Word: somoza
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...first glimmer of hope came two weeks ago, when the State Department proposed a plan designed to serve as a basis of discussion between the U.S. and Nicaragua. It was a welcome departure from previous policy towards the Central American country. Since the Marxist-oriented Sandinist government replaced Anastasio Somoza's strong-arm dictatorship, Reagan has viewed Nicaragua as the exemplary victim of a new domino theory. Because the Sandinistas proposed Marxist reforms, the Administration reasoned, they were automatically part of the mysterious and sinister Soviet-Cuban network of international terrorism and revolution. The moment a Marxist government gained control...
Throughout the Nicaraguan civil war, which ended in the overthrow of Somoza in 1979, Washington was able to follow the turmoil quite well. Since the Sandinistas have taken control, however, undercover agents in Nicaragua have been stymied, partly because so many Cubans are engaged in counterintelligence there...
Mind-set too was involved in misjudging the Sandinistas who took over Nicaragua when the Somoza dictatorship collapsed. In a remarkable article in the Washington Journalism Review, Shirley Christian, Pulitzer-prizewinning correspondent for the Miami Herald, analyzes with more "soul-searching" than anger how the New York Times, Washington Post and CBS covered the story in the crucial years...
...Because Somoza's regime was corrupt and reporters witnessed the brutality of his National Guard, the opposition Sandinistas were seen by the press through a ";romantic haze." "Probably not since Spain has there been a more open love affair." The press correctly reported the Marxist origins of the Sandinista movement but believed that it had been taken over by "the sons and daughters of the bourgeoisie . . . The sources quoted on this trend were primarily the non-Marxists themselves, most of whom are now in exile or otherwise disillusioned." The Marxists insisted that they were not strong enough to take...
...longtime specialist on Latin America, Christian faults her colleagues for ignoring, then misinterpreting, the rise of Tomás Borge. A friend of Fidel Castro's with "almost mystical stature" among Latin guerrillas, Borge was jailed and tortured during Somoza's rule. When Somoza fell and Borge got control of the Interior Ministry and the security forces, both the Post and the Times forecast that Borge was now, in the Times 's words, "in a position to control the most radical elements among the rebels." Before long, Borge's men killed one business leader, arrested others...