Word: guardsmen
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...time the rebel government arrived in Managua last Friday, resistance had evaporated. Hundreds of thousands of cheering Managuans gathered in front of the National Palace to hail the new regime. Secure in victory, they embraced nervous national guardsmen who had been in fear of their lives. "Don't cry, brother," said an elderly guerrilla to a frightened young guardsman; he had threatened to kill himself with a hand grenade if he was not permitted to board an emergency flight out of the country. In the end, he lay down the grenade and fell, sobbing, into his former enemy...
...that prospect or by the growing bitterness of the civil war. Both sides have begun summary executions of captured opponents or suspected informers. Missionaries picking through the rubble in Managua last week discovered the bodies of ten young men. They had been bound, tortured and mutilated by national guardsmen, the missionaries said...
While efforts to find a diplomatic solution continued, Nicaragua was a country in agony. Thousands have died in the fierce fighting between Somoza and the Sandinistas. Though they outnumber the guerrillas by about 4 to 1 and have a vast edge in weaponry, Somoza's 12,000 national guardsmen have been severely strained by the extent of the fighting, which has involved virtually every city and town in the country. To retain control of his capital, Somoza pulled in troops from the countryside, thereby allowing Leon and parts of Matagalpa, Esteli and Masaya to fall into rebel hands...
Somoza has been able to stay in power because his guardsmen remain loyal...
Guard riflemen fired on TIME'S Richard Woodbury and two Associated Press newsmen, despite the fact that their car was covered with press markings. Freelance Cameraman Carl Hersch was driving in the city of Esteli when national guardsmen opened fire without warning; his passengers were wounded. The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung, the Chicago Tribune's Mark Starr and two Brazilian reporters escaped a mortar attack on the guerrilla-held town of Leon. In Managua last week, TIME Mexico City Bureau Chief Bernard Diederich and three other reporters were caught in an artillery bombardment as they attempted...