[3] Following the assassination of La Prensa editor Pedro Joaquin Chamorro Cardenal in 1978, which turned sympathies against the Somoza regime, Robelo cofounded the Nicaraguan Democratic Movement, a social-democratic political party of businessmen, industrialists, and professionals opposed to the current government.

A leader and main spokesman for FAO working openly against the regime, he was arrested and publicly labeled a "subversive" by Somoza.

[3] Following the revolution, Robelo was one of the "moderates" on the five-member Junta of National Reconstruction intended rule Nicaragua after the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle.

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.

[3] Following the Esquipulas accord, President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica announced in January 1988 that Contra leaders could no longer live in his country.