34, General Somoza, head of the US-trained National Guard, engineered
the assassination of opposition rebel Augusto C. Sandino and, after
elections that were claimed to have been rigged, became president in 1937.
Somoza ruled Nicaragua as a dictator for the next 20 years, amassing huge
personal wealth and landholdings. After General Somoza was shot dead in
1956, his sons upheld the reign of the Somoza dynasty until 1979.
Widespread opposition to the regime had been simmering for a long time but
it was the devastating earthquake of 1972, and more specifically, the way
that international aid was being diverted into the coffers of the Somozas
while thousands of people suffered and died, which caused opposition to
spread among all classes of Nicaraguans. ("Amigos De Nicaragua: History",
During his reign, The National Guards, consistently maintained by the
United States, were responsible for rape, torture, murder of Somoza's
political opponents, the massacre of thousands of peasants, robbery,
extortion, and drug smuggling, while the Somozan clan helped themselves to
Nicaragua's land and businesses. At the end of the Somoza government in
Nicaragua, the nation was affected with widespread poverty and illiteracy.
Two-thirds of the country's population earned less than $300 a year, while
Somoza's personal wealth was placed by a U.S. intelligence report at $900
million ("The CIA in Nicaragua", 2003).
Two groups were set up to counter the regime. The first was the FSLN,
Frente Sandinista de Liberaceon Nacional, also known as the Sandinistas,
and the second was the UDEL, also known as the Contras or Counter-
revolutionaries, led by Pedro JoaquÃn Chamorro, publisher of a newspaper
critical of the dictatorship of the Somozas. When Chamorro was assassinated
in 1978 the people of the nation erupted in violence and declared a general
strike. The revolt spread quickly and found widespread support...