Word: somocista
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...similar fixation has led Reagan to embrace the Contras, a fledgling troup of former Somocista national guardsmen. Much as Wilson hung around with bad company because of his personal grudge with the Huertistas--at one point he even supported Pancho Villa--so Reagan's disgust with the Sandinistas has fogged his presumed better judgment and led to his cozy embrace of a contra-band of ex-Somoza thugs...
This military assistance is no assurance that the Contras will be successful. The Contra army of terrified peasants and ex-Somocista national guardsmen has created economic havoc for the Sandinistas but are far from causing their removal. For the last six years under the auspices of the CIA and the Argentine military, Contras have bombed ports, bridges, and petroleum tanks. But in spite of these measures, they have not captured a single town in the country. Their two-year-old front along Nicaragua's Southern border has collapsed, and most of the 15,000 guerillas have scattered in retreat...
...they lack in subtlety. The enemies of our enemies do not always qualify as friends with whom the U.S. can feel comfortable. Even those Nicaraguan contras who are genuinely committed to building a free society and a pluralistic political system are uneasy about their comrades-in-arms who were Somocista national guardsmen...
...themselves. They were the first to die at the hands of the Contras. Some of them were beheaded, to serve as examples to others. "Their crime? The crime of these teachers is that they were trying to get people out of their illiteracy situation, which was inherited from the Somocista dictatorship," said Almado Felipe Guittieretz, one of three out of a total of 10 militiamen who survived the day long attack...
Except for its responses to the indignant Sandinistas, Washington maintained a studied silence as news of the fighting in Nicaragua emerged. The official U.S. view of Nicaragua, State Department Spokesman Hughes said last week, is that "we do not support any return to Somocista government...