Word: somoza
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...been a bad year for right-wing dictatorships-and for the U.S., which has often supported them. First Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran, then General Anastasio Somoza Debayle of Nicaragua were swept into exile by largely home-grown revolutions. Each had long been taken for granted as the absolute ruler of his country and as a friend of the U.S. Yet in the end, Somoza's national guard, cloned from the U.S. Marine Corps, was as ineffective against the Sandinista guerrillas as the Shah's army and secret police-the best that petro-billions could buy-were...
...This is a polite revolution" With those words Sergio Ramirez Mercado, soft-spoken leader of Nicaragua's revolutionary junta, summed up all the changes in his nation since the overthrow of Dictator Anastasio ("Tacho") Somoza Debayle five weeks ago. Polite has meant, above all, merciful. After 46 years of stifling one-man rule, the pervading atmosphere of fear is gone. There has been no reprisal by the victors; not a single member of Somoza's national guard has been executed, though its members killed thousands during the revolt. Despite predictions to the contrary, the unity of diverse political...
Meanwhile, the Government of National Reconstruction was issuing many welcome decrees. First came an end of censorship, permitting long-silenced newspapers like the stridently anti-Somoza La Prensa to start up their presses. Homes, cars and other property that guerrillas had confiscated during their battle with Tacho's national guard were ordered returned to the rightful owners, though some of the Sandinistas were reluctant to give up their "liberated" booty. Last week a 52-article provisional constitution was announced, containing guarantees of equal justice under law, the abolition of torture and capital punishment, and the right to free expression...
Since the majority of Somoza's ministers fled into exile with the departed dictator, the junta has resorted to unusual tactics to recruit civil servants. "I called every friend in my telephone book until I had a staff," one harried official told TIME Correspondent Roberto Suro. To ensure that the bureaucracy does not fall back into the predatory pattern of the past, the junta enacted a tough anticorruption law that provides hefty fines for malfeasance. Says Ramirez: "A government official today can stick his foot in his mouth, but not his hand in the cookie...
...clung to its program of middle-of-the-road socialism not only to reassure jittery businessmen, but also to assuage potential sources of foreign aid, who are concerned about the new regime's leftist cast. Nicaragua's leaders know that they need help to recover from the Somoza dynasty's 46 years of brutality and neglect. More than 45% of Nicaragua's people are illiterate. At least 500,000 persons driven from their homes by Somoza's fierce counterattack must be resettled. Food is in such short supply that long lines form wherever beans, rice...