NICARAGUA: SAMOZA'S DICTATORSHIP
NACLA
Introduction This issue of the NACLA Report focuses on the 40-year Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua - an era with a specific beginning and an approaching end. What makes the Nicaraguan case...
...Moreover, as seen above, Somoza's Nicaragua has provided a base for countering "undesirable" movements throughout the region...
...shrimp freezing & processing plant on Pacific coast opened late '60s...
...Agency for International Development (AID), Nicaragua had "relied heavily" on foreign aid before the earthquake,**71 it has become clear since 1973 that the Somoza regime could not survive without the massive aid infusions...
...27 leaders of boycott campaign deprived of political rights until March 1975...
...became more interested in Nicaragua, as the California Gold Rush made clear the need for a nearby, cheap overland route from the Atlantic to the Pacific...
...News & World Report, October 5, 1956, p. 64...
...Embassy officials have spent considerable energy attempting to isolate PSN within UDEL, by playing on the anti-Communism of other UDEL leaders...
...My father served through the Civil War, both my grandfathers died in action in the same war, and I am proud of their records, so this is not from the pen of a red radical, but from one who loves justice and fair play...
...We emphasize this as the central question precisely because it is often put aside in favor of other, more obvious aspects of the Somoza phenomenon: repression and cruelty, corruption and greed...
...German-born, Wagner worked since 1966 with the Office of Public Safety (OPS) in Vietnam, then in the Dominican Republic, and was sent to Nicaragua in 1970...
...2 (around the size of Michigan) population: 2.2 million (mid-1974) population growth rate: 3% a year rural/urban population: 51%/49% (Managua: around 20%) exports: 70-80% from agriculture (cotton, coffee, meat, sugar) labor force: 50% in agriculture, 50% in industry and other official unemployment: 22% (Minister of Economy said 36% of economically active population was unemployed in September 1973...
...Typeset by Archetype...
...The next day, Somoza's troops unleashed a pogrom against the Sandinista cooperative and other peasants in the northern part of the country to assure its final "pacification...
...oil companies in Tampico, Mexico, from 1923 to 1926, a time of great worker unrest there...
...According to one of his top aides, Figueres himself began that process in a 1971 meeting with Somoza...
...functionaries, these official figures reveal only the tip of the iceberg...
...railroad baron Cornelius Vanderbilt (whose Nicaraguan transit company, established in 1851, was confiscated by Walker) managed to rout Walker in 1857...
...But on the other hand, UDEL leaders have expressed the fear that FSLN "extremism" will bring down heavier repression on UDEL and that FSLN activism can cause political immobilization within UDEL ranks...
...Frente Estudiantil Revolucionario (FER), "Jornada Heroica de Pancasan" #4, Aug...
...N.Y...
...Finally, Somoza has consistently opposed progressive or nationalist measures at the regional level, such as producers' cartels...
...4 mn...
...Earthquake Profiteering: To characterize the massive influx of aid for earthquake relief and reconstruction simply as "humanitarian," as AID officials do, is somewhat misleading...
...contributes to technifying our armies through joint military exercises . . . and helps us to find unity of doctrine and mutual cooperation" among the Central American armed forces...
...and other foreign banks...
...ATCHEMCO) or Cia...
...And in the face of military losses and loss of public support, the U.S...
...Interviews: UDI.L "Mensaje" (mimeo., 1975...
...Excelsior, Aug...
...AID, Capital Assistance Paper: Nicaragua, Rural Development Sector Loan (AID-DLC/P-2091) (Washington: AID, 1975), passim...
...caustic soda & chlorine plant established '67...
...These are extraordinary and, in human terms, their consequences for the Nicaraguan people are very direct and very real...
...the Nicaraguan route was prohibitively expensive (and unsafe, as reconfirmed after the 1972 earthquake...
...This does not mean upsetting the status quo, but making minor reforms to contain the social pressures for real change...
...Second, the Liberal Reform and foreign monopoly capital also accelerated the formation of a modern proletariat or work-force...
...According to U.S...
...fertilizer & bagging plant in Corinto: OPIC covers $.8 mn...
...5 6 U.S...
...17 These doubts were nourished by a few honest voices in the U.S...
...More recently, in June 1975, speaking of his contract with the New York firm Sullivan & Sarria, Tachito indicated that public relations has become a top priority for the Nicaraguan budget.84 The p.r...
...This Managua billboard claims, "When you travel LANICA, your money stays in Nicaragua" (with Somoza) - except the 25% that goes to Hughes.22 Nicaragua has had bitter experience with foreign bank creditors in the past...
...In 1954 an assassination plot against Somoza was discovered in Costa Rica, allegedly with the knowledge of high officials of the Figueres government...
...and more than a dozen Standard employees were killed, including eight American citizens.6 Shortly after this, Standard, the largest foreign investment at the time, withdrew from the country...
...Principal sources include: Business Latin America, Infbrpress, Moody's Industrial Manual, Noticias, OPIC, newspaper articles, corporate annual reports and interviews...
...since the mid-1950s - to visit his children studying here, to attend West Point functions, to appear on U.S...
...Carlos Pasos...
...Although the Nicaraguan people did not support the government's role in the Bay of Pigs, both Luis and Tachito continued to put themselves and Nicaragua at the disposal of the Cuban exiles - primarily the right-wing, pro-Batista group...
...Finally, in 1967, Tachito took formal power as President, and in the early 1970s made the necessary maneuvers to permit his reelection in 1974...
...invested in '67 to double capacity...
...50% of fatalities are in children under 14 social: 47% of homes have no sanitary facilities (81% in countryside...
...100...
...rebuilding new quarters 3 times original size in new Motocentro shopping center...
...66-7: Latin America (London), March 31, 1972...
...Liberal Leonardo Arguello (Somoza's candidate) wins but, upon attempting to act independently, is ousted by Somoza golpe...
...Steel, the Intercontinental Hotels venture with Pan Am, and the LANICA investment with Howard Hughes (see box...
...27-9, 113-14...
...INFONACloan in '72 for expansion...
...influence (plus the absence of any opposition strategy for using this opportunity) once again prevented any real change...
...NACLA-West3 I. From the Other Side Managua today, since the December 1972 earthquake, is an empty shell, with no central core...
...Even in as agrarian a country as Vietnam, that proletariat, though small, was considered to play the leading role in the Vietnamese Workers' Party...
...AEI Special Projects Chairman David M. Abshire became Executive Director of the Center...
...Ultimately, the strongest solidarity comes from relating the struggle in Nicaragua to the struggle in the U.S...
...mfrs...
...26 To return to the central issue raised at the outset: Why has the Somoza dictatorship lasted forty years...
...92 ff.28 AFTERSHOCKS As background for examining the two basic strategies which emerge from Nicaragua's political history, we must survey briefly the principal aspects and contradictions of the current situation - that is, since 1972...
...In the late 1950s, Davidson worked through Ambassador Whelan and several high U.S...
...moreover, it was rooted in a workers' movement that was primarily artisan rather than proletarian...
...Export-Import Bank International Finance Corp...
...9 3 Thus, of the bourgeois institutions which nourished the Somoza dictatorship, the only sure prop remaining is the U.S...
...as one official put it, "The Conservatives are in disarray...
...investment accounting for at least 80 percent of this total...
...Copyright 0 1976 by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...cit., pp...
...By the mid-1960s, the Somozas recognized that a revolutionary guerrilla "threat" in Guatemala also threatened their own regime...
...II, pp...
...Armistead Selden (D-AL), an expert on "Communist penetration" in Latin America who, after losing his Congressional seat, became a lobbyist for Somoza interests...
...intervention.12 -To the embarrassment of Marine officials, Sandino was fighting with captured U.S...
...Even more intolerable to Washington than Zelaya's specific measures of NACLA'S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORT Vol...
...in the second case, Somoza stated that his troops could contribute their knowledge of counterinsurgency, and could in return improve their own combat capacity...
...Interviews: Alan Riding in NYT, Aug...
...In 1948-49, and repeatedly as late as 1955, Somoza charged that Costa Rica was permitting activities subversive to his regime...
...Marines too completely as the enemy and to believe that Sacasa and Somoza, representatives of the U.S...
...concession over 12 billion bd...
...investment...
...I have four sons, and if necessity arose I would be willing to sacrifice not only all four sons, but my own life as well, in a war of defense, but I am.not willing to shed one drop of blood in a war of aggression, such as this one is...
...He co-sponsored with Senators Bill Brock [R-Tenn.] and Sam Nunn [D-Ga.] a monthly Senate Seminar on Latin America...
...This organiza- tion included the whole family and its national and international representatives, friends, and loyal recipients of10 The Somozas have had the solid support of all U.S...
...9 Clearly, UDEL is more progressive than previous (strictly bourgeois) opposition efforts, which were organized only to win a particular election...
...CSIS was originally organized in 1962...
...Fabrica de Hilados y Tejidos del Hato SA (Fabricato) (Medellin, Colombia) Textiles Fabricato de Nicaragua SA (Fabritex): $9.2 mn...
...The political domestication of the Conservatives, the ease with which they moved, both in this case and in many others, from opposition to pact, only highlights the fundamentally undependable nature of an "opposition" led by a bourgeoisie which maintains (and since the 1960's has increased) concrete economic and political ties with the Somozas...
...Nicaragua's Puerto Cabezas served as the departure point for the April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion...
...Once word of the White House's intentions got out, however, several Congressional committees threatened to investigate irregularities in Shelton's conduct as Ambassador (including use of Embassy funds for personal expenditures and of Embassy facilities to do favors for his friends, visits to Key Biscayne to see Rebozo and Nixon, etc...
...Imperialism World-Wide Few governments have proved as loyal and reliable a supporter of U.S...
...public response was overwhelmingly favorable to the articles...
...By 1946, according to one source, the PSN claimed the support of 25 percent of the electorate.'1" In 1947, in the aftermath of his anti-Arguello golpe, Somoza unleashed violent repression against the PSN (which had supported the anti-Somoza candidate in the ** UDEL's attitude toward the FSLN is highly ambiguous...
...exports biscuits & crackers...
...troops...
...Even more important was another political lesson...
...Jack Anderson columns, WP, Aug...
...OPIC covers $1.2 mn...
...1) UDEL/PSN The contemporary variation on the traditional electoral anti-Somoza strategy is the Union Democratica de Liberaci6n (UDEL), formed in December 1974 following the 1974 election fraud (which its leaders had boycotted...
...These Nicaraguans came to San Francisco in two waves: The first wave began after World War II, increasing from 1957 to 1962, when U.S...
...ENTER SOMOZA Structurally, ever since the interruption of the Liberal Reform in 1909, U.S...
...PVC plant inaugurated '70;-imports raw materials from Japan.37 Olin Corp...
...However, the U.S...
...Fonseca, "Zero Hour," p. 41...
...Since that time, Nicaragua has become less important in a literal strategicmilitary sense - particularly since Washington has become less interested in a Nicaraguan Canal.* (4) The Dollar Stake A final area of U.S...
...Internationally, the New York Times editorialized (December 31) that the Somoza regime "deserved the humiliation it suffered...
...In several visits abroad (e.g...
...USAID helped finance its nutrition/market study for introducing hi-protein products...
...The Gaceta is sold in Spanish-language establishments and many bookstores in San Francisco, as well as in Los Angeles, Washington, and other cities...
...containers & electrical equipment...
...This network or lobby has influenced U.S...
...83 Because they depend so heavily on support from the U.S...
...Co., predecessor of today's Brown Bros...
...After the Revolution, the Somozas developed a family obsession with overthrowing Castro - even though their pretext, Cuban support for the Nicaraguan exile invasion of 1959, was false...
...Industrias Unidas de Centroamerica SA: JV...
...policy"s * In response to three columns in August 1975 by Jack Anderson focusing on Somoza's corruption, the State Department had to issue a statement denying that it or any U.S...
...Twenty-five of his classmates were flown to Managua to attend his 1967 inauguration...
...anyone visiting Nicaragua today can sense the immediacy of political change, Perhaps it is no accident that this comes at an historic moment, with the defeat of U.S...
...The above evaluations come from FSLN self-criticism, e.g., in Ibid., pp...
...Navy, March, 1971...
...These concerns structure and limit the material in this Report...
...N.Y...
...The Nicaraguan community here, although overwhelmingly anti-Somoza, has not been politically active by and large (although in the late 1950's there was some political activity, especially by New York-based exile organizations...
...Only after the creation of the CACM in 1960 expanded the local market did foreign capital begin investing in local import substitution industry -- such as an oil refinery, chemical complex, powdered milk plant, textile factory...
...January 1896...
...Others have been involved since 1964 in government-aided tobacco plantations to produce Habana puros for the U.S...
...The choice, made by the U.S...
...These limitations stemmed from objective factors in Nicaraguan history, such as the lack of a bourgeois democratic revolution permitting the circulation of Marxist ideas...
...sentiment, to hear Somoza say (in Mexico in 1974), "Nicaragua is aligned with the West, not a neutral country of the Third World...
...But they are sufficient to indicate another dimension of Tachito's attachment to the U.S...
...Ambassadors Thomas Whelan from 1951 to 1961 and Turner Shelton from 1970 to 1975 - who became personal representatives of the Somoza dictatorship...
...First, Tacho owed his initial rise to the GN...
...fully integrated cigarette manufacturing monopoly...
...In the last few years, moreover, Central American military cooperation has been weakened by an arms race (with U.S.-supplied arms primarily) and by the domestic problems faced by each army...
...Ceramica Industrial SA (CERISA): 50%-owned JV with BANIC interests...
...5, 1975...
...fats & oils from cotton seed...
...In 1957, Luis had himself elected President, while Tachito became head of the GN...
...Ramiro Sacasa) have split openly with Somoza, most leaders in the BANIC and BANAMERICA groups have remained safely on both sides, doing business and politics with Somoza, while simultaneously preparing to join any antiSomoza move should it be strong enough to succeed...
...9. This analysis is based on: Wheelock, op...
...U.S...
...bankers Brown Brothers and Seligman negotiated new loans, with controlling interests in the country's national bank and railroads as security...
...FSLN encounters with GN at Coco and Bocay Rivers, defeat for FSLN 1967 (January) candidacy of Fernando Aguero for opposition coalition dominated by Conservative Party is supported by massive street demonstrations in Managua, designed to pressure for a free and honest election...
...interests there...
...cit., esp...
...Theberge's mission is apparently to alter the image of total U.S...
...Following independence from Spain in 1821, Nicaragua passed to the British trade sphere...
...February) Tachito "elected" President for 1967-72 period...
...37-9...
...Laboratorios Roche de Centroamerica SA: plant opened in '69...
...December 27) following months of increased guerrilla activity, FSLN action (taking over party attended by close Somoza associates, holding them hostage for more than 60 hours) frees FSLN prisoners, exposes insecurity'of Somoza regime 1975 increasing confrontations between FSLN and GN, leading to situation of virtual war in some provinces...
...plant in Granada converts sanitary tissue...
...Foreign investment was encouraged by Liberal President Zelaya after 1893...
...Washington wanted a government it could be sure of controlling...
...Naval Institute Proceedings, June 1965...
...The strategy which emerged from the FSLN's development is that of prolonged people's war, the "political and military confrontation of an organized people against its foreign and local enemies" for as long as necessary...
...plant opened '60 mfrs...
...JV with INFONAC, Robinson Lumber Co...
...In July 1973, his companies' investment bank, Merrill Lynch, arranged a $50 million loan for Managua reconstruction at a hefty 10%-12%% interest - 1.5% over the interbank lending rate...
...Ambassador James D. Theberge, who is pushing unrestricted international trade and investment as key to the country's development and who is warning that nationalism could have "adverse effects...
...including unlimited rights to remit profits and capital, no restrictions on the purchase of foreign exchange, and absolute secrecy regarding its operations...
...In California, "Management Recruiters" went searching for new p.r...
...Tachito...
...Cockeysville, MD), INFONAC & others...
...The other face of the opposition during the 1940's and 1950's was its participation in rigged elections...
...N.Y...
...But it was a flop in terms of whipping up anticommunism within Nicaragua: the Nicaraguan Archbishop refused to participate, reportedly observing that Communism, like everything else, has positive and negative aspects...
...1960...
...David Tobis, "Foreign Aid: The Case of Guatemala," Monthly Review, January 1968, p. 45...
...The Frente has argued against the fiarrow, "mechanistic" (PSN) conception of the urban proletariat as central, asserting that: 1) Nicaragua's low level of industrialization makes the urban proletariat less strategic...
...18, 19, 22, 1975...
...younger landowners and ranchers...
...Ambassador Shelton, assures continuation of Somoza regime...
...life, the community has been bound together by social and civic clubs...
...However, it also seems clear that the U.S...
...Inforpress #83, p. IV, W84, p. 2. 48...
...and in the absence of a stable alternative with GN support Washington remains behind Somoza...
...Gen., "El Programa de UDEL Como Alternativa para la Democratizaci6n y la Liberaci6n de Nicaragua," in Alianzas Politicas...
...Given the 40 years of firm U.S...
...Silent, vacant lots overgrown with weeds and rubble from demolished buildings are all that is left where downtown used to be...
...3) Somoza's Friends in Court In addition to official U.S...
...Charles Ameringer, The Democratic Left in Exile...
...Regis Paper Co...
...And in late 1960, when a group of rebels took over several GN garrisons, Washington responded to Somoza's requests for aid by sending an aircraft carrier and five destroyers to patrol the Caribbean.s 3 In return, the Somozas put Nicaragua at Washington's disposal for special U.S...
...17, 1975, p. H8781...
...the PSN is the only real party of the opposition...
...Chicago): gum plant at Waspan exports to U.S...
...it is rumored that Theberge was fired from the IDB...
...in dividends in '74...
...cit., p. 84...
...In September 1956, following several abortive coup attempts by opposition movements, Rigoberto L6pez Pdrez assassinated Somoza (who was then planning his reelection in 1957...
...9 For all its brutality, however, the repression is becoming less effective...
...A year and a half later, however, it turned out that Hughes' Glomar Explorer, the submarine vessel to be used in the operation, had really been built to enable the CIA to recover secrets from a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine...
...investors in a manner most profitable to both sides...
...and Central American press outside Nicaragua...
...according to the Frente's own self-criticism, important errors remained, including incorrect recruitment methods, insufficient cadre, sectarianism within the organization, individualism within the leadership, inadequate understanding of the relation between city and countryside-all stemming from the lack of a strategic conception for developing armed struggle.'" Nevertheless, the Pancasan actions were important: first as an alternative to the bourgeois opposition's protest of January 1967, leading the masses into anti-Somoza demonstrations, then abandoning them...
...By the end of the War, new forces were moving in Central America...
...sons of GN officers...
...La Prensa, Nov...
...In May 1927, the State Department representative finally managed to get a peace agreement signed in exchange for U.S.-supervised elections in 1928...
...Interview...
...2 0 And when in 1933 the U.S...
...However, U.S...
...bankers put the public foreign debt at $500 million, with a skyrocketing debt service ratio of 16-18 percent...
...Along with her older children and perhaps her own parents, she is left with the least desirable and lowest paid tasks...
...support, Tachito, like his father and brother before him, has benefited from a network of formal lobbyists and influential friends in the Pentagon, in Congress, at times in the White House itself...
...Rheem Intl...
...Following the pattern set by Guatemala 20 years earlier, this Reform signified basically a modernization of the colonial structures and a first attempt to consolidate political and economic power...
...Allen Ellender (D-LA), who, after visiting all Latin America, had special praise for Trujillo and Somoza...
...This would also facilitate the U.S...
...revolt fails after several weeks, Raudales killed in encounter with GN 1959 (May-June) attempted invasion organized by Enrique Lacayo Farfan, headinga coalition of anti-Somoza groups, from Costa Rica (with support from Figueres' party in Costa Rica, but not from Cuba's Castro), with objective of establishing a guerrilla foco, collapses and participants captured...
...The private commercial loans often carry interest rates of 10-12 percent, while the "softer" loans from international "aid" agencies often carry interest rates of 2-6 percent and include generous "grace periods...
...In April 1975 a special tax was levied on merchandise being shipped in and out of Nicaraguan ports, for the special benefit of Somoza's shipping line, MAMENIC (which all importers are required to use).4 e) Regionally, Somoza has manipulated CACM regulations for profit: in 1974, for example, Nicaragua closed its borders to Guatemalain and Salvadoran textiles on the grounds of "market saturation...
...Macaulay, op...
...2. Interview with militant of Frente Sandinista de Liberaci6n Nacional (FSLN) Doris Tijerino by Margaret Randall (mimeo., 1975), pp...
...Time, May 16, 1960...
...One article notes that "a list of their early publications reads something like a Defense Department priority sheet...
...Although not a Communist, Sandino understood clearly the class content of the struggle - as reflected in the organization of his popular army...
...Bank of America, Man on the Spot (Nicaragua) May 1975...
...their function is to carry out assassinations and other tasks too dirty for the official army...
...N.Y...
...154, 173...
...The temporary cooperation between the revolutionary and bourgeois opposition movements will, no doubt, dissolve in the next stage, when the task will be to seize state power from the bourgeoisie...
...22 through April 11, 1928, and Beals, Banana Gold...
...in Honduras for packing banana puree...
...In the "new Managua," the rich live and shop comfortably in their suburbs, protected by the ubiquitous Guardia Nacional patrols, without ever having to see the misery of the rest...
...Nelson Rockefeller Takes Care of Everybody," by Robert Scheer, Playboy, October 1975...
...The Embassy has also advised Somoza to change his image, for example, by lifting the perennial press censorship accompanying every crisis, and to allow other safety valves for the expression of opposition...
...using the pretext that Zelaya was "fomenting unrest" in other Central American countries and his execution of two American mercenaries, the U.S...
...government, by its silence on the subject (or explicit denials of wrongdoing), has24 acquiesced in this misuse of U.S...
...7 8 INVIERNO's ostensible purpose is to improve the delivery of services to the rural population...
...big business overseas was too high...
...Echeverria), Somoza is becoming obsolete - and less useful perhaps even to Washington than in the past...
...One example is Cuban exile Domingo Moreira, the chicken-fish magnate in Guatemala who has close personal, political, and business ties to Arana and his son, and who was recently revealed to have received the Del Monte "fee" (bribe...
...Excelsior, Sept...
...He attempted to attract U.S...
...II, pp...
...8 5 In August 1975, nationally syndicated columnist Jack Anderson ran three articles denouncing Tachito as "the world's greediest dictator...
...in support of the struggle in Nicaragua...
...in fact, it was Shelton who arranged a personal meeting between Hughes and Somoza when Hughes first came to Nicaragua in 1972...
...officials (including Theberge in his Senate confirmation hearing) deny combat involvement (ground or air) of U.S...
...Subsequently, particularly between 1970 and 1974, both in the countryside and in the city, the FSLN dedicated itself primarily to organizational work, developing its program and improving its practice (e.g., in the relationship between mass work and organization building...
...Thus, in the days following the earthquake, at a time when Somoza and his GN alone would have been unable to keep order, 600 U.S...
...Sandino's decision to fight the U.S.-imposed political solution forced the U.S...
...2 5 The mistake of the Sandinistas in accepting "Nicaraguanization" was not repeated by the Vietnamese forty years later...
...Thus, the rise of Somoza makes sense only in the context of a brief resume of Nicaraguan history and U.S...
...Congressmen, led by Rep...
...I'oreign Policy," Journal of Inter-American Affairs, Vol...
...Even more important was public opinion in the U.S...
...Arana maintained close ties with Somoza throughout and even after his presidency...
...4 1 Although Somoza had been no less active in promoting plots by anti-Figueres Costa Ricans in Nicaragua, he used this to justify supporting an actual invasion of Costa Rica in January 1955...
...fails when internal uprising does not materialize...
...21, 1975...
...First, given the shakiness of the Somoza regime, shoring it up was more a strategic than a humanitarian U.S...
...Borden Inc...
...by keeping Nicaragua under a state of emergency from December 1972 to June 1974 (and again for months after December 1974), by having 150 political prisoners shot, by controlling the reconstruction apparatus, and so on...
...Politically, it showed that a people's army, using guerrilla warfare, could force a modem industrial power to abandon military intervention...
...cit., p. 40...
...in addition, the lower class bears the brunt of an unprecedented inflation...
...Charles Ameringer, The Democratic Left in Exile, pp...
...It is highly mobile and does not seek military control over an area...
...Thus, it is important to evaluate the two principal strategies...
...Envases Industriales Nicaraguenses SA: JV formed in '65...
...Theberge's connection with the Rockefellers and Kissingers has served him well...
...Certainly the U.S...
...support for corrupt dictatorships and those who had no such qualms...
...Sandino and the Rise of Somoza BACKGROUND The Somoza dynasty is the product of the U.S.' "first Vietnam" - that is, the U.S...
...3 2 Pallais was for years head of INFONAC, the National Development Institute, enabling the Somozas to use it as their private bank...
...was Somoza's activity in the early 1950s against the progressive, democratic nationalist Arbenz government in Guatemala...
...7 Clearly the Somozas are at home in the U.S...
...Mercadeo Industrial SA: mfrs...
...violated its agreement with the British by signing a treaty directly with Nicaragua...
...42 employees...
...F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co...
...5, 1275, pp...
...On the other side, today, as for Sandino forty years ago, solidarity from the people of the U.S...
...Novedades (Nicaragua), Nov...
...Major Opposition Movements Since 1944 1944 Somoza's position threatened by movement organized by Gen...
...Similarly, once he recognized that the social democratic PLN was institutionalizing its power in Costa Rica, Somoza managed to put aside the hostilities of the past, developing economic ties and common interests with top Liberacionistas...
...During the Alliance for Progress era, Washington became a little more concerned about being totally identified with dictators...
...for chemical plants...
...government agency had given Anderson official government documents or classified information...
...airport to be completed in '76...
...Thus during the last 40 years, the Somozas rose from being an instrument of the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie to becoming an integral part of it...
...To be sure, the arbitrariness and avarice of the Somozas has created conflicts with particular groups within that bourgeoisie...
...Inforpress #99, p. 3A:Panoramas, Dec...
...regime had replaced Zelaya, Washington assured its control over Nicaragua's foreign debts by appointing representatives to collect and retain customs revenue...
...Continuing attacks on the Sandinistas by the GN forced Sandino to negotiate with the government in Managua...
...all sectors relied on U.S...
...Politically, UDEL represents the willingness of the participating parties to "do without" their ideologies for the moment, in the interest of anti-Somoza unity...
...cit., pp...
...Internally, they were led for the most part by Conservatives (although with some participation by ex-Sandinistas and other leftists...
...emergency grant aid was really paid to the Pentagon for this overnight rescue operation.7s Second, as a result of corruption, much of the relief and reconstruction aid never reached the earthquake victims, and went instead into the pockets of Somoza and his friends...
...Thus today the San Francisco ComitM, along with similar groups in Los Angeles and other U.S...
...taxpayers have provided Somoza with $246.7 million through AID since 1962 - $76.7 million for earthquake reconstruction alone since 1973...
...From that time on, the PSN was too weak to play a significant independent role in Nicaraguan politics...
...Based on this fear, U.S...
...After World War II, there was continuing talk (but no action) about a Nicaraguan canal...
...The Conservatives spoke for dominant merchant and cattle raising interests of Granada, the Liberals for the artisans of Le6n...
...government, and even the horror stories about Sandinista atrocities printed in the established U.S...
...is a series of business ventures here...
...Cia...
...interests in the area...
...supplies part of salt requirements...
...functionary, the intelligence unit he was training within the GN had ties not with OPS but with the CIA...
...of IT&T, N.Y...
...exports storage batteries...
...Embassy...
...This assessment is based primarily on 1975 interviews in Washington and Nicaragua...
...1969, p. 32...
...1, 1973...
...Whelan, a political appointee from the Truman days, spoke no Spanish, but served both Tacho and (after 1957) his sons as a friend, a daily political consultant, and a "propaganda agent...
...Concretely, from 1962 to 1975, the Somozas gave exile leader Manuel Artime free rein to operate training camps in Nicaragua...
...finally did withdraw, it left a "non-partisan constabulary" (military police force), the Guardia Nacional (GN) to serve as arbiter and "stabilizer" of NiTaraguan political life...
...to transport troops and munitions across Nicaragua to provide "protection" for the route...
...The Center's Latin American program is supported in part by a grant from the Lilly Foundation...
...4.5 mn...
...to strike) and other social legislation (regarding health, education, etc...
...Interviews...
...Theoretically, this could have been the moment for liberalization or the end of Somoza rule...
...The most important aspect of the program, say U.S...
...113 ff...
...Ambassador Theberge at reception with UDEL opposition leaders, 1975.18 The 1975 appointment of James D. Theberge to replace Turner Shelton as U.S...
...a.!A constant theme of Somoza operations in the 1960s and 1970s has been their political and economic involvement with the Cuban exile network...
...The U.S...
...31, 1974, reprinted in Vanguardia #2, Feb...
...was intervening to preserve, and Sandino was fighting to overthrow, the rule of the Nicaraguan oligarchy, class rule...
...Through these institutions, the Somozas continued the process begun by Zelaya but interrupted from 1909 to 1933: the consolidation of the Nicaraguan state as a modem bourgeois state...
...commercial bank lending to private corpora- tions and financial institutions in Nicaragua, the only indicator of the lending volume is the total credit extended to government institutions and incorporated in the nation's public foreign debt...
...8 and 12, 1975...
...troop movements from the local populace...
...Jacoby and Fernandez Press Conference, op...
...Prensa Libre (Guatemala), Aug...
...continuing spontaneous protest, including peasant land invasions, labor strikes in key sectors, met by repression 1974 election campaign, with Paguagua ("Zancudo") wing of Conservative Party running against Somoza, while 27 other opposition leaders lead election boycott campaign with manifesto, "There is no one to vote for...
...Theberge was very friendly with the Chilean junta's former Ambassador in Washington, General Walter Heitmann, and frequently attended parties at his home, according to Washington observers...
...has used the issue of a canal in Nicaragua principally to improve its bargaining position with Panama...
...Here too she is a virtual slave, never able to get out of debt...
...The following is based on interviews and Millett, op...
...1975...
...exports vitreous china sanitary ware...
...press...
...objective...
...in '74...
...Tachito also has an economic stake in the Cuban exile cause...
...to make suggestions for U.S...
...retained exclusive canal rights in Nicaragua through the 1914 Bryan Chamorro Treaty...
...Anti-intervention opinion spread from the Left to broader sectors - particularly after the Depression reinforced feelings that the price of protecting U.S...
...Aside from being a good business venture, this was a good source of favorable publicity for the Somozas in the U.S...
...interview with FSLN leader in Siempre (Mexico), Feb...
...El Grdfico, Oct...
...While initiating an era of counterrevolution, this did not leave the country truly stabilized...
...and Nicaraguan) of the U.S.-founded Nicaraguan military academy...
...as FSLN leaders have pointed out, this resulted in a generally low level of theoretical-ideological development...
...Politically, Nicaragua was plagued by armed conflicts between two factions of the ruling class, represented by the Conservative and Liberal parties...
...193 ff...
...Sectors of the middle class that lost what they had in the earthquake now feel their own opportunities for economic advance curtailed at every turn by Somoza's arbitrary laws and greed...
...infant mortality rate: 13...
...won that first round - through a "Nicaraguanization" which left the entire country occupied by the U.S.-trained Guardia Nacional and its leader...
...estimates range from 20,000 to 40,000 (followed by Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans and Washington...
...OPIC covers $915,000 inv...
...pIn 1958, Davidson used all his connections with Vice President Nixon and aides to President Eisenhower to get an official invitation for Luis Somoza to visit the U.S...
...Moreover, although the goals were not explicitly socialist, the U.S...
...of Canada, Toronto) Acumuladores Centroamericanos SA (ACUMSA): JV...
...Ruth Shereff in NY Free Press, Mar...
...FSLN Communiqu6 of Dec...
...110-14: Fonseca, "Cr6nica Secreta: Augusto Cesar Sandino ante sus Verdugos," Casa de las Americas, Sept.-Oct...
...November) new opposition coalition formed in preparation for 1974 "election...
...and international press and Nicaraguan bourgeoisie of Somoza's vulnerability and of the broad base of support for the FSLN...
...mining companies in exchange for tax exemptions, and he himself gained control of some of the mines (e.g., San Albino) expropriated from Sandinistas or their sympathizers...
...11-12, #129 p. 9: for details on CONDECA, see "Integrating the Big Guns," Guatemala (Berkeley: NACLA, 1974...
...intervention was clearly a matter of defending U.S...
...interviews...
...In the House, the main Somoza advocates include: Daniel Flood (D-PA), champion of a Nicaragua canal...
...3. To mention only a few of the many sources: Press Conference by Daniel Jacoby and Carlos Fernandez (UN International Federation of Human Rights and Pax Romana observers), Nov...
...Columnists included prominent pro-Batista Cuban exiles...
...28, 1975...
...2 The countryside has borne the brunt of the repression unleashed by the Somoza regime - particularly in the operating zones of the guerrilla forces of the Frente Sandinista de Liberaci6n Nacional (FSLN...
...Interviews;MiamiHerald, Jan...
...The arrests have become more arbitrary and more frequent since the December 1974 FSLN action...
...115...
...war needs...
...A number of Somoza enterprises, including Novedades and Plasmafdresis (the blood export venture) are run by Cuban exiles...
...These are concentrated in the following areas of the economy: agribusiness and food, banking, chemicals, forest products, mining, tourism and transportation (see Appendix...
...When Tacho was assassinated in 1956, Washington helped insure a smooth transition to the Somoza sons...
...direct accounts published in Costa Rican press (Excelsior), Aug.-Sept...
...179-82...
...1975 leaflet to Nicaraguan private sector...
...1972, p. 74...
...The second strategy (FSLN), viewing the present regime as a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, sees the immediate task of overthrowing Somoza as the first step in a protracted struggle to overthrow bourgeois rule and imperialism and establish socialism in Nicaragua and all Central America...
...also supplies packaging for meat, soap, liquor, etc...
...opinion and to send medical supplies...
...As always, the peasants in the guerrilla zones have borne the brunt of repression...
...during the war with U.S...
...Congressional Record, Sept...
...military involvement against the guerrilla forces of Augusto Cesar Sandino in Nicaragua...
...25, 1975...
...by early January 1976, the matter remained unresolved.7...
...1912...
...During one four day period in 1931 its radio station was put out of commission...
...Excelsior, Sept...
...taxpayers' money, and failed to use its leverage to stop it...
...10 ff...
...A Somoza firm also provides the bricks to pave Managua's new streets, drainage ditches, etc...
...Ambassador Turner Shelton from 1970 to 1975, the State Department appointed a new Ambassador, James Theberge...
...Although the initial rationale for intervention had been protection of U.S...
...investors...
...Like any guerrilla force, the people's army was dependent on material support (food, supplies, information) from the local residents, and shared its resources with them...
...rebels capture two GN garrisons...
...grows none) destined for flour...
...supported Somoza...
...Though Nicaragua is the largest Central American country, it has historically attracted the least foreign investment...
...Inforpress #104, pp...
...Krehm, op...
...Breve Resumen de Medio Ailo de Lucha en Nicaragua," Gaceta Sandinista (Mex...
...Although most came here to improve their lot, the majority - including those from middle-class origins in Nicaragua - have been proletarianized once in the U.S...
...Louisville, subsid...
...But new forms of organization are necessary, as the base in the urban proletariat is becoming more important (and not merely a support for the rural struggle...
...29, 1975, Nov...
...OPIC covers $3.1 mn...
...This data was assembled from numerous sources* and must be considered provisional...
...Further, in his article "The Doorstep Challenge," Theberge states: "There are very few unchanging principles governing the relations between nations...
...Top FSLN leadership, such as Carlos Fonseca Amador, has survived repeated jailing and exile to contribute to this continuity...
...Aside from his millions of dollars in U.S...
...107 ff...
...Mitsui Co...
...2 3 For future guerrilla insurgents throughout Latin America, too, it was an important precedent and source of military experience...
...HAR, Nov...
...High army and civilian sources say he actually came to Guatemala...
...Anderson columns, WP, Aug...
...While rigidly censoring dissident newspapers and radio stations, the government has been able to do nothing about the wide circulation of clandestine leaflets by the FSLN and other organizations...
...Beacon Mfg...
...For a time, in the early 1970s, it appeared that Guatemalan President Arana was pushing to expand CONDECA into a Central American "political community...
...itself...
...Even the best public relations efforts of the U.S...
...interests and security obejctives...
...Edition) #2, p. 107...
...Hotelera de Nicaragua SA: JV with Somoza family and Adela (which holds $369,000 equity inv...
...Journal of Commerce, Oct...
...and Macaulay, op...
...This does not even count World Bank or Inter-American Development Bank funds, which come mainly from the U.S...
...Probably the most significant of Somoza's known direct investments in Central America are his land holdings in Guanacaste, the Costa Rican province bordering on Nicaragua: his cattle ranches there (also valuable as possible tourist sites) are estimated to be worth $10 to $12 million.* In San Josd (and in Guatemala City) the Somoza family has investments in a number of buildings (including big hotels, embassies, etc...
...But between the lines, nearly everyone in Nicaragua reads a more strategic U.S...
...2 2 Thus ended the first phase of Nicaragua's national liberation struggle...
...airline: LANICA shipping line: MAMENIC shipping service: Mari'tima Mundial port facilities: Puerto Somoza tourism: Hoteles de Nicaragua S.A...
...Donald Grant, "Guatemala and U.S...
...equity acquired in '69...
...Congressional Record, March 5, 1970...
...objective remains to isolate the Nicaraguan Communist Party, currently in a coalition with a broad front of opposition parties...
...from CABEI, & $350,000 from local banks...
...Both because the Somozas could not last long without the massive U.S...
...replacing the Somoza dictatorship with a nationalist and progressive bourgeois democracy is a real possibility...
...Simultaneously, under protection of state regulations, he did a flourishing business in contraband imports (tools, manufactured goods, jewels) and in "dirty" industries such as alcohol, gambling, and prostitution...
...Spruille Braden, Diplomats and Demagogues (New Rochelle: Arlington Hse., 1971), p. 411...
...OIL EXPLORATION Some 30 U.S...
...as a point of stability, favored their economic and political expansion...
...1893 marked the end of Conservative rule and the beginning of the "Liberal Reform" of Jos6 Santos Zelaya (1893-1909...
...To summarize this accumulation process: 3 1 *Somoza began by profiting from certain World War II industries, especially those which supplied raw materials to the U.S...
...gov't...
...By this time, moreover, Somoza's power extended to his two sons, Luis and Anastasio Jr...
...Following Sandino's death and the massacre, a few of his chiefs remained in the mountains...
...Excelsior, Aug...
...had been interested in Nicaragua as a canal site...
...4 mn...
...Politically, then, the PSN cannot be considered to lead UDEL, but rather to have submerged the working class in a bourgeois-led coalition*-a course of action which raises serious questions about the PSN as an alternative for the Nicaraguan revolution...
...efforts to impose a solution, the conflict proved impossible to contain...
...80 In any case, the U.S...
...Total foreign investment today lies in the range of $130-170 million, with U.S...
...In the House, Rep...
...In this section, we shall sketch the development, extent, and limits of the Somozas' political-economic empire in Central America in relation to U.S...
...Paul) Industrias Kativo de Nicaragua SA: mfrs...
...1948-55, passim.: Charles Ameringer, The Democratic Left in Exile (Coral Gables: Univ...
...The country's creditors fell into four major categories of lending institutions, with the largest being U.S...
...MINING ASARCO (N.Y...
...and by the experience of the AID director in Nicaragua, Robert Culbertson, in Peru, Vietnam, and Guatemala - all countries with guerrilla problems in which he helped establish projects similar to INVIERNO.* Military Aid: If INVIERNO is disguised counterinsurgency aid, Nicaragua also receives its share of the overt variety...
...OPIC covers $510,000 inv...
...Somoza paid $50 in taxes on his half a billion dollar fortune in 1974...
...April-August) militant worker and student protests...
...Unless otherwise stated, the local company is based in Managua...
...Libertad (Costa Rican Communist Party newspaper), Jan...
...net earnings of $3.2 mn...
...1. Based on personal visit to Managua, October 1975...
...The following analysis of the FSLN's evolution is based largely on the FSLN's own analyses and evaluations, as laid out in the following articles: Fonseca, "Zero Hour...
...150 employees...
...In between crackdowns, the Somozas have permitted the bourgeois opposition to operate publicly (and often have made deals with one or another sector) - the better to identify them for the next crackdown, to prevent them from resorting to effective resistance, and to keep them divided...
...1974: interviews...
...More important, however, this question requires a reassessment of the strategies employed over the years by the anti-Somoza forces...
...In addition, members of the family hold the following major positions: -his wife Hope is President of the National Board of Social Assistance and Welfare, which oversees all the hospitals -his son Anastasio III was in charge of emergency aid after the earthquake -his half-brother Jos6 is Inspector General of the Army -his brother-in-law Guillermo Sevilla Sacasa (married to his sister Lillian) has been Ambassador to Washington for 32 years -his cousin Luis Pallais is editor of the Somoza newspaper Novedades, and a Congressman Tacho Somoza12 d) As President, Tachito has overseen the selective application of tax and fiscal regulations, so that Somoza enterprises pay almost no taxes or export duties...
...in supporting and using the Somozas at every step along the way (Section V...
...In Nicaragua this generated a widespread call for abrogation of the Bryan Chamorro Treaty as unconstitutional and a violation of sovereignty...
...sources say $150 million), owning at least 10 percent of the country's arable land and numerous enterprises...
...Some sources maintain that Somoza also sent troops and munitions.46 -Somoza has consistently meddled in Guatemalan politics in recent years...
...4 In the mid-19th century, the U.S...
...But, he continued, Nicaragua remains a very favorable climate for U.S...
...the role of the U.S...
...two branches...
...Idem.: UDEL Program...
...investments...
...The main beneficiary of this "reform" was the rising coffee bourgeoisie, which also attempted to establish its political hegemony...
...NY Herald Tribune, June 3, 1962...
...Luxembourg) Industrias Quimicas SA (INQUISA): JV with INFONAC & private Nic...
...taxpayers, who are providing the bulk of this aid...
...Marines fighting in China in 1928 encountered the "Sandino Division" of the Chinese Anti-imperialist Army.16 A number of Central Americans (Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans) actually joined the Sandinista forces, and some became top commanders...
...262-64...
...Although not complete, this list does indicate the diversity of Somoza holdings...
...Once reinstalled in 1947, Somoza made a pact with a sector of the Conservative opposition which assured his own "election" as President in 1951...
...2.5 mn...
...Development...
...interviews...
...22, 1960, p. 20;MH, June 3, 1975...
...Westport, CT) Insecticidas Stauffer SA: 38%-owned...
...According to some U.S...
...Also involved, as head of the government welfare agency, was Tachito's wife, Hope...
...28, 1968;AdvertisingAge, Mar...
...Dominant elements in UDEL are the petty bourgeoisie and an incipient national bourgeoisie - that is, the sectors of the bourgeoisie that are less compromised with the Somozas, more developmental and nationalistic - although some top leaders are from the comprador bourgeoisie and enjoy close ties with foreign interests...
...While Somoza was able to boast in early 1968 that "Nicaragua owes less than any of the other four countries in Central America: only $49 million," 6 6 the total has mushroomed to cover ten times that amount in seven years, Much Ado About .. Nicaragua's most talked-about foreign investor has been billionaire Howard Hughes...
...Marines in the town square of Ocotal, Nicaragua, in 1928...
...5 mn...
...25 and 28, 1973...
...Virgilio Godoy, "La Estructura del Poder en Nicaragua y la Integraci6n Econ6mica Centroamericana" (mimeo., 1973), pp...
...My son was twenty-nine years old, served three years of his third enlistment, survived honorable service through the World War against Germany, only to be officially murdered in a disgraceful war against this little nation...
...177 room first class Hotel Sheraton Managua...
...One obvious answer is that it has been kept in power by consistent U.S...
...Created by the U.S...
...the war itself has generated the participation of peasants and workers.* Given the fundamentally agrarian nature of the struggle, the FSLN has regarded agrarian workers and peasants as the key sectors...
...Torres, R., "Sintesis...," pp...
...Interview...
...BANIC CNI CABEI Eximbank IFC INFONAC JV OPIC Banco Nicaraguense Corporacion Nicaraguense de Inversiones Central American Bank for Economic Integration U.S...
...some U.S...
...By 1975, Somoza businesses in Nicaragua alone were estimated at $400-$500 million, and constituted a full-blown economic-financial group...
...Cabezas began producing naval stores (resin, turpentine, pine oil) in '69...
...exports to CACM and ships plywood cores to U.S...
...U.S...
...Many of those being held are union leaders, whose only "crime" is labor organizing...
...This came out in articles in La Prensa throughout 1975...
...1974, in Alianzas Politicas...
...Address all correspondence to Box 57, Cathedral Station, New York, NY 10025, or Box 226, Berkeley, CA 94701...
...Fonseca, "Zero Hour," p. 33: Mario Monteforte Toledo, Centroambrica (Mexico: UNAM, 1972), Vol...
...sales...
...German Ornes, "Ugly American Ambassadors," Colorado Quarterly, Fall 1960, pp...
...No doubt, any progressive force in the area was indirectly a threat to Somoza...
...cannot afford to lose Nicaragua because this could mean losing all Central America...
...Congress, helping them get U.S...
...many soldiers are reportedly unwilling to go to the mountains to fight, and some are even said to have deserted over the Honduran border...
...1960...
...Canada...
...casualties could not be hidden, some established newspapers, including the New York Times, added their voices...
...Boston) Grasas y Aceites SA: plant in Chinandega mfrs...
...it was in their 1973-75 campaign, after signing a cease-fire with the U.S., that they achieved the final victory denied to Nicaragua in 1933...
...In fact, Somoza has kept Nicaragua out of the Union of Banana Exporting Countries (UPEB) and personally informed the president of Standard Fruit about the March 1974 internal UPEB deliberations at which he was an observer...
...Relying on legalistic pressures, taking few initiatives (other than to constitute itself), having no armed wing to pit against the armed force of the dictatorship, UDEL limits itself to criticizing the government in the press* and in declarations and occasional demonstrations...
...plant is largest corrugated box mfr...
...111...
...reported presence of Nicaraguan GN troops (as well as barracks facilities for them and an air strip for the Nicaraguan Air Force) on the Somoza properties - reports denied by the Oduber government...
...But the nature of the struggle in Nicaragua - specifically the likelihood that the U.S...
...Structurally, Somoza rule by terror has meant that for 40 years, every challenge to Somoza has been followed by a severe crackdown, usually involving the arrest and jailing of opposition leaders or their exile, censorship of all news media, extensive use of torture and secret police methods, state of siege and suspension of all civil liberties for the entire population...
...Suppose that son had fallen, as my son has, a victim of the greed of Wall Street, would you feel that the financial gain was worth the cost...
...In Nicaragua the guerrillas were cheered at the airport, as their plane took off for Cuba...
...Cia...
...First, Somoza's excessive greed (as demonstrated most clearly in earthquake profiteering) and centralization of power alienated many of his traditional supporters in the bourgeoisie and its allies...
...To maintain his own control over the GN, he has crippled it as an effective counterinsurgency force...
...technical agreement with IMUSA...
...Disease eliminated the one major banana operation (Standard Fruit) on the Atlantic coast in the early 1930's, but even this was small compared to those in Guatemala and Honduras.20 JameR Brown's signature as "Presidente"of the Banco Nacional appeared on Nicaragua's paper currency after New York bankers were given control of the bank in return for a $1.5 million loan in 1911...
...Conservative Party splits over issue of participation in government...
...Hughes, who was there at the time, departed immediately, not even bothering to leave a check for earthquake relief...
...Hotels (divn...
...Heinl, op...
...As Ambassador to Nicaragua (1968-69), counterinsurgent Col...
...it also initiated public works to facilitate coffee exports...
...could play indirectly the interventionist role it could no longer play directly...
...acquired in 1937...
...113...
...Subsequently a "Legation Guard" of 120 Marines remained in Nicaragua until 1925...
...from' building a disciplined organization based in and able to mobilize the North American working class, designed to make the revolution in the United States...
...Fonseca, "Zero Hour," p. 31...
...Based on the above analysis of the nature of the Somoza dictatorship, why have past strategies failed to definitively challenge it, and what strategy is adequate for doing so...
...support...
...1964, June 1964...
...Adelante UDEL, #16, Sept...
...plant near Pto...
...A good example is the recently granted $14 million loan to the Institute of Peasant Welfare, INVIERNO...
...Fonseca, op...
...OTHER American Cyanamid (Wayne, NJ): $1.5 mn...
...divn...
...21, 1975...
...We shall consider two opposing conceptions: The first strategy (UDEL/PSN), focusing on the dictatorial nature of the Somoza regime, aims to overthrow Somoza as an end in itself, to carry out a bourgeois democratic "revolution...
...After numerous debates, the Senate almost passed in 1929, and did pass in 1932, an amendment cutting off funds for the Marine intervention in Nicaragua...
...13, 1968...
...their presence was crucial in spurring us to write this Report...
...JV with local interests including INFONAC...
...Ibid., p. 108: Richard Millett, "Anastasio Somoza Garcia: Nicaragua's Different Dictator" (mimeo., 1975), p. 5. 22...
...cit., pp...
...Adela has $729,000 equity inv...
...Special Forces or Rangers, accompanying GN combat missions against the * Following a long career with the Ford Foundation, Culbertson served as AID director in Peru in the early 1960's, where he helped develop programs combining army "civic action" with "social development...
...Somoza, in turn, built up his armed forces through Lend Lease programs, and in general used U.S...
...Somoza's joint ventures include the METASA investment with U.S...
...5 0 Even in Central America, and even among generals, progressive nationalism is becoming the order of the day...
...62-3...
...sales...
...Stauffer Chemical Co...
...Central American Fixer d( REGIONAL COUNTERINSURGENT The same dynamics which enabled the Somozas to consolidate their political and economic power in Nicaragua impelled the extension of that power to the entire Central American region...
...In the words of PSN leader Luis Sinchez, "We believe that what is needed in Nicaragua is not a socialist revolution but a profoundly democratic revolution...
...The following summary is based largely on Wheelock, op...
...Following in his father's footsteps, Tachito has been making frequent visits to the U.S...
...Galloway and Johnson, op...
...Guatemala & CentralAmerica Report # 7, July 1975, p. 1. 64...
...On the one hand, the policing activities were modernized from direct military intervention to counterinsurgency methods more appropriate to the rising guerrilla threat...
...And the U.S...
...Since the 1950s the Somozas have retained the services of several formally registered agents...
...These factors are of concern not only to Nicaraguans, but also to U.S...
...cit., pp...
...As Tachito, delighted to have a V.I.P...
...For the above, see Jarquin, op...
...pressure against the scheme...
...As one U.S...
...For example, part of the deal for First National City Bank's entry into Nicaragua involved large FNCB loans to Somoza's cement company...
...In 1974 Somoza's cement monopoly obtained permission to import cement duty-free...
...In this context, the FSLN staged its unprecedented action of December 1974...
...When I refused, I began to have trouble...
...2 mn...
...4, 1975 in Mexico: memorandum presented by P.J...
...Rosario Resources (N.Y...
...laminated plastic sheets...
...eIn the 1970s the Somozas (with new allies, notably Cuban exile businessmen) turned their investments toward less traditional sectors such as casinos, drugs, and blood traffic.* They also took advantage of the December 1972 earthquake to extend land holdings in Managua and to launch other lucrative ventures made possible by the disaster...
...While beginning to comprehend the crisis in the Somoza regime, and to hedge its bets, Washington has found no stable alternative...
...N.Y., subsid...
...After Tachito took over in 1967 through the early 1970's, Washington's primary concern was to unite Somoza and the moderate electoral (Conservative) opposition against the guerrilla threat...
...2) FSIN The evolution of the FSLN since 1958 provides the context for understanding the second strategy.'6 The FSLN grew * The only suggestions to the contrary have come from U.S...
...Most Nicaraguans regard the project as a form of pacification, equivalent to the "strategic hamlet" program in Vietnam...
...by his own admission, he obtained state bank11 credits available to no private citizen...
...supplies.13 -The Sandinistas enjoyed a constant flow of information about U.S...
...attempted invasion from Costa Rica, led by Arguello, involving participation by Caribbean Legion and assistance from Costa Rican President Figueres, fails dute to internal division, lack of organization...
...In November 1975, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee notified the White House that "it cannot forsee any circumstances" under which it would confirm Shelton's appointment...
...military authorities - ventured into the mountains to interview Sandino for The Nation...
...mfrs...
...Ruby Hart Phillips, "Since the Earthquake,"NationalReview, Nov...
...Oriented toward small farmers, rural workers, and the rural unemployed, INVIERNO is intended to be the "superministry," the umbrella under which all programs for these "target populations" (as AID calls them) will be coordinated...
...107 This initial stage ended with the founding of the FSLN in 1962 as the first unified political-military organization of the revolutionary struggle...
...policy toward Somoza...
...All of the Liberal army leaders agreed to lay down their arms on these terms except for one: Augusto Cesar Sandino...
...adhesives...
...Hundreds of peasants are being held and tortured in military camps in various parts of the country...
...Carleton Beals, Banana Gold (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1932), pp...
...to avoid student-faculty protests at commencement, the degree was given at a private dinner...
...Nicaragua was the latest of the Central American countries to go through the "Liberal Reform," which created more favorable conditions for investment...
...Macaulay, op...
...The events of January 1967 left no doubt that spontaneous anti-Somoza demonstrations, led by Conservative opposition politicians to pressure for an "honest election," could not succeed even in that limited aim, much less in ending the dictatorship...
...Embassy became very active in arranging the periodic pacts (1967, 1971) between the Conservative Party and Somoza, and in splitting off the Conservatives from the Left opposition...
...You have lost a son and know the sorrow, and we as a nation mourned with you in your hour of grief...
...drugs...
...International human rights observers from the United Nations and the Red Cross have been systematically denied permission to inspect the prisons or visit the prisoners...
...see also L. F. Stone's Weekly, June 21, 1965...
...Many of Latin America's leading political figures and intellectuals endorsed Sandino...
...For 30 years following the Walker episode, Nicaragua remained under the thumb of stable but non-developmental Conservative regimes, which maintained the essentially colonial structures...
...interviews...
...3 9 A MAJOR SOMOZA HOLDINGS *NOTE: This list includes only major enterprises in which Tachito Somoza or the family's Succesi6n Somoza is a principal stockholder or owner...
...Polymer United de Nicaragua: processes raw materials for plastics industry...
...2.1 mn...
...Inforpress...
...would have to intervene on a constant and daily basis to prop up the Somoza regime and to preserve other U.S...
...Corporacion Hotelera de Turismo SA: in Sept...
...1973 and 1974 brought militant strikes by workers in such sectors as textiles, construction, metal, banana plantations, hospitals, and other public services.94 Thus, spontaneous class struggle is clearly on the rise...
...These economic and political factors prevented the consolidation of a strong and unified national bourgeoisie...
...They hold primarily blue-collar jobs - the men in factories or as janitors, the women as maids or as seamstresses in big textile factories...
...policy...
...Somoza patronage...
...ElPensamiento Vivo de Sandino (San Jos6: IDUCA, 1974): Gregorio Selser, Sandino, General de Hombres Libres (San Jos6: IDUCA, 1974...
...A second and ongoing objective of U.S...
...Somoza returned the sentiments: in a November 1973 visit to San Francisco, at the height of the Watergate scandal, he declared himself to be "a friend and admirer of Nixon...
...of British-American Tobacco Co., London) Tabacalera Nicaraguense SA: JV including Somoza interests...
...Somoza & pipes it 35 miles to Managua...
...exclusive rights to build a canal and a naval base on the Gulf of Fonseca...
...Sandino himself, although from a family of landowners, acquired direct experience with U.S...
...Concretely, the U.S...
...1967...
...Since the work is seasonal, she must also maintain a tiny plot of land - or migrate to a nearby city to find work, most likely as a maid...
...gold, wood, rubber...
...The U.S...
...objective in Nicaragua is to prevent revolution and stifle class struggle in Central America...
...114-21: Macaulay, op...
...est'd...
...pressure on Conservative Party to support Somoza and close ranks against guerrilla "threat" of FSLN leads to pact between government and opposition...
...How do the Somozas maintain and expand their empire (see list) in the 1970s...
...The crucial question, whether the PSN's alliance with certain sectors of the bourgeoisie in UDEL is tactical or strategic, must be answered in the light of the following considerations: a) in the absence of any publicly stated medium- or long-range revolutionary strategy, the PSN appears not to maintain a political line independent of UDEL's and to accept UDEL's strategy of peaceful change...
...cit., pp...
...See Beals, "With Sandino in Nicaragua," series in The Nation, Feb...
...supremacy in Central America against the leftist Mexican government which was supporting the Liberals...
...But on the other hand, these intra-bourgeois conflicts are minor in comparison to the bonds that link the Somozas to the other established groups, BANIC and BANAMERICA...
...OPIC covers $395,000 inv...
...to the Dominican Republic in 1972 and to Venezuela in 1973) Somoza was met by public protests...
...Tr(iL, - 1...
...throughout 1972, moreover, the leaders of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua met several times to "achieve the total pacification of Central America...
...106...
...but in this case, the decision to overthrow Arbenz was made in Washington, and Somoza became an accessory...
...its railroad track was torn up, its trestles burned, and its locomotives damaged...
...own 45% & INFONAC & Adela ($441,000 equity & $264,000 debt) & other Nic...
...Which way it goes would depend on such other factors as: the conditions under which UDEL came to power (especially the role of the U.S...
...The only sectors currently out of bounds for foreign capital are those where Somoza is clearly dominant...
...In order to make this "solution" stick in subsequent years, therefore, the U.S...
...FSLN Communiqu6 of Dec...
...intervention, he served as Minister of War, then Foreign Minister...
...At the crucial moments (such as the aftermath of the January 1955 skirmish) some of the dominant voices in Washington's "peacekeeping" efforts - e.g...
...109...
...upon leaving office in 1963, he pledged to dedicate himself to the overthrow of Castro...
...3 5 f) Somoza has also managed relations with U.S...
...Boston, subsid...
...Interore) (subsid...
...in October 1964, the Nicaraguan legislature repudiated the Treaty.60 After 1964, new U.S...
...Economic Commission for Latin America, and Central American Permanent Secretariat for Economic Integration, among other sources...
...sources, $9-$10 million of U.S...
...HAR, Sept...
...structural steel fabricator (metal structures, tubes, galvanized roofing...
...interviews: Gabriel Aguilera, La Integraci6n Militar en Centroamerica (Guatemala: INCFP, 1975), pp...
...Although a similar rivalry existed throughout Central America during the 19th century, it was particularly acute in Nicaragua...
...December) Somoza inaugurated, opposition forms UDEL coalition headed by La Prensa editor, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro...
...Theberge was reportedly brought into the Center by his friend Ray Cline, former Deputy Director of Intelligence and Research at the State Department, and a veteran CIA officer, who once expressed his appreciation of academics: "The real invention of modern intelligence organization is the awareness that it takes scholarship...
...Empaques Multiwall Ultrafort SA: JV...
...troops) and to increase his personal fortune...
...mixes insecticides...
...but they too were politically unable to continue the struggle, and were gradually eliminated...
...another group organizing in Cuba never reaches Nicaragua 1960 Youth wing gains control of Conservative Party, stages uprising which fails...
...Most notable is the ferry in the Gulf of Fonseca between Nicaragua and El Salvador, run by Somoza's MAMENIC Lines, which since the 1969 Honduras-El * These and other properties, which make Somoza one of the largest landowners in Costa Rica, have involved Somoza in various scandals there: regarding his plans to open new roads to his properties...
...Strom Thurmond (R-SC...
...role is still central: the chief of the U.S...
...the attitude of the PSN (which, unless excluded at U.S...
...and of the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie, would negotiate in good faith...
...Specifically, this involves a campaign to cut off the flow of U.S...
...After telling a few funny stories, he laid the cards on the table and said I must kick in if I wanted to do business here...
...approx...
...2.4 mn...
...3.4 mn...
...In addition to assisting Washington's Central American and Caribbean interventions, the Somozas have gone beyond the call of duty in offering to send troops to fight Communism in Korea in 1950 and in Vietnam in 1967...
...9, 1975, Aug...
...counterinsurgents many of the military tactics they would need in World War II and in * The only opposition to Sandino's signing the truce came from the Communist International, which in 1933 went so far as to accuse him of a "betrayal...
...OUR "FIRST VIETNAM" No less important as background for Sandino's antiimperialist war against the U.S...
...A few months thereafter, Shelton was replaced - although not until after Somoza had lobbied to keep him in Nicaragua...
...of UAL Inc., N.Y...
...560 workers in '69...
...Fonseca, "Zero Hour in Nicaragua," Tricontinental (Cuba) #14, Sept.-Oct...
...102-3...
...dictatorship for the past 40 years - censorship to stop the flow of information about strike and guerrilla activities, recurrent state of siege, jailing of opposition and strike leaders, GN occupation of universities, paramilitary Death Squad assassinations, and so on...
...Subsequently he expanded into industry (cement, textiles, milk) and organized the big monopoly enterprises - the shipping line MAMENIC, the airline LANICA, Port Somoza on the Pacific...
...P. J. Chamorro speech to UDEL Youth, August 1975 (mimeo...
...Theberge: New Proconsul Also during the 1970's, Theberge published a number of articles and books, including Russia in the Caribbean and The Soviet Presence in Latin America, the latter published in 1974 by the right-wing National Strategy Information Center...
...A high point of the Congress was.its declaration of solidarity with the Pinochet regime in Chile...
...Somoza family & govt...
...and Europe, and even got tax incentives for the firm, Plasmaf~resis (run by Cuban exiles...
...Second, in early 1909, Zelaya defied U.S...
...99ff...
...While never becoming submerged in the UDEL coalition (as the PSN has), the FSLN recognizes that UDEL "can play a positive role, although we believe it cannot obtain victory with these legal efforts...
...1975...
...In Sandino's Footsteps," Tricontinental #3, Nov.-Dec...
...imperialism...
...Its strategy was that of guerrilla warfare.* The first test of the new organization came with the * Guerrilla warfare is a method of armed struggle using small armed groups in irregular, unconventional warfare based in the countryside...
...SOMOZAPOWER Somoza's installation ended seven years of revolutionary struggle and initiated nearly half a century of counterrevolution...
...Ambassador Theberge, Novedades, Sept...
...In 1965-66, Theberge held a high post in the State Department Latin American division, also advising USIS and the Treasury secretary...
...After winning the 1946 election, Somoza's own candidate, Leonardo Arguello unexpectedly indicated a desire to act independently and to replace Somoza as head of the GN...
...cotton blankets...
...the Bank was using emergency AID funds to buy this land.7 * A contract to build a prefabricated children's home was awarded to a firm whose main stockholder was Alfonso Lovo, a member of the ruling Triumvirate that approved the contract - even though other firms had submitted much lower bids...
...After the initial plan was dropped by the U.S., Somoza later became an intermediary for passing U.S...
...8, 1975, and other Central American newspaper clips...
...The foreign parent company is listed first, followed by its local subsidiary and a description of its operations...
...112...
...FER, "FSLN: Lucha Hist6rica del Pueblo Nicaraguense" (mimeo...
...Pentagon sponsorship.* * When formally created in 1964, CONDECA was designed not only to coordinate and standardize anti-subversion plans at the top levels and prevent the spread of revolutionary activity, but also to eliminate problems and inefficiencies stemming from rivalries among the armed forces of the Central American countries...
...For example, in the face of vehement criticism of the cozy relationship between Somoza and U.S...
...TOURISM & TRANSPORT Hughes Tool Co...
...I h Celaa Exle .,oanetio17 V. Washington's Baby Although forced to withdraw its troops without defeating Sandino in the national liberation struggle of the 1930's, ultimately the U.S...
...signed contract in '70 with INFONAC for revival of banana planting in Chinandega & Leon areas...
...Vernon Megee, "The Genesis of Air Support in Guerrilla Operations," U.S...
...CABEI loan of $1 mn...
...arms sales credits and another $.5 to $1 million a year in training programs...
...Even their presence did not prevent at least ten armed uprisings between 1913 and 1924, and several important strikes against U.S...
...By maintaining control over the GN through its chief, the U.S...
...Inforpress #49 p. 3A, #54 p. 4A...
...in Central America...
...NYT advertisement supplement on Nicaragua, April 14, 1968, p. 15...
...support for the Somozas, their overthrow would be an historic defeat for the U.S...
...E. 2.....!I...
...For example, in the 1974 talks about a coffee retention scheme to force coffee prices up, to be financed by Venezuela, Somoza refused to participate - some say because of U.S...
...OPIC covers $784,000 investment...
...private investment, particularly in recent years, has been U.S...
...This was largely due to international conditions at the time (specifically, the limited development of the world anti-imperialist struggle) and to the insufficient development of the workerpeasant alliance within Nicaragua.24 But it was also the result of the limitations in the ideological-political conception of Sandino and his followers, which led them to identify the U.S...
...cit., p. 198...
...produces aluminum pots & pans, stainless flatware & plastic household goods and supplies containers to dairy, cosmetic, chemical & pharmaceutical industries...
...cit., p. 23...
...VI and charts, pp...
...Finally, it involves a network of solidarity committees - such as already exist in Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Mexico - and in the U.S., in Washington, San Francisco, and Los Angeles...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, NY.5 "nationalism" was his unpredictability...
...INVASIONS AND ELECTIONS From the time of Somoza's consolidation of political and economic power in the mid-,1940's until the early 1960's, the anti-Somoza movement had a dual thrust - on the one hand, launching numerous uprisings and invasions (primarily from outside Nicaragua) designed to oust Somoza...
...definition of the limits of tolerable Soviet activity in the area...
...Moreover, even while being itself a poly-class organization, an armed front of all social classes," 2 the FSLN recognizes that its task is to root itself increasingly in a worker-peasant core...
...Interview...
...Washington's basic support for Somoza continued throughout the 1950's, 1960's and into the 1970's...
...mining and lumber companies have for years paid Somoza a "fee" in order to operate without problems and to avoid taxes...
...companies...
...Ambassador," was Anastasio Somoza Garcia...
...With some workers at the mine, he6 organized his own forces and joined the struggle...
...Jack Anderson column, Washington Post (WP), Aug...
...At that point, Hughes accepted Somoza's invitation to come to Nicaragua - where he would never be bothered by restrictive legislation...
...If for no other reason, the U.S...
...For example, a primary U.S...
...and Somoza have operated through a series of internal institutions which are also important to understand...
...regulation of foreign investment in the national interest, diplomatic independence from the U S., etc...
...69-70...
...leaflets...
...e.g., U.S...
...banker put it in a recent interview: "Somoza is active in a number of industries, and of course it is difficult to compete in areas where he has interests...
...Interviews...
...These concerns are particularly relevant at this time because the Somoza dictatorship is in profound crisis...
...Interviews...
...plant established '67 produces chlorinated toxophene insecticides to control cotton insects...
...Neptune Mining Co.: (see above) Rosario Mining of Nicaragua: acquired La Luz Mines for 78,030 shares of Rosario Resources stock in 1973...
...Galloway and Johnson, op...
...Swannanoa, NC, subsid...
...t Despite its small amount, U.S...
...1964...
...Winthrop Laboratories (N.Y., divn...
...4 7 -On a less dramatic level, Somoza has constantly maneuvered through a combination of carrot and stick tactics to increase his influence in Central America - by using his ties of compadrazgo with Honduran President L6pez,* by pressuring other presidents into supporting his proposals, by financing presidential campaigns of favored candidates where elections still take place (e.g., Oduber's in Costa Rica), and so on...
...Posada del Sol SA: JV with Guatemalan and Nic...
...Washington Monthly, June, 1969...
...Lineas Aereas de Nicaragua (LANICA): acquired 25% ownership in exchange for two planes in '72...
...Phila., subsid...
...More clearly undertaken on behalf of the U.S...
...OAS mediation efforts failed to resolve the problem...
...testimony before Congressional Committees including: House Internal Security Committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, Senate Appropriations Committee...
...of timber...
...September) Somoza fraudulently "elected," 20-1, more than 50% voter abstention...
...When the rumblings in Nicaragua found their echo in a growing wave of criticism in the U.S...
...2 February 1976 Published monthly, except May-June and July-August when it is published bi-monthly, at 160 Claremont Ave., New York, NY 10027...
...continuation of labor and student unrest, peasant land struggles Main sources: interviews, Hispanic American Report...
...In addition to the official Guardia Nacional, the government has periodically relied on the services of paramilitary death squads similar to the MANO Blanca in Guatemala...
...of Sterling Drug Co., N.Y...
...Most important, he served for years at a right-wing think-tank, and has close ties with the Rockefellers...
...cit.: see also Macaulay, op...
...Quimica de la Costa Atlantica SA: $4 mn...
...3 7 Moreover, the other groups profit from Somoza's policies and from his tight relationship with U.S...
...In countryside and city alike, Nicaragua's hundreds of known political prisoners (not counting those who have "disappeared") rot in jail in subhuman conditions, without even the most elementary rights...
...Theberge confirmation hearings before Senate Foreign Relations Committee (not yet published), July 8, 1975...
...1.5 mn...
...intervention in Nicaragua in the face of a serious "threat" to the region...
...8. Wheelock, op...
...Tachito, the real power behind Schick begins campaigning for 1967 election...
...Of more concern to financial analysts, however, are the hard terms on which many of these credits were negotiated...
...life and property was more a result than a cause of U.S...
...Sandinist Front: People's War in Central America," Tricontinental #18, May-June 1970...
...by other programs such as I.D...
...OPIC covers $.8 mn...
...Meanwhile, the bulk of the city's inhabitants live in temporary shacks or tents, or have had to leave Managua altogether...
...L. Charles Foresti) (Cambridge: Univ...
...troops to preserve order, but also by trying to persuade the opposition to accept Somoza's assumption of absolute power...
...At a time of challenges from relatively progressive and nationalist forces within Central America (e.g...
...drugs...
...6, 1975...
...Noranda Mines Ltd...
...Because anti-Somoza exiles since the 1940s have operated from other Central American countries, the Somozas early on developed a regional consciousness about counterinsurgency...
...Northfield, Ill...
...3) basic workers' rights (e.g...
...265 employees...
...some of the early large strikes were organized by the workers of U.S.-owned banana and lumber companies...
...HAR, Feb...
...Douglass Cater and Walter Pincus, "The Foreign Legion of U.S...
...Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co...
...Philadelphia National Bank (Phila...
...In 1973, 3000 Indians in the community of Subtiava declared themselves ready "to give our blood" to defend land and "recover what belongs to us...
...Brown was senior partner of Brown Bros...
...4.6 mn...
...On the other hand, the region is of first order strategic and political importance to the U.S., and Soviet conduct is strongly conditioned by the U.S...
...fully integrated textile plant (cotton & synthetic) inaugurated '70...
...In the end, however, only one project materialized: Hughes acquired 25% of the Somoza-owned LANICA airline, in exchange for two Corvair jet planes - a deal which required special approval from the Civil Aeronautics Board...
...he controlled prices on others...
...Already in 1952, Somoza was making plans with top officials of the Truman Administration to oust Arbenz...
...according to one study, the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing lobby organization, "gave financial and administrative birth to the Georgetown Center...
...imperialism but also of the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie, which is essentially a comprador bourgeoisie, compromised with and dependent on U.S...
...101...
...It means complementing the FSLN's strong urban base among students and deepening the roots it has begun to develop among other constituencies such as: women (although the 1969 FSLN program included several points on women, and the organization has significant participation by women''S...
...A pro-Somoza article in William Buckley's National Review depicted the anti-Somoza attacks as playing into the hands of the Communists.86 Another source of contacts and friends for Tachito is his alma mater, West Point...
...exclusive rights of transit and even permitted the U.S...
...troops were sent from the Panama Canal Zone...
...principal mines are El Limon and La India gold mines in Leon dept...
...8 mn...
...Quaker Oats (Chicago): "Avena 3 Minutos" plant opened in '63 produces rolled oats...
...In Nicaragua the crisis has become increasingly acute since the December 1972 earthquake in Managua, which killed 10,000, and left 20,000 injured and 250,000 homeless...
...Nicaragua's minimum wage laws are never enforced in the countryside...
...1, 1975: La Prensa, Sept...
...With this move, the Somoza family completed its expansion into a full-fledged economic-financial group, as powerful as older groups clustered around the established banking institutions...
...capital has much more at stake in Nicaragua through private bank loans...
...imperialism, he was not initiating, but continuing the class struggle...
...Perhaps most important, having evolved from a fairly low level of political experience in the early 1960's, the Frente has been able to learn from its experiences and to begin correcting past errors...
...IX #1, 1955, pp...
...to take the place of the Marines, but to serve the same functions, the GN had a monopoly over armed force...
...Since that time, according to informed Panamanian sources, the U.S...
...with its stress on organization and education, UDEL plans to last beyond the next election...
...In 1959, for example, U.S...
...Rios Montt, subsequently maintained that Somoza paid to have him assassinated because he refused to discuss guarantees for Somoza's $30 million investments in Guatemala...
...Until recently, these charges came primarily from the FSLN...
...Interviews...
...Ibid., pp...
...Then, in the Guatemalan election of 1974 (which the Arana regime literally stole for its handpicked candidate, Gen...
...over 500 workers...
...Crucial factors in sparking the revival at that time were externally the struggle and ultimate revolutionary triumph in Cuba, and internally discontent in the countryside as a result of a new cycle of land concentrations and peasant displacements in the 1950's...
...But the little evidence available suggests that the Cuban exiles are one of the keys to the "Central American mafia" of which Somoza is an integral part...
...Even after the camps were closed, President Schick reiterated in 1966 that Nicaraguan territory could be used any time as a staging area for a new invasion...
...cit., pp...
...Wheelock, op...
...in the - both deter lr U1it...
...The 1967 Pancasan confrontation with the U.S.-trained and -advised GN again resulted in setback and strategic retreat by the FSLN...
...The main factor behind the steadily deteriorating terms of Nicaragua's external public debt has been the increased borrowing from private commercial banks which charge much higher interest rates than international "aid" institutions...
...cit., pp...
...The three main groups are also united by joint investments in certain sectors...
...On the other hand, the Somozas also found themselves forced to assume the role of regional policemen by the very logic of the "threats" directed against them (e.g., insurgent movements using other Central American countries as a base...
...48 Colombia - and, above all, in U.S...
...holding co...
...immigration laws were favorable...
...During the period Theberge was at CSIS, he appeared before several Congressional committees, including the House Internal Security Committee, as an "expert witness" on Latin America...
...Jeremiah O'Leary in Washington Star, Nov...
...the complete picture would be more like $30-$40 million...
...6, 1975;Inforpress #156, p. 5A...
...165 employees...
...certain aspects discussed elsewhere (e.g., details regarding repression) will be summarized briefly here...
...In 1926, it was the United Fruit workers who initiated the May uprising against Chamorro...
...But the U.S...
...The same "modernization" process that usurped land from small owners, through both laws and violence, also turned those peasants into agrarian workers for the new coffee plantations...
...In Roosevelt's unforgettable words, "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch...
...4 explains its line as "the organization and mobilization of the masses, the realistic strategy of broad and pluralistic democratic unity which, supported by organization and popular action, proposes important transformations in the country . . ."-which it contrasts with the FSLN's "ultra-left strategy" of "sensationalist, heroic, but sterile adventurism...
...arbitrary promotions and firings...
...K. Bruce Galloway and Robert B. Johnson, West Point: America's Power Fraternity (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1973), p. 217...
...public opinion turned anti-interventionist, particularly after it became clear that the U.S...
...hands...
...Somoza also profits from the operations of his Nicaraguan enterprises in other countries...
...Communications Satellite Corp...
...117...
...More recently the PSN has clarified its position by openly working within UDEL and criticizing the FSLN.* The PSN * Following the December 1974 FSLN action, the PSN (and other Communist Parties) criticized it as a desperate, adventurist action, which only brought down heavier repression on the Nicaraguan masses...
...diplomatic recognition...
...ground satellite station inaugurated in '73 operates TV/microwave commercial circuits...
...In September 1970, Theberge joined the staff of the right-wing Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) at Georgetown University as Director of Latin American Studies, a position he held until his appointment as Ambassador...
...The above account based on Cummins, op...
...240-41...
...The Somozas have also attempted to use the Cuban exiles, and the world anti-communist network of which they are part, to attack the Nicaraguan opposition...
...A number of the projects were being discussed, moreover, as joint investments with Tachito...
...Initially "invited" in by the Liberals to assist in their struggle against the Conservatives from 1851-55, Walker captured the Conservative capital Granada and then unilaterally declared himself President of Nicaragua...
...Despite this, and despite any ideas they might have initially had of returning to Nicaragua after making and saving money in the U.S., few actually return...
...In short, the Somoza dictatorship has precluded a bourgeois democratic revolution in Nicaragua and has crippled the bourgeois opposition...
...8 mn...
...principal mines are Bonanza gold mine (Zelaya dept...
...Wheelock, op...
...Private Bank Loans: U.S...
...As one observer summarized it, Tachito (like his e U.S...
...employed by the Somoza...
...9 2 Top Church leaders, particularly Archbishop Obando y Bravo, are clearly aligned with the political opposition...
...The Conservatives proved willing to provide such governments until 1925...
...H. B. Fuller Co...
...exports flavoring extracts & laxatives.38 ESB Inc...
...15 ff: Torres R., "Poder Nacional y Sociedad Dependiente," Estudios Sociales Centroamericanos (Costa Rica) #8, May-Aug...
...began a gradual withdrawal of Marines in 1931, and planned to withdraw the rest after a U.S.-supervised election in 1932...
...could not "win" militarily or politically...
...Some of the many mechanisms include the following: a) Tachito operates through his official positions as head of the GN, plenipotentiary representative to the CACM, head of National Telecommunications Service, President of the Agropecuarian Committee, head of the Committee on Foreign Financing, President of the National Emergency Committee and chief for earthquake reconstruction...
...Wells Fargo Bank (San Francisco) Banco de America: 18.8% ownership acquired in '66...
...the Somoza government made sure that state enterprises such as the Pacific Railroad serviced private Somoza holdings...
...The first major U.S...
...In 1963, again to meet outside (Alliance for Progress) pressures for a democratic facade, the Somozas staged an election to install their hand-picked President, Ren6 Schick...
...Loans from private financial institutions increased from 32 percent of total foreign debt outstanding in 1970 to 50 percent in 1973, and it is estimated that two thirds of the new 1974 commitments were contracted with private sources...
...The mechanisms are painfully similar to those * The government's attempt to hide GN casualties (up to 60 in mid-1975 alone) is only part of a larger campaign to deny GN demoralization, as reported in the U.S...
...and in Nicaragua...
...114...
...Thus, the Somozas turned the pivotal GN into their own personal instrument...
...Already there have been reports that fighters from other Central American countries are participating in the Frente, and that Nicaraguan counterinsurgency forces operating on the Honduran and Costa Rican borders have made "incursions" into those countries.1"35 San Francisco's Nicaraguans The San Francisco Bay Area has the largest community of Nicaraguans in the U.S...
...Wheelock, op...
...cit., pp...
...Cadmus Intl...
...Daniel Flood [D-Pa.], began agitating actively for a Nicaragua Canal...
...645 ff...
...Why specifically did Washington come to see Zelaya as a threat and secure his ouster...
...Monsanto Chemical Co...
...task of indirectly policing the region...
...in 1962, Pan Am forced to pay $161,000 for damages suffered) 1950 Somoza pact with Conservative opposition, leaving him free to be reelected for 1951-57 period 1954 (April) invasion from Costa Rica to assassinate Somoza, implicating Conservative Party leaders, again involving Caribbean Legion participation and Figueres support...
...Tachito's cousin Noel * Somoza has denied involvement in drug traffic - even after an international drug dealer on trial in Florida in June 1974 testified to having extensive contacts with him - and after a Colombian plane carrying great quantities of cocaine, LSD, and mescaline just happened to "fall" on a Somoza property in Nicaragua...
...refrigeration plant produces for CACM...
...The second wave consisted largely of Nicaraguans uprooted by the 1972 Managua earthquake...
...The ComitM publishes a monthly, Gaceta Sandinista, and holds frequent demonstrations and cultural-political events, both in the Nicaraguan community and for wider U.S...
...One of the early U.S...
...intervention2, the Liberal Party was reconstituted more or less as the civilian appendage of the GN and its director...
...P. J. Chamorro letter reprinted in Pueblo, Feb...
...19, 1975, Oct...
...The Democratic Party came out against intervention in its 1928 platform, and the Republican Party was very divided...
...Somoza's profiteering from the 1972 earthquake also left room for a bonanza for many others in the private sector, as well as for foreign companies...
...Toronto) Empresa Minera de El Setentrion SA: 61%-owned...
...policy, must come from the revolutionary FSLN.** In fact it is from the actions of the FSLN that UDEL has gained space to maneuver...
...in the virtual absence of armed actions, the FSLN could not give mass work a revolutionary thrust or take full advantage of its peasant contacts...
...Charles Anderson, "The Political Future of Nicaragua," Canadian Forum, August 1959, p. 107;NYT, April 14, 1967: interviews with informed Nicaraguans and Americans...
...Fertilizante Superior SA: majority-owned JV...
...cit., p. 654...
...backing...
...mfrs...
...and until it does, it will do nothing to get rid of its loyal friend (one of the few left in Latin America).ss Within this general framework, we must examine two more specific aspects of U.S...
...Press of Cambridge, 1954...
...and Central American newspaper clips...
...support for Somoza in the era of the Cold War and McCarthyism, and the insufficient development of the world anti-imperialist struggle in the 1940's and 1950's...
...Moreira also has extensive fishing operations in Nicaragua - if not directly with Somoza, at least with close Somoza associates...
...Embassy...
...it is ultimately directed against U.S...
...Chicago): department store opened in '65...
...We shall focus on aid since the December 1972 earthquake, for several reasons...
...353 employees...
...helps keep him in power...
...Certainly the relatively low U.S...
...and even some businessmen known to have ties with Somoza enterprises...
...founding of Communist Party (PSN) 1947 anti-fascist and "democratic" currents force Somoza to hold election...
...In 1974-75 this cooperation is being stepped up: Nicaraguan security police are generally believed to be operating directly in Costa Rica...
...1975...
...kenaf & jute bags in Diriamba...
...officials also deny reports that the former head of AID's Public Safety (police aid) program in Nicaragua, Gunther Wagner - who is now on private contract with the Somoza government -- helped organize a Death Squad there...
...withdrawn the last of the occupation force in 1925 when civil war erupted again, to challenge the results of the U.S.-supervised 1924 election...
...Pan Am has maintained service to Managua since 1929...
...achievements after installing the more totally submissive Conservative government of Adolfo Diaz in 1911 was the 1914 Bryan-Chamorro Treaty, which, for $3 million, gave the U.S...
...But Somoza's machinations are useful to the U.S...
...property (e.g., explosives and machinery in the U.S.-owned San Albino gold mine) to "save it...
...Yet ironically, it was the U.S...
...destroyed in '72 quake...
...and second, as a beginning of organic links with the peasants, enabling a larger number of peasants to become cadre and leaders in the organization...
...Laugerud), at the critical moment, when the example, the technification and closer coordination of anti-guerrilla intelligence, the creation of a civil defense corps, better control over inter-country migration, etc...