Luis Alfonso Robelo Callejas (born October 11, 1939), a Nicaraguan

Nicaraguan

Nicaraguans are people inhabiting in, originating or having significant heritage from Nicaragua. Most Nicaraguans live in Nicaragua, although there is also a significant Nicaraguan diaspora, particularly in Costa Rica and the United States with smaller communities in other countries around the world...

 businessman, was the founder of the Nicaraguan Democratic Movement

Nicaraguan Democratic Movement

The Nicaraguan Democratic Movement is a right-wing Nicaraguan political party with social democratic ideology. The MDN was formed in 1978 and re-registered in 1989. MDN was the first Contra party given legal status in Nicaragua. After receiving a small amount of votes, the MDN lost its legal...

 (MDN). He was one of the "moderates" on the five-members Junta of National Reconstruction

Junta of National Reconstruction

The Junta of National Reconstruction officially ruled Nicaragua from July 1979 to January 1985, though effective power was in the hands of the Sandinista National Liberation Front's National Directorate....

 that the Sandinistas claimed would rule Nicaragua following the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle

Anastasio Somoza Debayle

Anastasio Somoza Debayle was a Nicaraguan leader and officially the 73rd and 76th President of Nicaragua from 1 May 1967 to 1 May 1972 and from 1 December 1974 to 17 July 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was de facto ruler of the country from 1967 to 1979...

. However, Robelo found that the real power lay with the FSLN National Directorate.

After resigning from the Junta on April 22, 1981, Robelo went into exile in 1982. He brought his MDN into Edén Pastora

Edén Pastora

Edén Atanacio Pastora Gómez is a Nicaraguan politician and former guerrilla who ran for president as the candidate of the Alternative for Change party in the 2006 general elections...

's rebel Democratic Revolutionary Alliance

Democratic Revolutionary Alliance

The Democratic Revolutionary Alliance were the Southern Front guerrillas in Nicaragua that fought against the Marxist elements of the original Sandinista Revolution in 1979...

. Later, he split with Pastora, and joined the United Nicaraguan Opposition

United Nicaraguan Opposition

The United Nicaraguan Opposition was a Nicaraguan rebel umbrella group formed in 1985, led by the triumvirate of Adolfo Calero, Alfonso Robelo, and Arturo Cruz...

 (UNO) with Arturo Cruz

Arturo Cruz

Arturo José Cruz Porras , sometimes called Arturo Cruz, Sr. to distinguish him from his son, is a Nicaraguan banker and technocrat. He became prominent in politics during the Sandinista era...

, and Adolfo Calero

Adolfo Calero

Adolfo Calero Portocarrero was a Nicaraguan businessman, and leader of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, which was the largest contra rebel group opposing the Sandinista government. In the contra leadership, Calero was responsible for managing the bank accounts into which money was deposited and...

 of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force

Nicaraguan Democratic Force

The Nicaraguan Democratic Force was one of the earliest Contra groups, formed on August 11, 1981 in Guatemala City. It was formed to oppose Nicaragua's revolutionary Sandinista government following the 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle...

. After UNO's collapse, he joined the directorate of the new Contra

Contras

The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...

 umbrella group, the Nicaraguan Resistance

Nicaraguan Resistance

The Nicaraguan Resistance was the last and arguably most successful effort to unify Nicaragua's rebel Contras into a single umbrella organization. It was established in May 1987, after the United Nicaraguan Opposition foundered....

.

During the political turmoil, Robelo's first marriage, to Indiana Cardenal Caldera, ended in divorce. They had four children: Indiana Margarita, Luis Alfonso (who died at a year and a half old), Eliza, and Alejandra. He remarried a Costa Rican.

Following the Esquipulas accord

Esquipulas Peace Agreement

The Esquipulas Peace Agreement was an initiative in the mid-1980s to settle the military conflicts that had plagued Central America for many years, and in some cases for decades. It built upon groundwork laid by the Contadora Group from 1983 to 1985. The agreement was named for Esquipulas,...

, President Oscar Arias

Óscar Arias

Óscar Arias Sánchez is a Costa Rican politician who was President of Costa Rica from 2006 to 2010. He previously served as President from 1986 to 1990 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his efforts to end civil wars then raging in several other Central American countries.He is also a...

 of Costa Rica announced in January 1988 that Contra leaders could no longer live in his country. With his pregnant wife opposing a move from Costa Rica, he resigned from the directorate in early February.

The post-Sandinista government of Violeta Chamorro

Violeta Chamorro

Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro is a Nicaraguan political leader, former president and publisher. She became president of Nicaragua on April 25, 1990, when she unseated Daniel Ortega...

 appointed Robelo to be ambassador to Costa Rica. In 1993, he was taken hostage during a standoff at the embassy.

Former member of the RN Directorate. Politician, businessman. Born in Leon on October 11, 1939. Earned a degree in chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, N.Y.) in 1961. Rector of the University of Central America 1970-1972 and President of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Commerce until 1975. He then headed the Nicaraguan Development Institute, long active in the development of independent agricultural and small business cooperatives. Following the assassination of La Prensa editor Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, Robelo cofounded the Nicaraguan Democratic Movement, a social-democratic political party of businessmen, industrialists, and professionals opposed to the Somoza regime. A leader and main spokesman for FAO working openly against the Somoza regime, he was arrested and publicly labeled a "subversive" by Somoza. After the revolution Robelo was one of the five members of the original 1979 post-Somoza junta. Resigned in April 1980 because of the Marxist tendencies in the FSLN-dominated government and the growing Cuban influence in the country. Became President of the Democratic Coordinating Board. Harassed by the FSLN after his resignation from the junta and detained by the Sandinistas when he sought to travel abroad in 1982, he was finally forced into exile later that year, and his property was confiscated. In 1982, he joined with Edén Pastora and others in founding the ARDE, seeking to achieve the original democratic goals of the revolution. Robelo was elected to the Nicaraguan Resistance Directorate in May 1987. Resigned from the RN Directorate in January 1988.

He is a member of the Latino fraternity Phi Iota Alpha

Phi Iota Alpha

Phi Iota Alpha , established December 26, 1931, is the oldest Latino fraternity still in existence, and works to motivate people, develop leaders, and create innovative ways to unite the Latino community. The organization has roots that stem back to the late 19th century to the first Latino...

. The oldest inter-collegiate Greek-letter organization established for Latino Americans.

External links

• The Nicaraguan democratic struggle: our unfinished revolution A speech Robelo made to the Social Democrats, USA