Word: somozaism
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...group of wealthy Nicaraguan businessmen, lawyers and other prominent figures, including poet and national hero Ernesto Cardenal, have left the country for Costa Rica, vowing never to return until Somoza's fall. Calling themselves Los Doce, ("The Twelve"), the group issued a statement praising the "political maturity" of the FSLN guerrilla movement and warning that the Sandinista front must participate in any solution to Nicaragua's problems...
...these developments indicate a sharp rise in support for the Sandinistas, once a small group of only 200 revolutionary insurgents, now at the vanguard of the anti-Somoza movement with a combat force of over 1000 and widespread popular approval, especially in the poverty-stricken countryside. But regardless of their popularity, the FSLN can never succeed with a purely military approach. The strength of Somoza's power derives from his control of the 7500-member Guardia National, a combination army and secret police force trained and equipped by the U.S. The campesinosand slum-dwellers of Managua have no weapons...
THIS POVERTY CONTRASTS with the $500 million fortune of the Somoza family. Somoza owns more than one-fifth of Nicaragua's arable land and runs more than 40 companies. Between his family and his lieutenants, Somoza has managed to totally manipulate the political and economic affairs of the nation. Elections are fixed. Somoza's corruption infects the business community. Military people occupy high places in government, and government contracts mysteriously go to family business. The key to business success in Nicaragua, observes one Harvard Latin American expert, is a Somoza family connection, and businessmen who lack one are "banging their...
...such an oppressive regime, after years of faithful is beginning to show signs of ambivalence. In June, the House Appropriations Committee voted to cut off the $3.1 million in military aid which goes to the regime. But two months later, after heavy pressuring from professional lobbyists hired by Somoza, the committee reversed its vote. The State Department did decide, however, to withhold $12 million in economic assistance to the Somoza government. Admittedly, the President's human rights stand has sparked the emergence of outspoken opposition. And the increasing attacks on Somoza recently appearing in to the columns of Jack Anderson...
Nevertheless, the fact remains that Somoza's National Guard carries American guns, drives American tanks and flies American planes. They are often trained by the Pentagon, either by American advisors in Nicaragua or at the U.S.-run School of the Americas in the Canal zone. Somoza, himself a graduate of West Point, boasts that a higher percentage of his officers are trained at this school--which emphasizes counter insurgency--than that of any other armed forces in Latin America. Moreover, American dollars flow through international institutions such as the World Bank and the Harvard Business School's INCAE program...