Word: somoza
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...named Huaspaca recalled fighting last February in the Matagalpa region to the south: "It was rough, and the Sandinistas invaded our positions. They use less men than before, but they employ a lot more artillery." Added a contra known as Chicle, who was a sergeant in former President Anastasio Somoza's National Guard: "The Sandinistas use everything at their disposal. When they are in trouble, they call in air support or artillery. Under those circumstances we have to curtail our operations. They are capable in war, but remember they are being advised by the Cubans and Soviets, who are very...
...lesson of our dilemma is clear. If we had done something about Somoza's corrupt dictatorship in 1974 or 1977, we would not be where we are in 1987. Instead of taking prompt, intelligent action as soon as the dictator discredited himself, our leadership putzed. Now only two unpleasant alternatives remain. The situation is an echo of what happened in Iran, In Cambodia and in Cuba...
...account that emerges from that brief visit is, as one would expect, quickened by a novelist's eye. Rushdie the symbolist notes that the wife of the deposed dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle was named Hope and that the Ministry of Culture goes by the acronym MINICULT. Rushdie the ironist observes that the campesinos battling "U.S. imperialism" dine to the radio accompaniment of Born in the U.S.A...
...will be outraged by it. His book is most compelling when he leaves politics behind to examine the Caribbean-flavored Atlantic coast. There, old black women shake their hips to reggae rhythms, and a dreadlocked poet reflects, during an incessant downpour, "In the old days, if Somoza told the rain to stop, it stopped. I don't know what's wrong with these Sandinistas." At such moments, The Jaguar Smile enjoys some of the charm of a tale by Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- or for that matter, Salman Rushdie...
...Opposition, the contras' political arm. Cruz, a onetime Sandinista who has been a consistent advocate of democratic reforms within the rebel movement, never had much power, but his presence was a symbol that the contras were more than just a collection of embittered former supporters of deposed Dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Cruz's absence creates greater doubts about the caliber of the contra leadership. Elliott Abrams, the State Department's point man on the contra issue, disagrees. "The reform process," he argues, "will go on with or without Arturo Cruz...