| Anastasio Somoza was son of a coffee farmer from San Marcos,
and this was
his entrance to the leading circles of the liberal party. Furthermore his
studies in the Philippines and USA gave him an international touch that helped
him convince the US Marine of his qualities. Somoza got to power in 1936. First he arranged a cup against the
elected president. Then he arranged elections which he won. He remained in
power until his was killed in 1956, although he for short periods had to
leave the presidency in other hands.
His elder son Luis Somoza Debayle tried to modernize the state and open
some room for democracy, but after his dead in 1967, his younger brother
Anastasio Somoza Debayle abollished the reforms and reinstalled his father's
dictatorship.
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| But times had changed. The Nicaraguan society would
no longer accept dictators, and in 1979 a broad political and
military alliance fought down the National Guard and forced the Somoza
family to flee. The Somoza regime was characterized by relative stability and solid
economic growth. However most of the growth happened in the Somoza-familiy's
own companies which were strongly supported by the public sector.
Somoza's hometown - San Marcos - is planning to make a museum about the
origin of a family that played a very central role in national history, even
if it was not the kind of role they would have preferred for a native son of their town. |
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