Rodrigo Arangua / AFP - Getty Images

Police officers carry the coffin bearing the remains of Tomas Borge on May 2, 2012 in Managua, Nicaragua. Borge, who was the last-surviving founder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), died at the age of 81.

Nicolas Garcia / AFP - Getty Images, file

Borge, pictured in 2010, died on Monday at the age of 81.

A crowd of mourners gathered Wednesday for the funeral of Tomas Borge, one of the founders of Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista movement who served as interior minister after the 1979 revolution.

The former guerilla fighter, considered one of the hardliners in Daniel Ortega's government in the 1980s, was hospitalized last month for a lung infection and was moved to intensive care after complications from surgery.

Borge helped found the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in 1961 and was jailed for plotting to overthrow the U.S.-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza.

-- Reuters

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Oswaldo Rivas / Reuters

Sandinista supporters take part in the funeral of Tomas Borge.

Nicolas Garcia / AFP - Getty Images

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, left, and relatives of Tomas Borge stand during his funeral.