Word: somoza
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When the Sandinistas toppled Anastasio Somoza Debayle and seized control of Nicaragua in 1979, many in the country hailed the victory as an end to the tyranny of the Somoza years. Yet over the past year evidence has surfaced showing that the Sandinistas are equally capable of repression and brutality. According to Nicaragua's Permanent Commission on Human Rights, the regime detains several hundred people a month; about half of them are eventually released, but the rest simply disappear. Roberto Guillén, 23, served as deputy chief of military counterintelligence for the Defense Ministry, but grew so disenchanted...
...shooting I was reading about. The report I was reading said the people were searching for food and lived in Nicaragua. They had gone from Waspán [a town on the river] to Bilwaskarma in their canoes. I couldn't understand this. I fought against the barbarities Somoza committed against the Nicaraguan people. But as the revolutionary process increased, the level of class hatred increased. Among the officers, an attitude was created that one should kill rather than forgive...
...Miskito populations began to rise up. The Ministry of Defense said in its propaganda that the people who were fighting us were former national guardsmen [Somoza supporters], not Miskitos. On June 5, I participated in a firefight that was said to be with guardsmen, but it was really with Miskitos. They lost no one. We lost 19 men, officers as well as enlisted men. Twenty-two more were wounded. Only I and one other man were not hurt or killed. The regional chief of staff and his escort staff ran when the fighting started. When he decided to leave...
...confiscation of property. Fiallos strongly defended the politically moderate Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo, whom he described as "one of the bravest men in Nicaragua." The prelate has been highly critical of the Sandinistas, although he still defends the spirit of the 1979 revolution that overthrew former Dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Said Fiallos in the suppressed interview: "The revolution began with a social transformation based on a love for the people. Nevertheless, some fanatical sectors have introduced hate into...
...particularly stinging to the Sandinistas because the diplomat was for several years a loyal revolutionary. A deeply religious man with close personal ties to Obando y Bravo, he secretly joined the Sandinista National Liberation Front in 1978, when the movement was still an armed underground force. During the anti-Somoza insurrection, he secretly stored and transported arms for the guerrillas' organized clandestine rebel meetings. Washington has authorized Fiallos, who has not yet decided whether to return to Nicaragua, to stay in the U.S. indefinitely. Said he last week: "For the moment I want to rest and think and then...