Word: somozaism
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...deepening bitterness is complemented by a growing hope. To the traditional image of Somoza as a fat, lying thief a new demension has been added--that of a coward. The dictator is now mocked for living in an underground redoubt, surrounded by bodyguards, for being afraid to appear in public. One young woman claims that he is acutally dead and that the country is being directed by a mummy...
...cause of Somoza's fears is an intelligent, courageous and confident guerilla organization, the Sandinista National Liberation Front. The Sandinistas have been struggling against the dictatorship since the middle 1960)s, but they captured the national imagination with a spectacular kidnapping at the end of last year. In an effort that has become known as "the event of December 27," or merely "the 27th," the Sandinistas broke into a diplomatic reception in Managua and took hostage eleven of Somoza's inner circle, leaving the dictator no choice but to comply with their demands, which were; freedom and guaranteed flight...
...Front has named itself after Augusto Cesar Sandino, a Nicaraguan patriot who alternately battled, defeated and eluded U.S. Marines in the hills for seven years before he was tricked and murdered by the original Somoza in 1933. The Marines, sent to enforce Nicaragua's payment of loans held by North-American banks, were not the first imperialists to interfere in Nicaragua's affairs...
...social revolution to accompany the expulsion of foreign powers from the area. He accurately pinpointed the existence of a small Nicaraguan upper class, based on the glaring inequalities of land and wealth, as a critical barrier to any meaningful independence for the Nicaraguan people. Sandino's failure inaugurated the Somoza dictatorship, now challenged by the guerilla leader's spiritual successors 40 years later. Sandinista literature is illustrated with photographs and silhouettes of the original chief wearing his wide-brimmed Western-style had and cradling his rifle...
...rural areas. Their tactics are highly imaginative: one of their December 27 demands was that the government give a pay raise to the lower ranks of the National Guard, and obvious efforts to separate the soldiers from the officers. And two weeks later, doubtless embarrassed by the demand. Somoza did grant a partial pay hike, although he claimed it had been scheduled all along...