humble and shy guy, like you see him now, and it's actually pretty pleasant to be around somebody like that, who's not just 'foam at the mouth' and trying to say who he's gonna kill next." Sanchez also stated that until 2019 Golovkin did not have a strength and conditioning coach or a nutritionist, for he prefers a traditional cuisine and training regimen, and because of Sanchez's determination to not have any assistants: "Along the track of Gennady being who he has become, I would get consistently emails, and messages, and letters from coaches, and nutritionists, and strength and conditioning coaches, that would tell me that if I use them, and if I bring them in, they promised me that they can make Gennady 50% better than he is right now. Could you imagine that? We couldn't get fights before! If he was 50% better we wouldn't be able to get any fights! He would be destroying everybody, there would be nobody that he could fight."


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: In 2006, Golovkin moved from his native Kazakhstan to Stuttgart, Germany, and then in 2013 to train with Abel Sanchez at Big Bear, California. In 2014, he moved to Santa Monica, California, where he lives with his family. He trains in Big Bear, California.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: He and his wife Alina have a son who is in primary school, and a daughter who was born days before his first fight with Canelo Álvarez.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: Golovkin said he wanted his son to attend school in California because his training camp, team and promotions are based in California, he has many friends there and he considers it a beautiful place. Golovkin's favorite food is beef.


title: Gennady Golovkin

text: In an interview with Kazakh media, Golovkin said that he was frequently approached in the U.S. by ad- and film-making people, who asked him to make guest appearances, co-star in movies or appear in other media. Though he described himself as a media-friendly person, he added, "I avoid starring in movies, appear on magazine covers. I love boxing, and I don't want to divert from it. Right now my sports career is more important for me."


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the country's capital and largest city. , it was estimated to be the second largest city in Central America. Nicaragua's multiethnic population of six million includes people of mestizo, indigenous, European and African heritage. The main language is Spanish. Indigenous tribes on the Mosquito Coast speak their own languages and English.


title: Nicaragua

text: Originally inhabited by various indigenous cultures since ancient times, the region was conquered by the Spanish Empire in the 16th century. Nicaragua gained independence from Spain in 1821. The Mosquito Coast followed a different historical path, being colonized by the English in the 17th century and later coming under British rule. It became an autonomous territory of Nicaragua in 1860 and its northernmost part was transferred to Honduras in 1960. Since its independence, Nicaragua has undergone periods of political unrest, dictatorship, occupation and fiscal crisis, including the Nicaraguan Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and the Contra War of the 1980s.


title: Nicaragua

text: The mixture of cultural traditions has generated substantial diversity in folklore, cuisine, music, and literature, particularly the latter, given the literary contributions of Nicaraguan poets and writers such as Rubén Darío. Known as the "land of lakes and volcanoes", Nicaragua is also home to the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve, the second-largest rainforest of the Americas. The biological diversity, warm tropical climate and active volcanoes make Nicaragua an increasingly popular tourist destination. Nicaragua is a founding member of the United Nations, joined the Non-Aligned Movement early, Organization of American States, ALBA and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.


title: Nicaragua

text: There are two prevailing theories on how the name "Nicaragua" came to be. The first is that the name was coined by Spanish colonists based on the name Nicarao, who was the chieftain or cacique of a powerful indigenous tribe encountered by the Spanish conquistador Gil González Dávila during his entry into southwestern Nicaragua in 1522. This theory holds that the name Nicaragua was formed from Nicarao and "agua" (Spanish for "water"), to reference the fact that there are two large lakes and several other bodies of water within the country. However, as of 2002, it was determined that the cacique's real name was Macuilmiquiztli, which meant "Five Deaths" in the Nahuatl language, rather than Nicarao.


title: Nicaragua

text: The second theory is that the country's name comes from any of the following Nahuatl words: "nic-anahuac", which meant "Anahuac reached this far", or "the Nahuas came this far", or "those who come from Anahuac came this far"; "nican-nahua", which meant "here are the Nahuas"; or "nic-atl-nahuac", which meant "here by the water" or "surrounded by water".


title: Nicaragua

text: Paleo-Americans first inhabited what is now known as Nicaragua as far back as 12,000 BCE. In later pre-Columbian times, Nicaragua's indigenous people were part of the Intermediate Area, between the Mesoamerican and Andean cultural regions, and within the influence of the Isthmo-Colombian Area. Nicaragua's central region and its Caribbean coast were inhabited by Macro-Chibchan language ethnic groups such as the Miskito, Rama, Mayangna, and Matagalpas. They had coalesced in Central America and migrated both to and from present-day northern Colombia and nearby areas. Their food came primarily from hunting and gathering, but also fishing and slash-and-burn agriculture.


title: Nicaragua

text: At the end of the 15th century, western Nicaragua was inhabited by several indigenous peoples related by culture to the Mesoamerican civilizations of the Aztec and Maya, and by language to the Mesoamerican language area. The Chorotegas were Mangue language ethnic groups who had arrived in Nicaragua from what is now the Mexican state of Chiapas sometime around 800 CE. The Nicarao people were a branch of Nahuas who spoke the Nawat dialect and also came from Chiapas, around 1200 CE. Prior to that, the Nicaraos had been associated with the Toltec civilization. Both Chorotegas and Nicaraos originated in Mexico's Cholula valley, and migrated south. A third group, the Subtiabas, were an Oto-Manguean people who migrated from the Mexican state of Guerrero around 1200 CE. Additionally, there were trade-related colonies in Nicaragua set up by the Aztecs starting in the 14th century.


title: Nicaragua

text: In 1502, on his fourth voyage, Christopher Columbus became the first European known to have reached what is now Nicaragua as he sailed southeast toward the Isthmus of Panama. Columbus explored the Mosquito Coast on the Atlantic side of Nicaragua but did not encounter any indigenous people. 20 years later, the Spaniards returned to Nicaragua, this time to its southwestern part. The first attempt to conquer Nicaragua was by the conquistador Gil González Dávila, who had arrived in Panama in January 1520. In 1522, González Dávila ventured to the area that later became the Rivas Department of Nicaragua. There he encountered an indigenous Nahua tribe led by chief Macuilmiquiztli, whose name has sometimes been erroneously referred to as "Nicarao" or "Nicaragua". The tribe's capital was Quauhcapolca. González Dávila conversed with Macuilmiquiztli thanks to two indigenous interpreters who had learned Spanish, whom he had brought along. After exploring and gathering gold in the fertile western valleys, González Dávila and his men were attacked and driven off by the Chorotega, led by chief Diriangén. The Spanish tried to convert the tribes to Christianity; Macuilmiquiztli's tribe was baptized, but Diriangén was openly hostile to the Spaniards. Western Nicaragua, at the Pacific Coast, became a port and shipbuilding facility for the Galleons plying the waters between Manila, Philippines and Acapulco, Mexico.


title: Nicaragua

text: The first Spanish permanent settlements were founded in 1524. That year, the conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba founded two of Nicaragua's main cities: Granada on Lake Nicaragua, and then León, west of Lake Managua. Córdoba soon built defenses for the cities and fought against incursions by other conquistadors. Córdoba was later publicly beheaded for having defied his superior, Pedro Arias Dávila. Córdoba's tomb and remains were discovered in 2000 in the ruins of León Viejo.


title: Nicaragua

text: The clashes among Spanish forces did not impede their destruction of the indigenous people and their culture. The series of battles came to be known as the "War of the Captains". Pedro Arias Dávila was a winner; although he lost control of Panama, he moved to Nicaragua and established his base in León. In 1527, León became the capital of the colony. Through diplomacy, Arias Dávila became the colony's first governor.


title: Nicaragua

text: Without women in their parties, the Spanish conquerors took Nahua and Chorotega wives and partners, beginning the multiethnic mix of indigenous and European stock now known as ""mestizo"", which constitutes the great majority of the population in western Nicaragua. Many indigenous people were killed by European infectious diseases, compounded by neglect by the Spaniards, who controlled their subsistence. Many other indigenous peoples were captured and transported as slaves to Panama and Peru between 1526 and 1540.


title: Nicaragua

text: In 1610, the Momotombo volcano erupted, destroying the city of León. The city was rebuilt northwest of the original, which is now known as the ruins of León Viejo. During the American Revolutionary War, Central America was subject to conflict between Britain and Spain. British navy admiral Horatio Nelson led expeditions in the Battle of San Fernando de Omoa in 1779 and on the San Juan River in 1780, the latter of which had temporary success before being abandoned due to disease.


title: Nicaragua

text: The Act of Independence of Central America dissolved the Captaincy General of Guatemala in September 1821, and Nicaragua soon became part of the First Mexican Empire. In July 1823, after the overthrow of the Mexican monarchy in March of the same year, Nicaragua joined the newly formed United Provinces of Central America, country later known as the Federal Republic of Central America. Nicaragua definitively became an independent republic in 1838.


title: Nicaragua

text: The early years of independence were characterized by rivalry between the Liberal elite of León and the Conservative elite of Granada, which often degenerated into civil war, particularly during the 1840s and 1850s. Managua rose to undisputed preeminence as the nation's capital in 1852 to allay the rivalry between the two feuding cities. Following the start (1848) of the California Gold Rush, Nicaragua provided a route for travelers from the eastern United States to journey to California by sea, via the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua. Invited by the Liberals in 1855 to join their struggle against the Conservatives, the American adventurer and filibuster William Walker set himself up as President of Nicaragua after conducting a farcical election in 1856; his presidency lasted less than a year. Military forces from Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua itself united to drive Walker out of Nicaragua in 1857, bringing three decades of Conservative rule.


title: Nicaragua

text: Great Britain, which had claimed the Mosquito Coast as a protectorate since 1655, delegated the area to Honduras in 1859 before transferring it to Nicaragua in 1860. The Mosquito Coast remained an autonomous area until 1894. José Santos Zelaya, President of Nicaragua from 1893 to 1909, negotiated the integration of the Mosquito Coast into Nicaragua. In his honor, the region became "Zelaya Department".


title: Nicaragua

text: Throughout the late 19th-century, the United States and several European powers considered various schemes to link the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic by building a canal across Nicaragua.


title: Nicaragua

text: In 1909, the United States supported the conservative-led forces rebelling against President Zelaya. U.S. motives included differences over the proposed Nicaragua Canal, Nicaragua's potential to destabilize the region, and Zelaya's attempts to regulate foreign access to Nicaraguan natural resources. On November 18, 1909, U.S. warships were sent to the area after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) were executed by order of Zelaya. The U.S. justified the intervention by claiming to protect U.S. lives and property. Zelaya resigned later that year.


title: Nicaragua

text: In August 1912, the President of Nicaragua, Adolfo Díaz, requested the secretary of war, General Luis Mena, to resign for fear he was leading an insurrection. Mena fled Managua with his brother, the chief of police of Managua, to start an insurrection. After Mena's troops captured steam boats of an American company, the U.S. delegation asked President Díaz to ensure the safety of American citizens and property during the insurrection. He replied he could not, and asked the U.S. to intervene in the conflict.


title: Nicaragua

text: U.S. Marines occupied Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933, except for a nine-month period beginning in 1925. In 1914, the Bryan–Chamorro Treaty was signed, giving the U.S. control over a proposed canal through Nicaragua, as well as leases for potential canal defenses. After the U.S. Marines left, another violent conflict between Liberals and Conservatives in 1926, resulted in the return of U.S. Marines.


title: Nicaragua

text: From 1927 to 1933, rebel general Augusto César Sandino led a sustained guerrilla war against the Conservative regime and then against the U.S. Marines, whom he fought for over five years. When the Americans left in 1933, they set up the "Guardia Nacional" (national guard), a combined military and police force trained and equipped by the Americans and designed to be loyal to U.S. interests.


title: Nicaragua

text: After the U.S. Marines withdrew from Nicaragua in January 1933, Sandino and the newly elected administration of President Juan Bautista Sacasa reached an agreement that Sandino would cease his guerrilla activities in return for amnesty, a land grant for an agricultural colony, and retention of an armed band of 100 men for a year. However, due to a growing hostility between Sandino and National Guard director Anastasio Somoza García and a fear of armed opposition from Sandino, Somoza García ordered his assassination. Sacasa invited Sandino for dinner and to sign a peace treaty at the Presidential House on the night of February 21, 1934. After leaving the Presidential House, Sandino's car was stopped by National Guard soldiers and they kidnapped him. Later that night, Sandino was assassinated by National Guard soldiers. Later, hundreds of men, women, and children from Sandino's agricultural colony were murdered.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua has experienced several military dictatorships, the longest being the hereditary dictatorship of the Somoza family, who ruled for 43 nonconsecutive years during the 20th century. The Somoza family came to power as part of a U.S.-engineered pact in 1927 that stipulated the formation of the "Guardia Nacional" to replace the marines who had long reigned in the country. Somoza García slowly eliminated officers in the national guard who might have stood in his way, and then deposed Sacasa and became president on January 1, 1937, in a rigged election.


title: Nicaragua

text: In 1941, during the Second World War, Nicaragua declared war on Japan (8 December), Germany (11 December), Italy (11 December), Bulgaria (19 December), Hungary (19 December) and Romania (19 December). Only Romania reciprocated, declaring war on Nicaragua on the same day (19 December 1941). No soldiers were sent to the war, but Somoza García confiscated properties held by German Nicaraguan residents. In 1945, Nicaragua was among the first countries to ratify the United Nations Charter.


title: Nicaragua

text: On September 29, 1956, Somoza García was shot to death by Rigoberto López Pérez, a 27-year-old Liberal Nicaraguan poet. Luis Somoza Debayle, the eldest son of the late president, was appointed president by the congress and officially took charge of the country. He is remembered by some as moderate, but after only a few years in power died of a heart attack. His successor as president was René Schick Gutiérrez, whom most Nicaraguans viewed "as nothing more than a puppet of the Somozas". Somoza García's youngest son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, often referred to simply as "Somoza", became president in 1967.


title: Nicaragua

text: An earthquake in 1972 destroyed nearly 90% of Managua, including much of its infrastructure. Instead of helping to rebuild the city, Somoza siphoned off relief money. The mishandling of relief money also prompted Pittsburgh Pirates star Roberto Clemente to personally fly to Managua on December 31, 1972, but he died "en route" in an airplane accident. Even the economic elite were reluctant to support Somoza, as he had acquired monopolies in industries that were key to rebuilding the nation.


title: Nicaragua

text: The Somoza family was among a few families or groups of influential firms which reaped most of the benefits of the country's growth from the 1950s to the 1970s. When Somoza was deposed by the Sandinistas in 1979, the family's worth was estimated to be between $500 million and $1.5 billion.


title: Nicaragua

text: In 1961, Carlos Fonseca looked back to the historical figure of Sandino, and along with two other people (one of whom was believed to be Casimiro Sotelo, who was later assassinated), founded the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). After the 1972 earthquake and Somoza's apparent corruption, the ranks of the Sandinistas were flooded with young disaffected Nicaraguans who no longer had anything to lose.


title: Nicaragua

text: In December 1974, a group of the FSLN, in an attempt to kidnap U.S. ambassador Turner Shelton, held some Managuan partygoers hostage (after killing the host, former agriculture minister, Jose Maria Castillo), until the Somozan government met their demands for a large ransom and free transport to Cuba. Somoza granted this, then subsequently sent his national guard out into the countryside to look for the kidnappers, described by opponents of the kidnapping as "terrorists".


title: Nicaragua

text: On January 10, 1978, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, the editor of the national newspaper "La Prensa" and ardent opponent of Somoza, was assassinated. It is alleged that the planners and perpetrators of the murder were at the highest echelons of the Somoza regime.


title: Nicaragua

text: The Sandinistas forcefully took power in July 1979, ousting Somoza, and prompting the exodus of the majority of Nicaragua's middle class, wealthy landowners, and professionals, many of whom settled in the United States. The Carter administration decided to work with the new government, while attaching a provision for aid forfeiture if it was found to be assisting insurgencies in neighboring countries. Somoza fled the country and eventually ended up in Paraguay, where he was assassinated in September 1980, allegedly by members of the Argentinian Revolutionary Workers' Party.


title: Nicaragua

text: In 1980, the Carter administration provided $60 million in aid to Nicaragua under the Sandinistas, but the aid was suspended when the administration obtained evidence of Nicaraguan shipment of arms to El Salvadoran rebels. Most people sided with Nicaragua against the Sandinistas. In response to the coming to power of the Sandinistas, various rebel groups collectively known as the "Contras" were formed to oppose the new government. The Reagan administration authorized the CIA to help the Contra rebels with funding, weapons and training. The Contras operated from camps in the neighboring countries of Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south.


title: Nicaragua

text: They engaged in a systematic campaign of terror among rural Nicaraguans to disrupt the social reform projects of the Sandinistas. Several historians have criticized the Contra campaign and the Reagan administration's support for the Contras, citing the brutality and numerous human rights violations of the Contras. LaRamee and Polakoff, for example, describe the destruction of health centers, schools, and cooperatives at the hands of the rebels, and others have contended that murder, rape, and torture occurred on a large scale in Contra-dominated areas. The U.S. also carried out a campaign of economic sabotage, and disrupted shipping by planting underwater mines in Nicaragua's port of Corinto, an action condemned by the International Court of Justice as illegal. The court also found that the U.S. encouraged acts contrary to humanitarian law by producing the manual "Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare" and disseminating it to the Contras. The manual, among other things, advised on how to rationalize killings of civilians. The U.S. also sought to place economic pressure on the Sandinistas, and the Reagan administration imposed a full trade embargo.


title: Nicaragua

text: The Sandinistas were also accused of human rights abuses including torture, disappearances and mass executions. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights investigated abuses by Sandinista forces, including an execution of 35 to 40 Miskitos in December 1981, and an execution of 75 people in November 1984.


title: Nicaragua

text: In the Nicaraguan general elections of 1984, which were judged by at least one visiting 30-person delegation of NGO representatives to have been free and fair, the Sandinistas won the parliamentary election and their leader Daniel Ortega won the presidential election. The Reagan administration criticized the elections as a "sham" based on the claim that Arturo Cruz, the candidate nominated by the Coordinadora Democrática Nicaragüense, comprising three right wing political parties, did not participate in the elections. However, the administration privately argued against Cruz's participation for fear that his involvement would legitimize the elections, and thus weaken the case for American aid to the Contras. According to Martin Kriele, the results of the election were rigged.


title: Nicaragua

text: In 1983 the U.S. Congress prohibited federal funding of the Contras, but the Reagan administration illegally continued to back them by covertly selling arms to Iran and channeling the proceeds to the Contras in the Iran–Contra affair, for which several members of the Reagan administration were convicted of felonies. The International Court of Justice, in regard to the case of Nicaragua v. United States in 1986, found, "the United States of America was under an obligation to make reparation to the Republic of Nicaragua for all injury caused to Nicaragua by certain breaches of obligations under customary international law and treaty-law committed by the United States of America". During the war between the Contras and the Sandinistas, 30,000 people were killed.


title: Nicaragua

text: In the Nicaraguan general election, 1990, a coalition of anti-Sandinista parties (from the left and right of the political spectrum) led by Violeta Chamorro, the widow of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, defeated the Sandinistas. The defeat shocked the Sandinistas, who had expected to win.


title: Nicaragua

text: Exit polls of Nicaraguans reported Chamorro's victory over Ortega was achieved with a 55% majority. Chamorro was the first woman president of Nicaragua. Ortega vowed he would govern "desde abajo" (from below). Chamorro came to office with an economy in ruins, primarily because of the financial and social costs of the Contra War with the Sandinista-led government. In the next election, the Nicaraguan general election, 1996, Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas of the FSLN lost again, this time to Arnoldo Alemán of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC).


title: Nicaragua

text: In the 2001 elections, the PLC again defeated the FSLN, with Alemán's Vice President Enrique Bolaños succeeding him as president. However, Alemán was convicted and sentenced in 2003 to 20 years in prison for embezzlement, money laundering, and corruption; liberal and Sandinista parliament members combined to strip the presidential powers of President Bolaños and his ministers, calling for his resignation and threatening impeachment. The Sandinistas said they no longer supported Bolaños after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told Bolaños to distance from the FSLN. This "slow motion "coup d'état"" was averted partially by pressure from the Central American presidents, who vowed not to recognize any movement that removed Bolaños; the U.S., the OAS, and the European Union also opposed the action.


title: Nicaragua

text: Before the general elections on November 5, 2006, the National Assembly passed a bill further restricting abortion in Nicaragua. As a result, Nicaragua is one of five countries in the world where abortion is illegal with no exceptions. Legislative and presidential elections took place on November 5, 2006. Ortega returned to the presidency with 37.99% of the vote. This percentage was enough to win the presidency outright, because of a change in electoral law which lowered the percentage requiring a runoff election from 45% to 35% (with a 5% margin of victory). Nicaragua's 2011 general election resulted in re-election of Ortega, with a landslide victory and 62.46% of the vote. In 2014 the National Assembly approved changes to the constitution allowing Ortega to run for a third successive term.


title: Nicaragua

text: In November 2016, Ortega was elected for his third consecutive term (his fourth overall). International monitoring of the elections was initially prohibited, and as a result the validity of the elections has been disputed, but observation by the OAS was announced in October. Ortega was reported by Nicaraguan election officials as having received 72% of the vote. However the Broad Front for Democracy (FAD), having promoted boycotts of the elections, claimed that 70% of voters had abstained (while election officials claimed 65.8% participation).


title: Nicaragua

text: In April 2018, demonstrations opposed a decree increasing taxes and reducing benefits in the country's pension system. Local independent press organizations had documented at least 19 dead and over 100 missing in the ensuing conflict. A reporter from NPR spoke to protestors who explained that while the initial issue was about the pension reform, the uprisings that spread across the country reflected many grievances about the government's time in office, and that the fight is for President Ortega and his vice president wife to step down. April 24, 2018 marked the day of the greatest march in opposition of the Sandinista party. On May 2, 2018, university-student leaders publicly announced that they give the government seven days to set a date and time for a dialogue that was promised to the people due to the recent events of repression. The students also scheduled another march on that same day for a peaceful protest. As of May 2018, estimates of the death toll were as high as 63, many of them student protesters, and the wounded totalled more than 400. Following a working visit from May 17 to 21, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights adopted precautionary measures aimed at protecting members of the student movement and their families after testimonies indicated the majority of them had suffered acts of violence and death threats for their participation. In the last week of May, thousands who accuse Mr. Ortega and his wife of acting like dictators joined in resuming anti-government rallies after attempted peace talks have remained unresolved.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua occupies a landmass of , which makes it slightly larger than England. Nicaragua has three distinct geographical regions: the Pacific lowlands – fertile valleys which the Spanish colonists settled, the Amerrisque Mountains (North-central highlands), and the Mosquito Coast (Atlantic lowlands/Caribbean lowlands).


title: Nicaragua

text: The low plains of the Atlantic Coast are wide in areas. They have long been exploited for their natural resources.


title: Nicaragua

text: On the Pacific side of Nicaragua are the two largest fresh water lakes in Central America—Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua. Surrounding these lakes and extending to their northwest along the rift valley of the Gulf of Fonseca are fertile lowland plains, with soil highly enriched by ash from nearby volcanoes of the central highlands. Nicaragua's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contribute to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot. Nicaragua has made efforts to become less dependent on fossil fuels, and it expects to acquire 90% of its energy from renewable resources by 2020. Nicaragua was one of the few countries that did not enter an INDC at COP21. Nicaragua initially chose not to join the Paris Climate Accord because it felt that "much more action is required" by individual countries on restricting global temperature rise. However, in October 2017, Nicaragua made the decision to join the agreement. It ratified this agreement on November 22, 2017.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nearly one fifth of Nicaragua is designated as protected areas like national parks, nature reserves, and biological reserves. The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 3.63/10, ranking it 146th globally out of 172 countries. Geophysically, Nicaragua is surrounded by the Caribbean Plate, an oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Cocos Plate. Since Central America is a major subduction zone, Nicaragua hosts most of the Central American Volcanic Arc. On 9 June 2021, Nicaragua launched a new volcanic supersite research in strengthening the monitoring and surveillance of the country's 21 active volcanoes.


title: Nicaragua

text: In the west of the country, these lowlands consist of a broad, hot, fertile plain. Punctuating this plain are several large volcanoes of the Cordillera Los Maribios mountain range, including Mombacho just outside Granada, and Momotombo near León. The lowland area runs from the Gulf of Fonseca to Nicaragua's Pacific border with Costa Rica south of Lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua is the largest freshwater lake in Central America (20th largest in the world), and is home to some of the world's rare freshwater sharks (Nicaraguan shark). The Pacific lowlands region is the most populous, with over half of the nation's population.


title: Nicaragua

text: The eruptions of western Nicaragua's 40 volcanoes, many of which are still active, have sometimes devastated settlements but also have enriched the land with layers of fertile ash. The geologic activity that produces vulcanism also breeds powerful earthquakes. Tremors occur regularly throughout the Pacific zone, and earthquakes have nearly destroyed the capital city, Managua, more than once.


title: Nicaragua

text: Most of the Pacific zone is "tierra caliente", the "hot land" of tropical Spanish America at elevations under . Temperatures remain virtually constant throughout the year, with highs ranging between . After a dry season lasting from November to April, rains begin in May and continue to October, giving the Pacific lowlands of precipitation. Good soils and a favourable climate combine to make western Nicaragua the country's economic and demographic centre. The southwestern shore of Lake Nicaragua lies within of the Pacific Ocean. Thus the lake and the San Juan River were often proposed in the 19th century as the longest part of a canal route across the Central American isthmus. Canal proposals were periodically revived in the 20th and 21st centuries. Roughly a century after the opening of the Panama Canal, the prospect of a Nicaraguan ecocanal remains a topic of interest.


title: Nicaragua

text: In addition to its beach and resort communities, the Pacific lowlands contains most of Nicaragua's Spanish colonial architecture and artifacts. Cities such as León and Granada abound in colonial architecture; founded in 1524, Granada is the oldest colonial city in the Americas.


title: Nicaragua

text: Northern Nicaragua is the most diversified region producing coffee, cattle, milk products, vegetables, wood, gold, and flowers. Its extensive forests, rivers and geography are suited for ecotourism.


title: Nicaragua

text: The central highlands are a significantly less populated and economically developed area in the north, between Lake Nicaragua and the Caribbean. Forming the country's tierra templada, or "temperate land", at elevations between , the highlands enjoy mild temperatures with daily highs of . This region has a longer, wetter rainy season than the Pacific lowlands, making erosion a problem on its steep slopes. Rugged terrain, poor soils, and low population density characterize the area as a whole, but the northwestern valleys are fertile and well settled.


title: Nicaragua

text: The area has a cooler climate than the Pacific lowlands. About a quarter of the country's agriculture takes place in this region, with coffee grown on the higher slopes. Oaks, pines, moss, ferns and orchids are abundant in the cloud forests of the region.


title: Nicaragua

text: Bird life in the forests of the central region includes resplendent quetzals, goldfinches, hummingbirds, jays and toucanets.


title: Nicaragua

text: This large rainforest region is irrigated by several large rivers and is sparsely populated. The area has 57% of the territory of the nation and most of its mineral resources. It has been heavily exploited, but much natural diversity remains. The Rio Coco is the largest river in Central America; it forms the border with Honduras. The Caribbean coastline is much more sinuous than its generally straight Pacific counterpart; lagoons and deltas make it very irregular.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua's Bosawás Biosphere Reserve is in the Atlantic lowlands, part of which is located in the municipality of Siuna; it protects of La Mosquitia forest – almost 7% of the country's area – making it the largest rainforest north of the Amazon in Brazil.


title: Nicaragua

text: The municipalities of Siuna, Rosita, and Bonanza, known as the "Mining Triangle", are located in the region known as the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, in the Caribbean lowlands. Bonanza still contains an active gold mine owned by HEMCO. Siuna and Rosita do not have active mines but panning for gold is still very common in the region.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua's tropical east coast is very different from the rest of the country. The climate is predominantly tropical, with high temperature and high humidity. Around the area's principal city of Bluefields, English is widely spoken along with the official Spanish. The population more closely resembles that found in many typical Caribbean ports than the rest of Nicaragua.


title: Nicaragua

text: A great variety of birds can be observed including eagles, toucans, parakeets and macaws. Other animal life in the area includes different species of monkeys, anteaters, white-tailed deer and tapirs.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua is home to a rich variety of plants and animals. Nicaragua is located in the middle of the Americas and this privileged location has enabled the country to serve as host to a great biodiversity. This factor, along with the weather and light altitudinal variations, allows the country to harbor 248 species of amphibians and reptiles, 183 species of mammals, 705 bird species, 640 fish species, and about 5,796 species of plants.


title: Nicaragua

text: The region of great forests is located on the eastern side of the country. Rainforests are found in the Río San Juan Department and in the autonomous regions of RAAN and RAAS. This biome groups together the greatest biodiversity in the country and is largely protected by the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve in the south and the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve in the north. The Nicaraguan jungles, which represent about , are considered the lungs of Central America and comprise the second largest-sized rainforest of the Americas.


title: Nicaragua

text: There are currently 78 protected areas in Nicaragua, covering more than , or about 17% of its landmass. These include wildlife refuges and nature reserves that shelter a wide range of ecosystems. There are more than 1,400 animal species classified thus far in Nicaragua. Some 12,000 species of plants have been classified thus far in Nicaragua, with an estimated 5,000 species not yet classified.


title: Nicaragua

text: The bull shark is a species of shark that can survive for an extended period of time in fresh water. It can be found in Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River, where it is often referred to as the "Nicaragua shark". Nicaragua has recently banned freshwater fishing of the Nicaragua shark and the sawfish in response to the declining populations of these animals.


title: Nicaragua

text: Politics of Nicaragua takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Nicaragua is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the national assembly. The judiciary makes up the third branch of government.


title: Nicaragua

text: Between 2007 and 2009, Nicaragua's major political parties discussed the possibility of going from a presidential system to a parliamentary system. Their reason: there would be a clear differentiation between the head of government (prime minister) and the head of state (president). Nevertheless, it was argued that the true reason for this proposal was to find a legal way for President Ortega to stay in power after January 2012, when his second and last government period was expected to end. Ortega was reelected to a third term in November 2016, and a fourth in 2021; both elections were tainted by credible reports of large-scale fraud, voter intimidation, and politically motivated arrests of opposition party leaders. Independent observers were barred from the polls. The OAS, United States, and European Union all described the 2021 election as a "sham" due to these issues.


title: Nicaragua

text: Since Daniel Ortega's election in 2006, liberal democratic norms and individual rights in practice have deteriorated. Parties other than the ruling FSLN have been repressed through arbitrary arrest and detention of opposition candidates and activists. Most government jobs "de facto" require membership in the FSLN. Opposition media has been repressed through arrests of journalists and seizure of broadcasting and printing materials.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua pursues an independent foreign policy. Nicaragua is in territorial disputes with Colombia over the Archipelago de San Andrés y Providencia and Quita Sueño Bank and with Costa Rica over a boundary dispute involving the San Juan River.


title: Nicaragua

text: The Nicaraguan Armed Forces consist of various military contingents. Nicaragua has an army, navy and an air force. There are roughly 14,000 active duty personnel, which is much less compared to the numbers seen during the Nicaraguan Revolution. Although the army has had a rough military history, a portion of its forces, which were known as the national guard, became integrated with what is now the National Police of Nicaragua. In essence, the police became a "gendarmerie". The National Police of Nicaragua are rarely, if ever, labeled as a "gendarmerie". The other elements and manpower that were not devoted to the national police were sent over to cultivate the new Army of Nicaragua.


title: Nicaragua

text: The age to serve in the armed forces is 17 and conscription is not imminent. , the military budget was roughly 0.7% of Nicaragua's expenditures.


title: Nicaragua

text: The National Police of Nicaragua Force (in Spanish: La Policía Nacional Nicaragüense) is the national police of Nicaragua. The force is in charge of regular police functions and, at times, works in conjunction with the Nicaraguan military, making it an indirect and rather subtle version of a gendarmerie. However, the Nicaraguan National Police work separately and have a different established set of norms than the nation's military. According to a recent US Department of State report, corruption is endemic, especially within law enforcement and the judiciary, and arbitrary arrests, torture, and harsh prison conditions are the norm.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua is the safest country in Central America and one of the safest in Latin America, according to the United Nations Development Program, with a homicide rate of 8.7 per 100,000 inhabitants.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua is a unitary republic. For administrative purposes it is divided into 15 departments ("departamentos") and two self-governing regions (autonomous communities) based on the Spanish model. The departments are then subdivided into 153 municipios (municipalities). The two autonomous regions are the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua is among the poorest countries in the Americas. Its gross domestic product (GDP) in purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2008 was estimated at US$17.37 billion. Agriculture represents 15.5% of GDP, the highest percentage in Central America. Remittances account for over 15% of the Nicaraguan GDP. Close to one billion dollars are sent to the country by Nicaraguans living abroad. The economy grew at a rate of about 4% in 2011. By 2019, given restrictive taxes and a civil conflict, it recorded a negative growth of - 3.9%; the International Monetary Fund forecast for 2020 is a further decline of 6% due to COVID-19.


title: Nicaragua

text: The restrictive tax measures put in place in 2019 and a political crisis over social security negatively affected the country's weak public spending and investor confidence in sovereign debt. According to the update IMF forecasts from 14 April 2020, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19, GDP growth is expected to fall to -6% in 2020.


title: Nicaragua

text: According to the United Nations Development Programme, 48% of the population of Nicaragua live below the poverty line, 79.9% of the population live with less than $2 per day, According to UN figures, 80% of the indigenous people (who make up 5% of the population) live on less than $1 per day.


title: Nicaragua

text: According to the World Bank, Nicaragua ranked as the 123rd out of 190 best economy for starting a business. In 2007, Nicaragua's economy was labelled "62.7% free" by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, with high levels of fiscal, government, labor, investment, financial, and trade freedom. It ranked as the 61st freest economy, and 14th (of 29) in the Americas.


title: Nicaragua

text: In March 2007, Poland and Nicaragua signed an agreement to write off 30.6 million dollars which was borrowed by the Nicaraguan government in the 1980s. Inflation reduced from 33,500% in 1988 to 9.45% in 2006, and the foreign debt was cut in half.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua is primarily an agricultural country; agriculture constitutes 60% of its total exports which annually yield approximately US$300 million. Nearly two-thirds of the coffee crop comes from the northern part of the central highlands, in the area north and east of the town of Estelí. Tobacco, grown in the same northern highlands region as coffee, has become an increasingly important cash crop since the 1990s, with annual exports of leaf and cigars in the neighborhood of $200 million per year. Soil erosion and pollution from the heavy use of pesticides have become serious concerns in the cotton district. Yields and exports have both been declining since 1985. Today most of Nicaragua's bananas are grown in the northwestern part of the country near the port of Corinto; sugarcane is also grown in the same district. Cassava, a root crop somewhat similar to the potato, is an important food in tropical regions. Cassava is also the main ingredient in tapioca pudding. Nicaragua's agricultural sector has benefited because of the country's strong ties to Venezuela. It is estimated that Venezuela will import approximately $200 million in agricultural goods. In the 1990s, the government initiated efforts to diversify agriculture. Some of the new export-oriented crops were peanuts, sesame, melons, and onions.


title: Nicaragua

text: Fishing boats on the Caribbean side bring shrimp as well as lobsters into processing plants at Puerto Cabezas, Bluefields, and Laguna de Perlas. A turtle fishery thrived on the Caribbean coast before it collapsed from overexploitation.


title: Nicaragua

text: Mining is becoming a major industry in Nicaragua, contributing less than 1% of gross domestic product (GDP). Restrictions are being placed on lumbering due to increased environmental concerns about destruction of the rain forests. But lumbering continues despite these obstacles; indeed, a single hardwood tree may be worth thousands of dollars.


title: Nicaragua

text: During the war between the US-backed Contras and the government of the Sandinistas in the 1980s, much of the country's infrastructure was damaged or destroyed. Transportation throughout the nation is often inadequate. For example, it was until recently impossible to travel all the way by highway from Managua to the Caribbean coast. A new road between Nueva Guinea and Bluefields was completed in 2019 and allows regular bus service to the capital. The Centroamérica power plant on the Tuma River in the Central highlands has been expanded, and other hydroelectric projects have been undertaken to help provide electricity to the nation's newer industries. Nicaragua has long been considered as a possible site for a new canal that could supplement the Panama Canal, connecting the Caribbean Sea (and therefore the Atlantic Ocean) with the Pacific Ocean.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua's minimum wage is among the lowest in the Americas and in the world. Remittances are equivalent to roughly 15% of the country's gross domestic product. Growth in the "maquila" sector slowed in the first decade of the 21st century with rising competition from Asian markets, particularly China. Land is the traditional basis of wealth in Nicaragua, with great fortunes coming from the export of staples such as coffee, cotton, beef, and sugar. Almost all of the upper class and nearly a quarter of the middle class are substantial landowners.


title: Nicaragua

text: A 1985 government study classified 69.4 percent of the population as poor on the basis that they were unable to satisfy one or more of their basic needs in housing, sanitary services (water, sewage, and garbage collection), education, and employment. The defining standards for this study were very low; housing was considered substandard if it was constructed of discarded materials with dirt floors or if it was occupied by more than four persons per room.


title: Nicaragua

text: Rural workers are dependent on agricultural wage labor, especially in coffee and cotton. Only a small fraction hold permanent jobs. Most are migrants who follow crops during the harvest period and find other work during the off-season. The "lower" peasants are typically smallholders without sufficient land to sustain a family; they also join the harvest labor force. The "upper" peasants have sufficient resources to be economically independent. They produce enough surplus, beyond their personal needs, to allow them to participate in the national and world markets.


title: Nicaragua

text: The urban lower class is characterized by the informal sector of the economy. The informal sector consists of small-scale enterprises that utilize traditional technologies and operate outside the legal regime of labor protections and taxation. Workers in the informal sector are self-employed, unsalaried family workers or employees of small-enterprises, and they are generally poor.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua's informal sector workers include tinsmiths, mattress makers, seamstresses, bakers, shoemakers, and carpenters; people who take in laundry and ironing or prepare food for sale in the streets; and thousands of peddlers, owners of small businesses (often operating out of their own homes), and market stall operators. Some work alone, but others labor in the small talleres (workshops/factories) that are responsible for a large share of the country's industrial production. Because informal sector earnings are generally very low, few families can subsist on one income. Like most Latin American nations Nicaragua is also characterized by a very small upper-class, roughly 2% of the population, that is very wealthy and wields the political and economic power in the country that is not in the hands of foreign corporations and private industries. These families are oligarchical in nature and have ruled Nicaragua for generations and their wealth is politically and economically horizontally and vertically integrated.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua is currently a member of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, which is also known as ALBA. ALBA has proposed creating a new currency, the Sucre, for use among its members. In essence, this means that the Nicaraguan córdoba will be replaced with the Sucre. Other nations that will follow a similar pattern include: Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras, Cuba, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua is considering construction of a canal linking the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, which President Daniel Ortega has said will give Nicaragua its "economic independence". Scientists have raised concerns about environmental impacts, but the government has maintained that the canal will benefit the country by creating new jobs and potentially increasing its annual growth to an average of 8% per year. The project was scheduled to begin construction in December 2014, however the Nicaragua Canal has yet to be started.


title: Nicaragua

text: By 2006, tourism had become the second largest industry in Nicaragua. Previously, tourism had grown about 70% nationwide during a period of 7 years, with rates of 10%–16% annually. The increase and growth led to the income from tourism to rise more than 300% over a period of 10 years. The growth in tourism has also positively affected the agricultural, commercial, and finance industries, as well as the construction industry. President Daniel Ortega has stated his intention to use tourism to combat poverty throughout the country. The results for Nicaragua's tourism-driven economy have been significant, with the nation welcoming one million tourists in a calendar year for the first time in its history in 2010.


title: Nicaragua

text: Every year about 60,000 U.S. citizens visit Nicaragua, primarily business people, tourists, and those visiting relatives. Some 5,300 people from the U.S. reside in Nicaragua. The majority of tourists who visit Nicaragua are from the U.S., Central or South America, and Europe. According to the Ministry of Tourism of Nicaragua (INTUR), the colonial cities of León and Granada are the preferred spots for tourists. Also, the cities of Masaya, Rivas and the likes of San Juan del Sur, El Ostional, the Fortress of the Immaculate Conception, Ometepe Island, the Mombacho volcano, and the Corn Islands among other locations are the main tourist attractions. In addition, ecotourism, sport fishing and surfing attract many tourists to Nicaragua.


title: Nicaragua

text: According to the "TV Noticias" news program, the main attractions in Nicaragua for tourists are the beaches, the scenic routes, the architecture of cities such as León and Granada, ecotourism, and agritourism particularly in northern Nicaragua. As a result of increased tourism, Nicaragua has seen its foreign direct investment increase by 79.1% from 2007 to 2009.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua is referred to as ""the land of lakes and volcanoes"" due to the number of lagoons and lakes, and the chain of volcanoes that runs from the north to the south along the country's Pacific side. Today, only 7 of the 50 volcanoes in Nicaragua are considered active. Many of these volcanoes offer some great possibilities for tourists with activities such as hiking, climbing, camping, and swimming in crater lakes.


title: Nicaragua

text: The Apoyo Lagoon Natural Reserve was created by the eruption of the Apoyo Volcano about 23,000 years ago, which left a huge 7 km-wide crater that gradually filled with water. It is surrounded by the old crater wall. The rim of the lagoon is lined with restaurants, many of which have kayaks available. Besides exploring the forest around it, many water sports are practiced in the lagoon, most notably kayaking.


title: Nicaragua

text: Sand skiing has become a popular attraction at the Cerro Negro volcano in León. Both dormant and active volcanoes can be climbed. Some of the most visited volcanoes include the Masaya Volcano, Momotombo, Mombacho, Cosigüina and Ometepe's Maderas and Concepción.


title: Nicaragua

text: Ecotourism aims to be ecologically and socially conscious; it focuses on local culture, wilderness, and adventure. Nicaragua's ecotourism is growing with every passing year. It boasts a number of ecotourist tours and perfect places for adventurers. Nicaragua has three eco-regions (the Pacific, Central, and Atlantic) which contain volcanoes, tropical rainforests, and agricultural land. The majority of the eco-lodges and other environmentally-focused touristic destinations are found on Ometepe Island, located in the middle of Lake Nicaragua just an hour's boat ride from Granada. While some are foreign-owned, others are owned by local families.


title: Nicaragua

text: According to a 2014 research published in the journal "Genetics and Molecular Biology", European ancestry predominates in 69% of Nicaraguans, followed by African ancestry in 20%, and lastly indigenous ancestry in 11%. A Japanese research of "Genomic Components in America's demography" demonstrated that, on average, the ancestry of Nicaraguans is 58–62% European, 28% Native American, and 14% African, with a very small Near Eastern contribution. Non-genetic data from the "CIA World Factbook" establish that from Nicaragua's 2016 population of 5,966,798, around 69% are mestizo, 17% white, 5% Native American, and 9% black and other races. This fluctuates with changes in migration patterns. The population is 58% urban .


title: Nicaragua

text: The capital Managua is the biggest city, with an estimated population of 1,042,641 in 2016. In 2005, over 5 million people lived in the Pacific, Central and North regions, and 700,000 in the Caribbean region.


title: Nicaragua

text: There is a growing expatriate community, the majority of whom move for business, investment or retirement from across the world, such as from the US, Canada, Taiwan, and European countries; the majority have settled in Managua, Granada and San Juan del Sur.


title: Nicaragua

text: Many Nicaraguans live abroad, particularly in Costa Rica, the United States, Spain, Canada, and other Central American countries.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua has a population growth rate of 1.5% . This is the result of one of the highest birth rates in the Western Hemisphere: 17.7 per 1,000 as of 2017. The death rate was 4.7 per 1,000 during the same period according to the United Nations.


title: Nicaragua

text: The majority of the Nicaraguan population is composed of mestizos, roughly 69%, while 17% of Nicaragua's population is white, with the majority of them being of Spanish descent, while others are of German, Italian, English, Turkish, Danish or French ancestry.


title: Nicaragua

text: About 9% of Nicaragua's population is black and mainly resides on the country's Caribbean (or Atlantic) coast. The black population is mostly composed of black English-speaking Creoles who are the descendants of escaped or shipwrecked slaves; many carry the name of Scottish settlers who brought slaves with them, such as Campbell, Gordon, Downs, and Hodgson. Although many Creoles supported Somoza because of his close association with the United States, they rallied to the Sandinista cause in July 1979, only to reject the revolution soon afterwards in response to a new phase of "westernization" and imposition of central rule from Managua. There is a smaller number of Garifuna, a people of mixed West African, Carib and Arawak descent. In the mid-1980s, the government divided the Zelaya Department – consisting of the eastern half of the country – into two autonomous regions and granted the black and indigenous people of this region limited self-rule within the republic.


title: Nicaragua

text: The remaining 5% of Nicaraguans are indigenous, the descendants of the country's original inhabitants. Nicaragua's pre-Columbian population consisted of many indigenous groups. In the western region, the Nahuas (Nicarao people) were present along with other groups such as the Chorotega people and the Subtiabas (also known as Maribios or Hokan Xiu). The central region and the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua were inhabited by indigenous peoples who were Macro-Chibchan language groups that had migrated to and from South America in ancient times, primarily what is now Colombia and Venezuela. These groups include the present-day Matagalpas, Miskitos, Ramas, as well as Mayangnas and Ulwas who are also known as Sumos. In the 19th century, there was a substantial indigenous minority, but this group was largely assimilated culturally into the mestizo majority. The Garifuna are also present, mainly on the Caribbean Coast. They are a people of mixed African and Indigenous descent.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaraguan Spanish has many indigenous influences and several distinguishing characteristics. For example, some Nicaraguans have a tendency to replace /s/ with /h/ when speaking. Although Spanish is spoken throughout, the country has great variety: vocabulary, accents and colloquial language can vary between towns and departments. Nicaraguan Sign Language emerged in the 1970s and 1980s among deaf children as the first special education schools brought them together, and its emergence became of particular interest to linguists as an opportunity to directly observe the creation of a language.


title: Nicaragua

text: On the Caribbean coast, indigenous languages, English-based creoles, and Spanish are spoken. The Miskito language, spoken by the Miskito people as a first language and some other indigenous and Afro-descendants people as a second, third, or fourth language, is the most commonly spoken indigenous language. The indigenous Misumalpan languages of Mayangna and Ulwa are spoken by the respective peoples of the same names. Many Miskito, Mayangna, and Sumo people also speak Miskito Coast Creole, and a large majority also speak Spanish. Fewer than three dozen of nearly 2,000 Rama people speak their Chibchan language fluently, with nearly all Ramas speaking Rama Cay Creole and the vast majority speaking Spanish. Linguists have attempted to document and revitalize the language over the past three decades.


title: Nicaragua

text: The Garifuna people, descendants of indigenous and Afro-descendant people who came to Nicaragua from Honduras in the early twentieth century, have recently attempted to revitalize their Arawakan language. The majority speak Miskito Coast Creole as their first language and Spanish as their second. The Creole or Kriol people, descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the Mosquito Coast during the British colonial period and European, Chinese, Arab, and British West Indian immigrants, also speak Miskito Coast Creole as their first language and Spanish as their second.


title: Nicaragua

text: Religion plays a significant part of the culture of Nicaragua and is afforded special protections in the constitution. Religious freedom, which has been guaranteed since 1939, and religious tolerance are officially promoted by the government and the constitution, but in recent years the Catholic Church and the regime led by Daniel Ortega have been in open conflict, with the latter being accused of using the police to harass clergy and bishops, closing down Catholic media outlets, and even arresting a dozen members of the clergy, including Bishop Rolando Alvarez, of the Diocese of Matagalpa.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua has no official religion. Catholic bishops are expected to lend their authority to important state occasions, and their pronouncements on national issues are closely followed. They can be called upon to mediate between contending parties at moments of political crisis. In 1979, Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, a priest who had embraced Liberation Theology, served in the government as foreign minister when the Sandinistas came to power. The largest denomination, and traditionally the religion of the majority, is the Roman Catholic Church. It came to Nicaragua in the 16th century with the Spanish conquest and remained, until 1939, the established faith.


title: Nicaragua

text: The number of practicing Roman Catholics has been declining, while membership of evangelical Protestant groups and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has been growing rapidly since the 1990s. There is a significant LDS missionary effort in Nicaragua. There are two missions and 95,768 members of the LDS Church (1.54% of the population). There are also strong Anglican and Moravian communities on the Caribbean coast in what once constituted the sparsely populated Mosquito Coast colony. It was under British influence for nearly three centuries. Protestantism was brought to the Mosquito Coast mainly by British and German colonists in forms of Anglicanism and the Moravian Church. Other kinds of Protestant and other Christian denominations were introduced to the rest of Nicaragua during the 19th century.


title: Nicaragua

text: Popular religion revolves around the saints, who are perceived as intercessors between human beings and God. Most localities, from the capital of Managua to small rural communities, honor patron saints, selected from the Roman Catholic calendar, with annual "fiestas". In many communities, a rich lore has grown up around the celebrations of patron saints, such as Managua's Saint Dominic (Santo Domingo), honored in August with two colorful, often riotous, day-long processions through the city. The high point of Nicaragua's religious calendar for the masses is neither Christmas nor Easter, but La Purísima, a week of festivities in early December dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, during which elaborate altars to the Virgin Mary are constructed in homes and workplaces.


title: Nicaragua

text: Although Jews have been living in Nicaragua since the 18th century, the Jewish population is small, numbering less than 200 people in 2017. Of these, 112 were recent converts who claimed Sephardic Jewish ancestry.


title: Nicaragua

text: As of 2007, approximately 1,200 to 1,500 Nicaraguan residents practiced Islam, most of them Sunnis who are resident aliens or naturalized citizens from Palestine, Libya, and Iran or natural-born Nicaraguan descendants of the two groups.


title: Nicaragua

text: Relative to its population, Nicaragua has not experienced large waves of immigration. The number of immigrants in Nicaragua, from other Latin American countries or other countries, never surpassed 1% of its total population before 1995. The 2005 census showed the foreign-born population at 1.2%, having risen a mere 0.06% in 10 years.


title: Nicaragua

text: In the 19th century, Nicaragua experienced modest waves of immigration from Europe. In particular, families from Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Belgium immigrated to Nicaragua, particularly the departments in the Central and Pacific region.


title: Nicaragua

text: Also present is a small Middle Eastern-Nicaraguan community of Syrians, Armenians, Jewish Nicaraguans, and Lebanese people in Nicaragua. This community numbers about 30,000. There is an East Asian community mostly consisting of Chinese. The Chinese Nicaraguan population is estimated at 12,000. The Chinese arrived in the late 19th century but were unsubstantiated until the 1920s.


title: Nicaragua

text: The Civil War forced many Nicaraguans to start lives outside of their country. Many people emigrated during the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century due to the lack of employment opportunities and poverty. The majority of the Nicaraguan Diaspora migrated to the United States and Costa Rica. Today one in six Nicaraguans live in these two countries.


title: Nicaragua

text: The diaspora has seen Nicaraguans settling around in smaller communities in other parts of the world, particularly Western Europe. Small communities of Nicaraguans are found in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Communities also exist in Australia and New Zealand. Canada, Brazil and Argentina host small groups of these communities. In Asia, Japan hosts a small Nicaraguan community.


title: Nicaragua

text: Due to extreme poverty at home, many Nicaraguans are now living and working in neighboring El Salvador, a country that has the US dollar as its currency.


title: Nicaragua

text: Although Nicaragua's health outcomes have improved over the past few decades with the efficient utilization of resources relative to other Central American nations, healthcare in Nicaragua still confronts challenges responding to its populations' diverse healthcare needs.


title: Nicaragua

text: The Nicaraguan government guarantees universal free health care for its citizens. However, limitations of current delivery models and unequal distribution of resources and medical personnel contribute to the persistent lack of quality care in more remote areas of Nicaragua, especially among rural communities in the Central and Atlantic region. To respond to the dynamic needs of localities, the government has adopted a decentralized model that emphasizes community-based preventive and primary medical care.


title: Nicaragua

text: Primary education is free in Nicaragua. A system of private schools exists, many of which are religiously affiliated and often have more robust English programs. As of 1979, the educational system was one of the poorest in Latin America. One of the first acts of the newly elected Sandinista government in 1980 was an extensive and successful literacy campaign, using secondary school students, university students and teachers as volunteer teachers: it reduced the overall illiteracy rate from 50.3% to 12.9% within only five months. This was one of a number of large-scale programs which received international recognition for their gains in literacy, health care, education, childcare, unions, and land reform. The Sandinistas also added a leftist ideological content to the curriculum, which was removed after 1990. In September 1980, UNESCO awarded Nicaragua the Soviet Union sponsored Nadezhda Krupskaya award for the literacy campaign.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua's gender equality ranks high among countries in Latin America. When it came to global rankings regarding gender equality, the World Economic Forum ranked Nicaragua at number twelve in 2015, and in its 2020 report Nicaragua ranked number five, behind only northern European countries.


title: Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua was among the many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which aimed to promote women's rights.