by the Nicaraguan people:
Last modified 19 June 2011
First published 5 October 2001. Updated 18 October 2006
Anastasio Samoza
Full name Anastasio Somoza Debayle.
Country: Nicaragua.
Kill tally: No reliable figures, although an estimated 50,000 killed during the Nicaraguan "revolution", 120,000 exiled and 600,000 made homeless.
Background: Nicaragua is largely overlooked by the Spanish during their conquest of the Americas in the 16th Century, becoming a colonial backwater. The declaration of the country's independence in 1838 brings little stability as the United States and Britain vie for influence. The US marines enter the country in 1909 to help drive the anti-US dictator José Santos Zelaya from power. They return in 1912, remaining in the country almost continually until 1933. On their departure Anastasio Somoza García, the director of the National Guard (the national police force established by the US), begins to lay the groundwork for his ascent to power. He organises the assassination of the resistance leader Augusto César Sandino and the annihilation of Sandino's guerrilla army. In December 1936 Somoza García is elected president. More background.
Mini biography: Born on 5 December 1925 in Leon, Nicaragua. He is the second son of Somoza García.
He attends school in Florida and then La Salle Military Academy on Long Island, New York, after which he pursues a career in the military, graduating from West Point on 6 June 1946.
1937 - After his election as president, Somoza García appoints family members and close associates to key positions within the government and the military. He has absolute control of his party, the Liberal Nationalist Party, and the National Guard and is supported by the US. The National Guard comes to control most government-owned enterprises, including the national radio and telegraph networks, the postal and immigration services, health services, the internal revenue service, and the national railroads.
1938 - Somoza García manipulates the government to increase his power as president and to remove the constitutional ban on presidential reelection, extending his term for another eight years.
1940s - During the Second World War the Nicaraguan economy booms on the back of primary produce exports to support the US war effort, but most of the profits go into the pockets of Somoza García and his cronies. German properties are confiscated then sold to Somoza García and his family at ridiculously low prices. By the late 1940s Somoza García is Nicaragua's largest landholder, owning most of the country's cattle ranches and coffee plantations. He also owns or controls all banks, the national railroad, the national airlines, a cement factory, textile plants, several large electric power companies, and extensive rental property in the cities. By the end of the war his personal wealth is estimated at US$60 million.
1947 - When opposition to Somoza García grows locally and in the US he withdraws from presidential elections but has a series of cronies installed, remaining in power behind the scenes and in control of the National Guard, a pattern that he will exploit until his reelection as president in 1955.
1955 - Anastasio Somoza Debayle is made commander of the National Guard.
1956 - Somoza García is fatally wounded on 21 September by Rigoberto López Pérez, a 27-year-old Nicaraguan poet, dying eight days later. Luis Somoza Debayle, his older son and director of the National Guard, immediately assumes the post of president. Somoza García's younger son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, takes over as National Guard director, launching a major reprisal campaign during which political opponents are tortured and imprisoned, the press is censored and civil liberties are suspended.
1957 - The Somoza brothers create a puppet opposition party, the National Conservative Party to lend credibility to presidential elections, won by Luis Somoza Debayle. The credibility of Luis Somoza Debayle's presidency is further bolstered when he restores the constitutional ban on reelection.
1959 - Luis Somoza Debayle's anticommunist stance wins his government support from the US, a position that is strengthened when he condemns the revolution in Cuba and accuses Fidel Castro of attempting to overthrow the Nicaraguan Government.
1961 - The government of Luis Somoza Debayle plays a leading role in the attempted 'Bay of Pigs' invasion of Cuba, allowing a brigade of Cuban exiles to use military bases on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast to launch the abortive attack.
More:
http://www.moreorless.net.au/killers/somoza.html
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