Word: somoza
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...during the dictatorship"; everything afterward is "since the triumph of the revolution." Ten years ago this month, a victorious band of guerrillas who called themselves Sandinistas, embraced a unique brand of tropical Marxism, and promised to educate, heal and enfranchise the poor triumphed over the corrupt rule of Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the inheritor of a family dynasty begun in 1936. The Sandinistas had ridden to power on an armed uprising, aided by a cutoff of U.S. support to Somoza and pressure from Nicaragua's Latin neighbors. Jubilant Nicaraguans believed their national darkness had been lifted at last. With Somoza gone...
...daughter of a wealthy ranching family, she had been married to Pedro Joaquin Chamorro for 27 years when he was assassinated in 1978, probably on the orders of dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. A year later, the Sandinistas overthrew Somoza, thanks partly to La Prensa's valiant editorials and the Chamorro family's money. Then the widow Chamorro watched in horror as the Sandinistas, whom she had mistaken for unorthodox social democrats, revealed the extent of their allegiance to Moscow and Cuba and their disdain for democratic politics...
Chamorro's assessment of the Sandinistas is withering. In Nicaragua the 43- year Somoza dynasty is remembered with loathing, yet she says, "The Sandinistas, without question, are worse than Somoza ever was. The Sandinistas are a disaster. After ten years of them, there's nothing to eat. I had hoped, oh, how I hoped, that their revolution might be for the people. But it's all for themselves...
...love story was to have no sunset. Only after their marriage did Violeta understand fully her husband's commitment to ending the Somoza dynasty, which had ruled since 1936. Before the Somozas came to power, four Chamorros had been President of Nicaragua. Pedro Joaquin's editorials left no doubt that he hoped someday to continue the family tradition. His political outspokenness got him thrown into jail four times, but each time he emerged with even greater popularity, until he became a symbol of the mounting opposition to the dictator. On Jan. 10, 1978, as he drove to work...
...varying degrees, Pedro Joaquin's survivors came to believe that the ragtag band of rebels known as the Sandinista National Liberation Front might be the key to dislodging Somoza. When Somoza, stung by barbed headlines like HIRED ASSASSINS or TIME TO CLENCH FISTS, ordered La Prensa's office bombed by an airplane and shelled by an armored vehicle, the Chamorros lent the Sandinistas $50,000. Dona Violeta believes the money was used to fund the assault on the National Palace in August 1978. The loan was never repaid...