Word: somoza
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...poorly were Somoza's troops faring that the weary dictator retracted his confident boast that he would crush the Sandinistas' "final offensive" in only two weeks' time. Said he: "When the will of the people weakens, it could go either way. Maybe we win, maybe they...
That gloomy forecast reflected Somoza's growing diplomatic isolation as well as his deteriorating military position. The first setback came when the Andean Group (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela) abandoned its efforts to negotiate a truce in the latest flare-up of the 19-month-old civil war. Instead, the five countries declared that a "state of belligerency" existed in Nicaragua and that they considered the Sandinistas to be "a legitimate army." The declaration was designed to allow the group to supply arms to the rebels without violating international laws against intervention in the internal affairs of another...
...more ominous from Somoza's viewpoint was a U.S. request for intervention that would end both the civil war and his family's 46-year dictatorial rule over Nicaragua. The day after a national guardsman wantonly murdered ABC-TV Correspondent Bill Stewart (see PRESS), the Carter Administration spurned the dictator's emotional appeal for the U.S. to "pay back the help we gave in the cold war"-referring to the launching areas that Nicaragua provided for the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. Instead, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance urged the Organization of American States...
Yance further proposed that the OAS dispatch a peace-keeping force, which might include some J.S. troops, to restore order to the divided country. Vance's six-point plan also included a cessation of all arms shipments to both Somoza's forces and the rebels and a major international relief and reconstruction effort...
While efforts to find a diplomatic solution continued, Nicaragua was a country in agony. Thousands have died in the fierce fighting between Somoza and the Sandinistas. Though they outnumber the guerrillas by about 4 to 1 and have a vast edge in weaponry, Somoza's 12,000 national guardsmen have been severely strained by the extent of the fighting, which has involved virtually every city and town in the country. To retain control of his capital, Somoza pulled in troops from the countryside, thereby allowing Leon and parts of Matagalpa, Esteli and Masaya to fall into rebel hands...