Managua, July 4 (RHC)-- Nicaragua's government, amid Washington's crippling sanctions, has begun plans to build the largest hospital in the country in the western city of Leon.

Vice president and First Lady Rosario Murillo said that the construction coincides with the 40th anniversary of the occupation of the city by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) during the Nicaraguan revolution to oust the Somoza dictatorship.

Murillo explained that the new "Oscar Danilo Rosales Hospital" will be the largest ever built in the Central American nation, with an area of 35,685 square meters -- or about the size of seven football fields.  The government has officially given the area where the new facility will be constructed.

The hospital will have 461 beds and will require an investment of nearly $106 million.  The hospital will have surgery, cardiology, urology, ophthalmology, psychiatry and oncology units, among other specialties, and will provide chemotherapy, rehabilitation and intensive care services.

The Spanish firm, Taller de Arquitectura Sánchez Corneros (Sanchez Corneros Architecture Workshop) completed the design and feasibility studies, and the project will be financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in addition to government funds.

Leon is the historical liberal capital of Nicaragua.  During the 1970s, the city served as the principal bastion for the anti-Somoza insurgency.