Dora María Téllez is a Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

n historian most famous as an icon of the Sandinista Revolution, which deposed the Somoza

Somoza

The Somoza family was an influential political dynasty who ruled Nicaragua as an hereditary dictatorship. Their influence exceeded their combined 43 years in the de facto presidency, as they were the power behind the other presidents of the time through their control of the National Guard...

 regime in 1979. As a young medical student in the late 1970s, Téllez became a comandante in the popular revolt to oust the Nicaraguan dictator, 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...

.

As "Commander Two", at age 22, she was third in command in a daring operation on August 22, 1978 that occupied the Nicaraguan National Palace in Managua (home to the Nicaraguan National Assembly, in full session), taking the entire congress hostage and ultimately gaining the release of key Sandinista political prisoners and a million dollars ransom money. Téllez, during the three days of the siege personally managed the negotiations that humiliated the dictator.

This feat represented the first blow to precipitate the fall of the 50-year-old Somoza's dynasty of dictators, for it demonstrated to the entire country of Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

 (and the world), that the U.S.-backed Somoza

Somoza

The Somoza family was an influential political dynasty who ruled Nicaragua as an hereditary dictatorship. Their influence exceeded their combined 43 years in the de facto presidency, as they were the power behind the other presidents of the time through their control of the National Guard...

's bloody regime was vulnerable and that it could be defeated. The successful operation had devastating consequences to the Somoza regime. While eliminating skepticism, it won international cooperation from Latin American governments, united diverse factions of the opposition to the regime, and prompted them into action.

Following the operation, thousands of youths and women joined the Sandinista ranks, unleashing a popular insurrection that culminated with the fall of the Somoza regime on July 19, 1979, less than a year later.

Military commander during the Nicaraguan Civil War

Téllez proved to be an effective military commander. Upon her arrival in Panama with the released Sandinistas in August 1978, she trained in Cuba and Panama. In February 1979 she was back fighting in Nicaragua. Her fame won her an important place in the Tercerista leadership structure. For five consecutive months she led Sandinista platoons all over the country in skirmishes with the Nicaraguan National Guard: first in the Southern Front with Eden 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 forces, and later in Central and northern Nicaragua. According to Sandinista Commander Monica Baltodano, her raids on the northern provinces in conjunction with Cmdr. Leticia Herrera's fighters often surprised the enemy and succeeded in dispersing their forces in favor of the newly devised urban insurrectional war strategy.

Finally, she led the Sandinista units fighting the enemy's elite forces block by block for six consecutive weeks until capturing in June 1979 the city of Leon, the first major city to fall to the Sandinistas in the Revolution, followed by Managua two weeks later. This feat paved the way to the Sandinista Provisional Government Junta's installation in this city soon after.

Public service in the Sandinista government

She later served as Minister of Health in the first Sandinista administration, initiating a public health campaign that won Nicaragua the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's prize for exceptional health progress.

Academic life as a historian

She wrote a definitive book on Nicaraguan history that underscores the importance of the north-central region of the country to the nation's political and economic history. In 2004 she was appointed Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor in Latin American studies at the Harvard Divinity School

Harvard Divinity School

Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...

, but was barred from obtaining an entry visa to the US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 on grounds that she was a terrorist.

This prompted 122 members of the academic community from Harvard

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 and 15 other North American universities to publish a statement in her defense, stating:

Political career

In 1995 she founded the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) after leaving the FSLN. Other Sandinistas such as Ernesto Cardenal

Ernesto Cardenal

Reverend Father Ernesto Cardenal Martínez is a Nicaraguan Catholic priest and was one of the most famous liberation theologians of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, a party he has since left. From 1979 to 1987 he served as Nicaragua's first culture minister. He is also famous as a poet...

 and Sergio Ramirez

Sergio Ramírez

Sergio Ramírez Mercado is a Nicaraguan writer and intellectual who served in the leftist Government Junta of National Reconstruction and as Vice President of the country 1985-1990 under the presidency of Daniel Ortega.Born in Masatepe in 1942, he published his first book, Cuentos, in 1963...

are now dissidents and have joined the MRS political party. The party's 2006 presidential elections candidate, Herty Lewites died of natural causes before the elections.

On June 4, 2008, Téllez began a hunger strike to protest the "dictatorship of Daniel Ortega", her former comrade-in-arms who was elected again to the presidency in November, 2006. Ortega and his supporters stripped the MRS of its legal status about one week later. Téllez suspended her hunger strike on June 16, after doctors told her she would suffer irreparable damage if she continued her fast. She vowed to begin "a new stage of struggle" against what she termed the dictatorial policies of Daniel Ortega.