Word: somozaism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Nicaragua's embattled President, General Anastasio ("Tacho") Somoza Debayle, the week was one of gathering desperation. The communiques that flowed into his fortified command post in Managua were grim. From Leon, the country's second largest city (pop. 62,000), came word that a national guard garrison had fallen to the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). From Rivas, capital of the southwestern district, commanders reported that a force of 700 guerrillas had not been beaten back. Managua itself was under siege. The sounds of heavy artillery salvos echoed through the bunker as Somoza's elite "Pumas," wearing...
...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...
Events have seemingly justified the moderates' pessimism. Somoza has beefed up his national guard from 8,100 to more than 12,000 men and armed them with Israeli assault rifles and machine pistols. The national guard has devoted so much attention to fighting the guerrillas that common criminals have had a field...