Anastasio Somoza Debayle
Categories: 1925 births | 1980 deaths | Murdered politicians | Presidents of Nicaragua
Anastasio Somoza Debayle (December 5, 1925–September 17, 1980) was the President of Nicaragua from 1967 to 1972 and then from 1974 to 1979. As head of the National Guard, he also effectively held power in the intervening years. He was the last member of the Somoza family to be President, after a string of them had held power from 1936.
He was the second son of Anastasio Somoza García, who became President of Nicaragua in 1937, effectively becoming dictator. The younger Somoza was initially educated in Florida (at Saint Leo Preparatory College, today known as Saint Leo University) and Long Island before graduating from West Point United States Military Academy on June 6, 1946. The following year, he was appointed head of the National Guard by his father, who had previously given many important posts to family members and close personal friends.
On December 10, 1950, he married Hope Portocarrero, with whom he had five children: Anastasio, Julio, Carolina, Carla, and Roberto.
Following his father's assassination in 1956, Somoza's elder brother, Luis Somoza Debayle, took over the presidency. In 1967, shortly before the death of his brother, Anastasio Somoza was himself elected President for the first time. He stood down from the Presidency in 1972, owing to a law which disallowed immediate re-election.
In December of that year, an earthquake hit the nation's capital Managua, killing around ten thousand people, and virtually destroying the city. Martial law was declared, effectively making Somoza, as head of the National Guard, the country's leader once again. The Somoza family was widely accused of profiting from international aid.
Despite this, Somoza was reelected President in the 1974 election, although the Catholic church had begun to speak against his corrupt and brutal regime. By the late 1970s, human rights groups were condemning the record of the Somoza government, while the support for the Sandinistas was growing in the country. The Sandinista Front, named after Augusto Cesar Sandino, began its guerrilla war against the Somozas in 1963. After gaining popular support, and military and political victories, the Sandinistas overthrew Somoza on July 17, 1979. The Somozas fled to Miami, Florida. Anastasio Somoza Debayle was assassinated in Asunción, Paraguay, at the age of 54, by a commando team presided by the Argentinian Enrique Gorriaran Merlo. A few months before his death, his memoirs, Nicaragua Betrayed was published, in which he blamed the Carter Administration for his demise. His son, Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero, went into exile in Guatemala.
Trivia
He attended the presidential inauguration of President John F. Kennedy.
Further reading
- Nicaragua Betrayed by Anastasio Somoza (as told to Jack Cox)
- Death of Somoza by Claribel Alegria and Darwin J. Flakoll
- Nicaragua Traicionada by Anastasio Somoza (Spanish version of Nicaragua Betrayed)
- At the Fall of Somoza by Lawrence Pezzullo
- Somoza Falling: A Case Study in the Making of US Foreign Policy by Anthony Lake
- Somoza Falling: A Case Study of Washington at Work by Anthony Lake
- Somoza's Last Stand: Testimonies from Nicaragua by Larry Towell
- Dictators Never Die: Nicaragua and the Somoza Dynasty by Eduardo Crawley
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