Word: somoza
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Indeed it was not. The Sandinistas have every reason to be preoccupied with counterrevolutionaries, or contras. For the first time since the end of the civil war that toppled right-wing Dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, the Sandinistas are being seriously challenged by armed groups of Nicaraguans who originally supported the revolution but who have become disillusioned with the regime's strident Marxism, its disregard for individual rights and its increasing dependence on Cuba and the Soviet Union. The contras say they are fighting to fulfill the revolution's original goals: political pluralism, individual liberties...
...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...
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...