Anastasio Somoza García

Early political career

In 1926, Somoza joined the Liberal rebellion in support of the presidential claims of Juan Bautista Sacasa, his wife's uncle. Somoza failed to distinguish himself in battle, leading an unsuccessful attack on the garrison at San Marcos; however, as a result of being educated in the United States, he spoke excellent English and acted as an interpreter during the United States-brokered negotiations between the warring parties. In the government of President José María Moncada, to whom he was distantly related, he served as governor of the department of León, Nicaraguan Consul to Costa Rica, and Foreign Minister. Despite his limited military experience, Somoza was able to rise through the ranks of the National Guard (Guardia Nacional), the constabulary force organized by the U.S. Marine Corps. After waging a bitter, six-year struggle with the forces of General Augusto César Sandino, in January 1933, the Marines evacuated the country following the election of Juan Bautista Sacasa as president. At the urging of the U.S. Ambassador Matthew E. Hanna, Somoza García was appointed as director of the National Guard. During peace talks, Somoza ordered the assassination of General Sandino on 21 February 1934 in violation of a safe-conduct agreement. Sandino's assassination was followed by the murder of former Sandino supporters by the National Guard.

Ruler of Nicaragua

Control of government

In 1936, Somoza staged a coup with the National Guard, forcing Sacasa to resign in June. Carlos Alberto Brenes ruled for the remainder of the year and in December, Somoza was elected president reportedly with 64,000 of the 80,663 votes cast He took office on New Year's Day 1937. In May 1939, President Roosevelt honored Somoza and his wife Salvadora by welcoming them to Washington, D.C., for a state visit. Somoza, popularly known as "Tacho", amended the Constitution to centralize all power in his hands. Family members and key supporters monopolized key positions in the government and military. During a trip to neighboring Costa Rica, where Somoza visited newly-built schools, he commented on the state of education in his own country, "I don't want educated people, I want oxen."

Nicaragua during World War II

During World War II, the government confiscated the properties of Nicaragua's small, but economically influential German community and sold them to Somoza and his family at vastly lowered prices. By 1944, Somoza was the largest landowner in Nicaragua, owning fifty-one cattle ranches and forty-six coffee plantations, as well as several sugar mills and rum distilleries. Somoza named himself director of the Pacific Railroad, linking Managua to the nation's principal port, Corinto, which moved his merchandise and crops for free and maintained his vehicles and agricultural equipment. Although Nicaragua received Lend-Lease aid in World War II, the unwillingness of Nicaragua to actually fight meant it was given obsolete equipment (most of it being either purchased from the Soviet Union, Francoist Spain, and Estado Novo or captured Nazi German equipment) and no Western training. Somoza also made substantial profits by granting concessions to foreign (primarily the United States) companies to exploit gold, rubber, and timber, for which he received "executive levies" and "presidential commissions". He passed laws restricting imports and organized contraband operations, which sold merchandise through his own stores. He also extracted bribes from illegal gambling, prostitution, and alcohol distilling. By the end of the decade, he had acquired a fortune estimated to be $400 million.

Democratic window

In 1944, under pressure from the United States, Somoza agreed to liberalize his rule. Unions were legalized, and he agreed not to run for re-election in 1947. The Nationalist Liberal Party nominated an elderly doctor named Leonardo Argüello, with Somoza using the National Guard to secure his election. Somoza intended for Argüello to be a mere puppet and to keep real power in his own hands until he could run again in 1952. Upon being sworn in as president in May 1947, Argüello displayed considerable independence, attempting to reduce the power of the National Guard and the control of Somoza and his associates over the economy. Less than a month later, Somoza orchestrated another coup, naming one of his wife's uncles, Benjamín Lacayo, as president. This definitively ended any hopes for further democratization in Nicaragua under the Somoza regime.

Second presidency

When the administration of U.S. President Harry S. Truman refused to recognize the new government, a Constituent Assembly was convened, which appointed Somoza's uncle, Víctor Manuel Román y Reyes, as president. In another heavily rigged election, Somoza García again became president in 1950. In the 1950s, he reorganized and streamlined his business empire, founding a merchant marine company, several textile mills, a national airline (LANICA, short for Líneas Aéreas de Nicaragua) and a new container port on the Pacific near Managua, which he named Puerto Somoza; after the Sandinistas came to power, they renamed it Puerto Sandino. He also acquired properties in the United States and Canada.

Assassination and legacy

In 1955, the constitution was amended to allow Somoza to run for another term. Shortly after being nominated, he was shot on 21 September 1956 by the poet Rigoberto López Pérez in the city of León, and died eight days later at the Gorgas Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone. Somoza's sons, Luis and Anastasio Somoza Debayle, ruled the country directly or through figurehead politicians for the next 23 years. Despite widespread corruption and repression of dissent, they were able to receive support from the United States, which viewed them as anti-communist stalwarts and a source of stability. His daughter Lillian Somoza Debayle, born in León, Nicaragua, on 3 May 1921, married Guillermo Sevilla Sacasa, Nicaraguan Ambassador to the United States during his brother-in-law's rule. He also had a son named José R. Somoza, born to an unknown mother. Somoza is entombed with his oldest son Luis at Cementerio Occidental in the National Guard Mausoleum in Managua, Nicaragua.

"Our Son of a Bitch"

Although Somoza was recognized as a ruthless dictator, the United States continued to support his regime as a non-communist stronghold in Nicaragua. President Franklin D. Roosevelt supposedly remarked in 1939 that "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." According to historian David Schmitz, researchers and archivists who have searched the archives of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library found no evidence that Roosevelt ever made this statement. The statement first appeared in the 15 November 1948 issue of Time magazine and was later mentioned in a 17 March 1960 broadcast of CBS Reports called "Trujillo: Portrait of a Dictator". In this broadcast, it was asserted that Roosevelt made the statement in reference to Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic; however, this statement has been attributed to a variety of U.S. presidential administrations in regard to foreign dictators. As a result, the statement remains apocryphal, although it is certain that Roosevelt and later presidents supported the Somoza family and their rule over Nicaragua. Andrew Crawley argues that the Roosevelt statement is a myth created by Somoza himself.