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.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/arts/nicaragua/discovery_eng/timeline/
(I see yet another vicious right-wing villain ran to Miami when Somosa fled there.
It would be amazing learning just how many of these Latin American, or Caribbean mega-criminals are living in South Florida now, not to mention the ones who died of old age there already.)
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