Word: managua
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...Managua's tragedy has forced Tachito to re-emerge far ahead of schedule. As boss of the 5,000-man national guard, which is running the country under martial law, he is fully visible. Once again, he has become the target of rival politicians, restive students and even some businessmen who resent his one-man rule. "He has everything now," complains Javier Zavala, editor of a pro-Conservative paper. To a large extent, Somoza's future now depends on how he deals with the problems of reconstructing the city...
...When Managua was first built in 1858-over the same 30-mile-wide fault area that was to shake it to rubble three times in the next 114 years-it was a creature of compromise. The site was chosen to end a stalemated battle between what were then Nicaragua's two principal cities, Granada (pop. 48,000) and León (pop. 80,000), for the honor of serving as the capital. After the city was wrecked for the second time in 1931, the old Granada-Leon battle resumed, but government planners argued successfully for Managua's reconstruction...
...Lake Managua, 38 miles long, was perfect for a big city's sewage...
Parochialism. The pre-Christmas quake has revived the old rivalries. To illustrate its contempt for the efficiency of Somoza's Managua-based administration, Granada sent out its own ham radio call for aid; sure enough, a few days later a plane from Houston landed at Las Mercedes loaded with food and medical supplies marked for transshipment to Granada. On a less parochial level, many Nicaraguans agree with Managua Architect Samuel Barreto that a new capital should be located elsewhere if only to "spread the life of the nation throughout the country...
...odds are that the new capital will be built-perhaps with wider streets and lower, quake-resistant buildings -on the rubble of the old. Survivors are already starting to return to their jobs; 70% of the Managua area's industry survived the quake. Somoza's dreams of a $1 billion reconstruction effort may not be farfetched; the first trickle of what promises to be a torrent of foreign aid began last week with a $12.5 million loan from the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank. Says Wendell Belew, Commercial Affairs attache in the U.S. embassy: "We might even...