National Day of Reconciliation and Peace in Nicaragua Date in the current year: February 2, 2026

Miguel Obando y Bravo was a Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Managua from 1970 to 2005. He was born on February 2, 1926 in the municipality of La Libertad. As a young man, Obando joined the Salesians of Don Bosco and studied in Salesian houses in El Salvador (Latin, Greek, philosophy, theology, pedagogy, physics, and mathematics), Guatemala (theology), and Colombia and Venezuela (vocational psychology).

Obando was ordained in 1958. From 1958 to 1959, he served as a professor of mathematics and physics in Nicaragua and El Salvador. From 1959 to 1961, he was the prefect of discipline at the Salesian Seminary of San Salvador. From 1961 to 1968, he was the rector of the Rinaldi Institute and the San Salvador Seminary. Obando also held posts in the Salesian Society. He served as a member of the provincial council in Central America from 1962 to 1968 and as a delegate for Central America and Panama to the Salesian General Chapter in Rome in 1965.

In January 1968, Pope Paul VI appointed Obando titular bishop of Puzia di Bizacena and auxiliary bishop of Matagalpa. Two years later, he was appointed metropolitan archbishop of the Archdiocese of Managua. He held this position until his resignation in 2005. In 1985, Obando became the first Nicaraguan cardinal.

During his tenure as archbishop, Obando did not shy away from voicing his political opinions. In the final years of the Somoza regime, he became an outspoken critic of its corruption, human rights abuses, and mishandling of disaster relief following the 1972 Managua earthquake.

During the Sandinista insurrection, he initially favored the revolutionaries. However, after the Sandinistas came to power, his relationship with them soured. He eventually became one of the most vocal opponents of the new government and sided with the Contras, a U.S.-backed counterrevolutionary group.

In 2004, Obando unexpectedly reconciled with Daniel Ortega, a Sandinista leader who was now in opposition to the government. Following his win in the 2006 presidential election, Ortega appointed Obando, who had by then resigned from his post as archbishop, to preside over the Peace and Reconciliation Commission. The commission was charged with ensuring the implementation of signed agreements with Nicaraguans affected by the civil war of the 1980s. For his work on the commission, Obando was declared a “national hero of peace and reconciliation” in 2016, two years before his death.

The National Day of Reconciliation and Peace was added to Nicaragua’s holiday calendar in 2026, when it was expanded to include more paid rest days and to commemorate important figures and events in Nicaraguan history. It was one of four holidays added to the calendar; the others honor poet Rubén Darío on January 18, revolutionary Augusto César Sandino on February 21, and revolutionary Carlos Fonseca Amador on November 8.