and targeting teachers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, agronomists, electric engineers, and random women and children for death (and castration, and rape, and uterus-slicing) and burned oil tanks, airports, and fields, so as to make life unbearable for the Nicaraguan people as punishment for daring to overthrow a blood-soaked tyrant who killed his own people (and US cameramen) and sold donated blood after an earthquake

in keeping us all so completely in the dark about ALL of Latin America. We never have heard about them until around the time the government decides to make trouble for a country whose leader it plans to eliminate, one way or the other.

How many US Americans were ever aware of the U.S.-supported brutal, wildly corrupt, evil Somosa dictatorship, anyway? Any who did hear of him undoubtedly thought he was a fine man, and friend of U.S. citizens.

Found a timeline of Nicaragua and excerpted the Somosa years:

1936: Anastasio Somoza founds a brutal dictatorship, fueled by U.S. funds, which is passed from father to son to brother for over 43 years.

1941: Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Nicaragua enters World War II on December 9, 1941.

1945: In June, Nicaragua is recognized as a charter member of the United Nations.

1948: Nicaragua joins the Organization of American States. Somoza dispatches an interventionist military force to Costa Rica.

1954: Somoza sends mercenary forces to Guatemala to help U.S. forces oust socialist president, Jacobo Arbenz.

1955: Somoza pulls Nicaraguan troops from the Dominican Republic, who have intervened with U.S. military operations.

1956: Anastasio Somoza is assassinated and succeeded by his son, Luis Somoza Debayle.
For four years after his son's regime, close associates of the Somoza family maintain political control of Nicaragua.

1960: The U.S. dispatches its Caribbean Float to Nicaragua and Guatemala to protect administrations from popular sector uprisings
1961: US mercenaries depart from Nicaragua's Puerto Cabezas and invade Playa Girón, Cuba. They suffer a historical defeat known as the "Bay of Pigs."

1966: Somoza Debayle makes René Schick president . During a visit to the U.S., Schick volunteers Nicaragua to serve as an U.S. military base for invading Cuba.

1967: Somoza Debayle establishes a military autocracy, silencing his opposition through the National Guard.

1967: Somoza Debayle offers soldiers from his National Guard to fight in the Vietnam War.

1968: Nicaraguan functionaries, sent by Somoza Debayle, help overthrow Panamanian president, Arnulfo Arias.

1971: Somoza Debayle steps down from government, but retains the post, Chief of the Armed Forces. A governing coalition is formed, which is comprised of a Conservative and two Liberal executives.

1972: A devastating earthquake strikes Managua, leaving 6,000 dead and 20,000 injured. Somoza Debayle embezzles money from international relief funds. Martial law is declared; and Somoza Debayle is made Chief Executive of the Nicaraguan government. U.S. marines are sent to Nicaragua to insure Somoza's regime is instituted.

1974: Somoza is decreed president of Nicaragua.

1978: By the end of the decade, Nicaragua experiences an economic slowdown and circumstances are ripe for a revolution. Joaquín Chamorro, editor of the anti-Somoza newspaper, La Prensa, is assassinated. The public holds Somoza responsible. Led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), anti-Somoza guerrilla forces launch a violent uprising against the military. Nicaragua is plunged into a near civil war.

1979: Somoza resigns on July 17th, and flees to Miami, exiling to Paraguay. On July 20th, Sandinista forces enter Managua, and hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans celebrate their triumph.

1980: Somoza is assassinated in Paraguay. The Sandinista government implements social programs, which receive international recognition for their gains in literacy, health care, education, childcare, unions, and land reform. For the first time in history, Nicaraguans are called to decide their own future. Just as they struggle for increased self-sufficiency, the Reagan-Bush administration begins funding the Contra War. The goal is to undermine the Sandinista regime. This ten-year war is fought at the cost of 60, 000 lives, 178 billion dollars, and the Nicaraguan infrastructure and economy.

Nicaragua is a land with a sad history of violence. It is also a source of questionable stories of war, terror, and destruction. The Somoza dynasty was the source of great suffering by the people of Nicaragua.

But the story has other facets. The Somozas, particularly Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the last of the Somozas, and West Point graduate, had the chance to bring about considerable modernization to the country's infrastructure. He also was a successful motor in improving education in the country.

The Somoza clan can still claim the period where education and public health were considerably improved and extended to the countryside.


Somoza sent mercenary forces to Guatemala to help U.S. forces oust socialist president, Jacobo Arbenz. (NOT TRUE).

1968: Nicaraguan functionaries, sent by Somoza Debayle, help overthrow Panamanian president, Arnulfo Arias. (NOT TRUE).

1979: Somoza resigns on July 19th, and flees to Miami, exiling to Paraguay. On July 20th, Sandinista forces enter Managua, and hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans celebrate their triumph, with no clue as to their near future.

The rest of the story begins with an unfortunate revelation that makes it clear that the "revolutionaries" were trained in Cuba, and that they were intent on establishing a "Cuban-style" system of government. What followed was what was called "The lost decade".
The economy had collapsed, capital had fled the country and investment was scarce. The Sandinista regime nationalized the banking system and soon private and foreign invesment dried out.

The first post-revolution government was headed by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, widow of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, owner of the major newspaper La Prensa, who was assasinated in the middle of the street by obvious Sandinista thugs. It was actually very little what Doña Violeta could achieve amid a sandinista, de facto-controlled government, which was permanently being sabotaged by the Sandinistas in preparation for their assault on power.

Considerable resources were made available to the Sandinista government to restore its institutionality.

Very early in its life, post-Somoza Nicaragua begins to turn left by entering an alliance with Cuba, which was immediately detected in Washington. This change of direction was enough to dissuade many diáspora Nicaraguans from returning, thereby the country losing the great potential of the influx of working-class Nicaraguans with U.S education and fluency in the English language.

Nicaragua's business elite has survived and flourished by a de-facto understanding with Daniel Ortega, who has remained in power during three consecutive periods, in violation of the Constitution. Not one of the usual opposition groups has seriously called for recount of votes, nor inconstitutionality violations, rather abstaining from voting, in silent protest.

during the economic hard times.