NICARAGUA’S revolution changed people’s consciousness, bringing about a relative social peace and spirit of solidarity, the country’s arm of Save the Children said yesterday as new figures showed it to have the lowest murder rate in Central America.

A global UN report on homicide rates this year revealed Nicaragua has 8.3 murders per 100,000 people.

This compares with the US-backed regimes in Honduras and El Salvador with a shocking 70 murders for every 100,000 people.

Crime rates in Nicaragua are low for the region, despite the years of conflict in the 1980s, when the US government backed the so-called Contras in a counterinsurgency against the Sandinista government.

The government saw off an attempted coup last year mounted by armed right-wing forces supported by Washington.

Save the Children director Argentina Martinez said the spirit of solidarity forged during the 1979 Sandinista revolution has played a major factor in Nicaragua’s relative social peace.

“The revolution didn’t just radically alter policing structures, it also altered consciousness. That consciousness and the reforms to the police remain one of the most important and lasting legacies of the revolution, something we’re very proud of,” she said.