List of Famous people born in Matagalpa Department, Nicaragua

Carlos Fonseca Amador was a Nicaraguan politician, teacher and librarian who founded the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). Fonseca was later killed in the mountains of Nicaragua, three years before the FSLN took power.

Yokasta Galeth Valle Álvarez is a Costa Rican professional boxer. She is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the IBF female mini flyweight title since 2019 and previously the IBF female junior mini flyweight title in 2016. She has also challenged once for the WBO female junior flyweight title in 2017 and once for the WBC female mini flyweight title in 2018. As of May 2020, she is ranked as the world's fourth best active female mini flyweight by BoxRec.

Dora María Téllez Argüello is a Nicaraguan historian known for her involvement in the Nicaraguan Revolution. As a young university medical student in Leon in the 1970s, Téllez was recruited by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). Téllez went on to become a comandante in the popular revolt to oust the Nicaraguan dictator, Anastasio Somoza Debayle. In the subsequent FSLN government, she served as Health Minister and has also been an advocate for women's rights. She ultimately became a critic of repression and corruption under FSLN President Daniel Ortega and left the party to found the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS).

Tomás Borge Martínez was a cofounder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua and was Interior Minister of Nicaragua during one of the administrations of Daniel Ortega. He was also a renowned statesman, writer, and politician. Tomás Borge also held the titles of "Vice-Secretary and President of the FSLN", member of the Nicaraguan Parliament and National Congress, and Ambassador to Peru. Considered a hardliner, he led the "prolonged people's war" tendency within the FSLN until his death.