Word: somoza
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...upset about. That the war is over. As if, in the first place, Vietman was what this movement was all about, just Vietnam and not about a bigger war. Vietman did't happen by it self, or by accident. The same system that backed Thieu and Diem backed Somoza, backs Pinochet and Duarts; Vietman, is this sense, is still with us. In a bad mood, one can make the arguments that times have worsened. Vietnam, set against a backdrop of liberal progress at home and an awakening concern for others abroad, appeared a great aberration, an enormous contradiction...
Ever since the Sandinistas overthrew the late dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in July 1979, the revolutionary government has zealously embraced Marxism. The Reagan Administration has long charged that the Sandinistas, backed by Cuba and the Soviet Union, give substantial aid to the broadening guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador, where the U.S. is the principal backer of the civilian-military government of President José Napoleón Duarte. The U.S. is also a firm supporter of Honduras. Furthermore, the Administration fears that the Nicaraguan military buildup will start a regional arms race, something that no country in the area...
...Sandinistas insist that their new armed forces are strictly defensive in nature. The Nicaraguans charge Honduras, for example, with tolerating the presence of as many as 2,000 supporters of former Dictator Somoza, who regularly launch guerrilla attacks on Nicaragua. The Sandinistas also claim that the U.S. is trying to undermine their government and cite the fact that ex-Somoza supporters have been getting military training in Florida...
...Nicaraguan military splurge is financed largely by the Soviets and their allies, but the effort is diverting resources from the task of rebuilding the country after the devastating struggle against Somoza. Although they have been encroaching on their non-Marxist opposition, the Sandinistas have been beset by ultraleftist groups, members of the Nicaraguan Communist Party, who feel that the country is not moving fast enough to ward a total dictatorship of the proletariat. The Communists have encouraged wildcat strikes and farm takeovers that have further hurt the already troubled economy. The Sandinistas have jailed 22 members of the Communist Party...
...Reagan Administration's tough stand comes at a time when the exuberant optimism that followed the July 1979 overthrow of the government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle has all but evaporated. After 28 months in power, a kind of bunker mentality seems to have settled over the nine-member Sandinista national directorate that controls the country. Economically, Nicaragua is on the rocks. Politically, the Sandinista leadership is betraying itself as insecure, arbitrary and determined to hold on to power, come what may. Says one Western diplomatic analyst in Managua: "They've made up their minds they...