Nicaragua: Sandinista priest Cardenal dies after ‘life of struggle’

Nicaragua: Sandinista priest Cardenal dies after ‘life of struggle’

Monday 22nd Feb 2016

NICARAGUAN liberation theology priest and former Sandinista minister Fernando Cardenal died in the capital Managua on Saturday at the age of 82.

The Jesuit joined the Sandinista rebels after they overthrew the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979, first leading a widely praised literacy campaign and then serving as education minister.

The participation of priests such as Father Cardenal, his poet brother Ernesto and Miguel d’Escoto in the left-wing government angered Pope John Paul II, who defrocked them in 1984.

In his open Letter to my Friends that year, Father Cardenal wrote: “I cannot conceive of a God that would ask me to abandon my commitment to the people.”

He was readmitted to the Jesuit order in 1997 and until his death headed the Nicaragua office of Fe and Alegria, the order’s education programme for poor communities.

The agency praised his “tireless struggle to defend the rights of the most vulnerable.”

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-1373-Nicaragua-Sandinista-priest-Cardenal-dies-after-life-of-struggle#.VspsouT2awk

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Cardenal, left, foreground.



Fernando Cardenal, S. J. [/center]
Biography of Anastasio Somoza Garcia
Updated December 04, 2014.

Anastasio Somoza García (1896-1956) was a Nicaraguan General, President, and dictator from 1936 to 1956. His administration, while being one of the most corrupt in history and brutal to dissidents, was nevertheless supported by the United States because it was viewed as anti-communist.

. . .

U.S. Intervention in Nicaragua:

The United States became directly involved in Nicaraguan politics in 1909, when it supported a rebellion against President Jose Santos Zelaya, who had long been an opponent of US policies in the area. In 1912, the Unites States sent marines to Nicaragua, to bolster the conservative government.

The marines remained until 1925. As soon as the marines left, liberal factions went to war against the conservatives: the marines returned after only 9 months away, this time staying until 1933. Beginning in 1927, renegade general Augusto César Sandino led a revolt against the government which lasted until 1933.

. . .

Height of Power:

Somoza remained in power until 1956. He stepped down briefly from the presidency from 1947-1950, bowing to pressure from the United States, but continued to rule through a series of puppet presidents, usually family. During this time, he had the complete support of the United States Government. In the early 1950’s, once again President, Somoza continued to build his empire, adding an airline, a shipping company and several factories to his holdings. In 1954, he survived a coup attempt and also sent forces to Guatemala to help the CIA overthrow the government there.

Death and Legacy:

On September 21, 1956, he was shot in the chest by a young poet and musician, Rigoberto López Pérez, at a party in the city of León. López was instantly brought down by Somoza bodyguards, but the president’s wounds would prove fatal a few days later. López would eventually be named a national hero by the Sandinista government. Upon his death, Somoza’s eldest son Luís Somoza Debayle took over, continuing the dynasty his father had established.

The Somoza regime would continue through Luís Somoza Debayle (1956-1967) and his brother Anastasio Somoza Debayle (1967-1979) before being overthrown by the Sandinista rebels. Part of the reason that the Somozas were able to retain power for so long was the support of the U.S. government, which saw them as anti-communist. Allegedly, Franklin Roosevelt once said of him: “Somoza may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our son-of-a-bitch,” although there is little direct proof of this quote.

The Somoza regime was extremely crooked. With his friends and family in every important office, Somoza greed ran unchecked. The government seized profitable farms and industries and then sold them to family members at absurdly low rates. Somoza named himself director of the railway system, and then used it to move his goods and crops at no charge to himself. Those industries that they could not personally exploit, such as mining and timber, they leased to foreign (mostly U.S.) companies for a healthy share of the profits. He and his family made untold millions of dollars. His two sons continued this level of corruption, making Somoza Nicaragua one of the most crooked countries in the history of Latin America, which is really saying something. This sort of corruption had a lasting effect on the economy, stifling it and contributing to Nicaragua as a somewhat backward country for a long time.

http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/historyofcentralamerica/p/somozagarcia.htm

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Anastasio Somoza

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.

. . .

1967 - Anastasio Somoza Debayle is elected president in February, two months before his brother dies of a heart attack. Somoza Debayle remains as director of the National Guard, giving him absolute political and military control over Nicaragua. As corruption and political repression increases opposition to the regime grows, igniting a spiralling cycle of response and counter-response that threatens to destroy the country's economy and society.

1971 - With his four-year term as president nearly at an end, Somoza Debayle amends the constitution to allow him to stay in power until 1972.

1972 - Somoza Debayle negotiates an agreement installing a three-member junta to rule until 1974. He remains as commander of the National Guard. Opposition to Somoza Debayle begins to mount in the general community, in the press (led by Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal and his newspaper La Prensa), and in the Roman Catholic Church (led by Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo). On 23 December an earthquake destroys the capital Managua, leaving about 10,000 dead and 50,000 families homeless. The subsequent looting of the city by the National Guard and revelation that the Somoza family and members of the National Guard are embezzling most of the international aid for the victims of the disaster turns almost all political figures against the regime, a development that is only strengthened by the country's rapid economic decline. Martial law is declared and Somoza Debayle is made chief executive of the government. He responds to the mounting opposition with increased political repression and further censorship of the media.

1974 - Despite opposition from within his own party, Somoza Debayle runs for and wins presidential elections held in September. On 27 December the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), an armed Marxist revolutionary organisation named after Augusto César Sandino and operating in rural areas, seize the home of a former government official and take as hostages a handful of leading Nicaraguan officials, many of whom are Somoza relatives.

The guerrilla's prestige soars when they successfully negotiate a US$1 million ransom, have a government declaration read over the radio and printed in La Prensa, and get 14 FSLN prisoners released from jail and flown to Cuba along with the kidnappers. Somoza Debayle responds with further censorship, intimidation, torture and murder.

The FSLN has strong links with the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvenoi Bezopasnosti - the Soviet secret police force) and the KGB is involved in the planning of most FSLN operations.

1975 - Somoza Debayle and the National Guard launch a violent campaign against the FSLN. A state of siege is imposed, the press censored and all opponents threatened with detention and torture. Individuals suspected of collaborating with the FSLN are targeted. The country begins the descent into civil war.

1977 - In September, under pressure from the administration of US President Jimmy Carter, Somoza Debayle lifts the state of siege. Antigovernment protests and demonstrations resume. In October a group of prominent Nicaraguan business people and academics known as Los Doce (the Group of Twelve) form an anti-Somoza alliance and establish ties with the FSLN.

1978 - On 10 January Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, the publisher of the newspaper La Prensa, is assassinated, leading to mass demonstrations against the regime. A nationwide strike begins on 23 January, with participants demanding the end of Somoza Debayle's dictatorship. The National Guard increases repression and Somoza Debayle proclaims his intent to stay on in power until the end of his presidential term in 1981. As the strike wears on over two weeks the FSLN launch a series of attacks throughout the country.

In February the US suspends all military assistance to the regime. Somoza Debayle then turns to the international market to procure arms and equipment, reportedly sourced from Israel, at further cost to an economy already suffering from a flight of capital, lack of investment, inflation and high unemployment. Political opposition to the regime continues to grow. The Broad Opposition Front (FAO) comprising four opposition groups, including Los Doce, is formed in May and tries to reach a negotiated solution with Somoza Debayle.

More:
http://www.moreorless.net.au/killers/somoza.html

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Anastasio Somoza Debayle [/center]