Word: tacho
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...they still call me a dictator?" President Anastasio ("Tacho") Somoza mused one day last week, as he chatted with a visitor on the plank porch of his Tamarindo ranch house. "Our jails are empty of political prisoners. Our press is as free as a bird. The newspapers attack me all the time. I let them. They can call me anything but an s.o.b." The President laughed: "I won't stand for that...
...Tacho Somoza was in a mellow mood. He was not really complaining-just thinking out loud and airing a few mild gripes. One of them was about the U.S. Unswerving in his love for the U.S. (he worked and studied in Philadelphia from 1912 to 1919), he could not understand why his affection was not more warmly reciprocated. "The U.S. takes its best friends for granted," he said. "You won't even give us arms, and yet you pour billions into European countries which don't appreciate your generosity. What advantage do we get from being friendly...
...Good for Tacho. Aside from that, Tacho clearly felt that almost everything was right with the world, and especially the 57,145 sq. mi. of it that is Nicaragua. Everyone there knows that what is good for Tacho is good for the country, and things at the moment are very good for Tacho. Since the U.S. Marines moved out and he took over, almost 20 years ago, he has created considerable wealth in his little (pop. 1,088,000) republic. Some of it has rubbed off on Nicaragua and deserving Nicaraguans. But plenty of it (reportedly as much...
...shrewd real-estate buyer, Tacho owns almost 10% of his country's arable land. Because his holdings are widely scattered, Nicaragua now has more than 600 miles of all-weather public roads, compared with twelve miles in the '30s. Along a 40-mile stretch of the new road from Managua to Tamarindo, there is not a single town, village or house-but the road ends at a valuable salt flat where Tacho plans to process enough salt for the whole country. His diversified interests have helped transform Nicaragua from a one-crop (coffee) country into an exporter...
Better for Tacho. Tacho has no real opposition to worry about. In 1950, he made a deal giving the Conservatives a third of the congressional seats and a quota of the Supreme Court and diplomatic missions. That has kept them quiet. Now 57, Tacho tells friends that he would like to take things easier, and he may be quite sincere about it. But the problem is how to loosen his grip without inviting an unseemly struggle for power, throwing innumerable relatives out of work and deflating the value of many of his properties. Most observers have concluded that he would...