Word: somozaism
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...during the dictatorship"; everything afterward is "since the triumph of the revolution." Ten years ago this month, a victorious band of guerrillas who called themselves Sandinistas, embraced a unique brand of tropical Marxism, and promised to educate, heal and enfranchise the poor triumphed over the corrupt rule of Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the inheritor of a family dynasty begun in 1936. The Sandinistas had ridden to power on an armed uprising, aided by a cutoff of U.S. support to Somoza and pressure from Nicaragua's Latin neighbors. Jubilant Nicaraguans believed their national darkness had been lifted at last. With Somoza gone...
They were wrong. After ten years of rule by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (F.S.L.N.), the misery that marked life for most of the country under Somoza is, if anything, worse. The red and black anniversary valentines that bedeck roadside billboards aptly reflect what has always been the regime's strong suit: romantic rhetoric, not reality. The sole success of the F.S.L.N. is holding on to power, despite an eight-year war by the U.S. and its contra rent-an-army. Says Alfredo Cesar, a former contra director and now an opposition political leader in Managua: "The Sandinistas are good...
Chamorro's assessment of the Sandinistas is withering. In Nicaragua the 43- year Somoza dynasty is remembered with loathing, yet she says, "The Sandinistas, without question, are worse than Somoza ever was. The Sandinistas are a disaster. After ten years of them, there's nothing to eat. I had hoped, oh, how I hoped, that their revolution might be for the people. But it's all for themselves...
...love story was to have no sunset. Only after their marriage did Violeta understand fully her husband's commitment to ending the Somoza dynasty, which had ruled since 1936. Before the Somozas came to power, four Chamorros had been President of Nicaragua. Pedro Joaquin's editorials left no doubt that he hoped someday to continue the family tradition. His political outspokenness got him thrown into jail four times, but each time he emerged with even greater popularity, until he became a symbol of the mounting opposition to the dictator. On Jan. 10, 1978, as he drove to work...
...varying degrees, Pedro Joaquin's survivors came to believe that the ragtag band of rebels known as the Sandinista National Liberation Front might be the key to dislodging Somoza. When Somoza, stung by barbed headlines like HIRED ASSASSINS or TIME TO CLENCH FISTS, ordered La Prensa's office bombed by an airplane and shelled by an armored vehicle, the Chamorros lent the Sandinistas $50,000. Dona Violeta believes the money was used to fund the assault on the National Palace in August 1978. The loan was never repaid...