Word: somozaism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When the Marines withdrew in 1933, they left behind a "non-partisan constabulary force" of local recruits organized, trained and supplied by the U.S. Because of his facility in the English language, Anastasio Somoza, an ambitious Nicaraguan officer, was designated to command this National Guard. One of Somoza's first actions was to order the execution of Sandino, who naively believed his struggle was at an end. With this action Somoza cleared the way for his own political ascension, based on the military force and diplomatic support granted to him by the U.S. Somoza I--there are several in this...
...dictator's oldest son, Luis, immediately assumed the presidency, and Luis's younger brother, Anastasio Somoza II, a West Point graduate, became commander in chief of the National Guard. Luis governed until 1963 when a puppet president succeeded him. It was then the younger Somoza's turn. In 1967 General Somoza installed himself as president, stepping out only long enough in the early '70s to make the necessary manuevers to permit his "re-election" in 1974. Like his father, the current Somoza's base of power rests with the 7500-member National Guard faithfully trained and supplied by the United...
Spokesmen for Somoza insist that the bishops' charges are grossly exaggerated. Many campesinos, they explain, have not been killed, but simply fled their homes to avoid the fighting. U.S. Ambassador James Theberge, however, takes the reports seriously: "We have reason to believe that some of the allegations of human rights violations are accurate, and our concern has been made clear to the Nicaraguan government on various occasions in the past year...
Critics of the Somoza family's corrupt, baronial, four-decade reign hope that the Carter Administration will make that concern more explicit. Says a leading opposition member: "Nicaragua is a case where Carter can show that his advocacy of human rights is not just words. That is why Somoza is so nervous." Should the Administration choose to act, it has substantial leverage. Nicaragua's National Guard relies on U.S. weapons and is scheduled to receive $2.5 million in military sales credits in fiscal 1977. Loss of that aid is something that the American-trained Tachito Somoza (West Point...
...Named for Augusto Cesar Sandino, a guerrilla leader who fought against occupying U.S. Marines in the late 1920s and was executed in 1934 by the founder of Nicaragua's ruling dynasty, Tachito's father Anastasio ("Tacho") Somoza Garcia...