Word: anastasio
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Shortly before fleeing into exile in 1979, Nicaraguan Dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle erupted in fury over what he regarded as the complicity of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the Sandinista revolution. In particular, said Somoza, Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo of Managua should receive the new title of "Comandante Miguel." In fact, six years of increasingly harsh rule by the Marxist-oriented Sandinistas has brought Obando new prominence--and, indeed, notoriety. In 1985 Pope John Paul II elevated him to the College of Cardinals. He has emerged, in the eyes of Nicaragua's rulers, as their toughest critic. Foreign Minister...
Rosales denied accusations that most contra leaders served as national guardsmen under Nicaragua's former dictator Anastasio Somoza, whom the Sandinistas overthrew, although critics of the contras charge otherwise...
...York Review of Books. After two trips this year to Nicaragua, the most recent with Democratic Congressman Les Aspin of Wisconsin, he has changed his assessment of the contras. He argues that while the rebels were initially a small mercenary force made up of supporters of ousted Dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, they have, as a result of widespread disenchantment with the Sandinistas, grown into a diverse army of 20,000 that is now a popularly based vanguard for a widespread and growing rebellion. Most scholars in the field reject Leiken's assessment, but he argues that popular perception...
There should also be little surprise at the Contras' brutal methods. Reports from Nicaraguans who have left the rebel organization indicate that 46 of 48 Contra field commanders are former members of late dictator Anastasio Somoza's National Guard. And, as if their experience in oppression were not enough, CIA advisers supplied the exiles with a training manual which encourages political assassination and details methods of torture...
Many of the contras' field commanders, including Bermudez, are former members of deposed Dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle's National Guard, the instrument of oppression in Nicaragua for more than four decades. For most Nicaraguans, this makes them something less than the "moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers," as Ronald Reagan has described them, and makes it harder for the FDN to inspire the populace...