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...
...102...
...his subsequent rise to prominence stemmed not from his military ability, but from his knowledge of English, and his subservience and ability to ingratiate himself with diplomat Henry Stimson and other North Americans in Nicaragua...
...Within this context, a foco is a guerrilla center of operation designed to politicize the local population and create the subjective conditions for struggle through guerrilla actions...
...Louis) Monsanto Agricola de Nicaragua SA: JV...
...ip Sandino once said,"Some day the Yankees will have to be completely defeated, and if by chance I am not able to see this finale, the ants in the ground will come and tell me about it in my grave...
...3 7 Moreover, the other groups profit from Somoza's policies and from his tight relationship with U.S...
...Theberge revealed his own attitudes toward Nicaragua and the Caribbean in his Congressional testimony: In summary, Caribbean America, with the exception of Cuba, is of low order priority to the Soviet Union, but Soviet interest and encroachment is on the increase...
...also, see Wheelock, op...
...In short, Somoza's use of economic and political power for personal advantage is undermining the bourgeois institutions which served as the basis for the rise and consolidation of the Somoza dictatorship...
...18 ff...
...F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co...
...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...
...Ruby Hart Phillips, "Since the Earthquake,"NationalReview, Nov...
...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...
...Ibid., pp...
...Despite massive public relations campaigns, the Marines could not mobilize Nicaraguan popular opinion in their favor, and their policing activities generated conflicts with residents...
...This experience revealed that some, but not sufficient, lessons had been learned since 1963...
...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...
...1960 (November) major uprising, involving Conservative reinforcements to help put it down 1962 formal founding of FSLN...
...exclusive rights to build a canal and a naval base on the Gulf of Fonseca...
...receives Venezuelan crude oil at Pto...
...Interviews: UDI.L "Mensaje" (mimeo., 1975...
...and they have maintained their power only through an astute combination of collaboration and competition with the more established groups (primarily the two clustered around the Banco de America (BANAMERICA) and the Banco Nicaraguense (BANIC), both owned by Nicaragua's leading families).6 On the one hand, the avarice of the Somoza clan has created some specific conflicts of interest with the other groups - as, for example, when the Somozas have "invaded" new economic sectors previously under the control of another group, or have monopolized profitable sectors...
...The following is based primarily on Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "Activities of Non-Diplomatic Representatives of Foreign Principals in the U.S...
...For a summary, see chart...
...Interviews...
...and the strength of the Frente's own base.34 The countryside and the agricultural proletariat remain central in the struggle...
...Howard Hughes is building a motel & mobile home development near Managua's intl...
...market...
...Development" has taken place on the outskirts of the city, where President Somoza and his friends own land...
...Or she may find her only work opportunity as a prostitute, serving the whims of the Guardia Nacional...
...During the 1960's the Alliance for Progress provided the rhetoric for selling the "liberalization" and "reforms" of the Luis Somoza and Schick governments.23 $250 million.7 After covering its "social" needs with lowinterest long-term loans from the aid agencies, the Nicaraguan government has financed the more profitable areas with short-term high interest "hard" loans from private banks - to the point that even the international aid agencies, meeting to consider the Nicaraguan situation in July 1974, expressed alarm over Nicaragua's "creditworthiness...
...560 workers in '69...
...Banco Calley-Dagnall SA: 17.5% ownership...
...If more proof were needed, the Conservatives agreed later in 1967 to a pact with Somoza, in exchange for a few seats in Congress...
...After the 1972 earthquake and the resurgence of guerrilla activity, the Somoza regime became increasingly shaky...
...2.4 mn...
...vegetable oil extracting plant...
...For the death of my son I hold no malice against General Sandino or any of his men, for I think, and I believe that 90 per cent of our people agree with me, that they are today fighting for their liberty, as our forefathers fought for our liberty in 1776, and that we, as a nation, have no legal or moral right to be murdering those liberty-loving people in a war of aggression...
...The manipulation of taxes and electricity rates by the Somoza state favor not only Somoza but the entire private sector...
...As always, the peasants in the guerrilla zones have borne the brunt of repression...
...62-3...
...Between 1966 and 1969, Theberge was Adviser and Senior Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank...
...As Tachito, delighted to have a V.I.P...
...15, 1965;NYT, May 8, 1974...
...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...
...banks, the main publicly known investments have been: 1) Tachito (together with Puerto Rican ex-Governor Luis Ferr6, Mexican ex-President Miguel Aleman, Cuban ex-dictator Fulgencio Batista, among others) was a stockholder of the New York Spanish-language daily, El Tiempo...
...1961.40 82...
...after siege in Gran Hotel (holding guests hostage), government brings situation under control, cracks down, jails some opposition leaders while others (including Aguero) go into hiding or seek protection from U.S...
...intervention in Nicaragua is a real possibility...
...14, 1973...
...Idem.: UDEL Program...
...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...
...thesis on the community...
...At the time of the earthquake, these became centers for organizing relief shipments and learning the fate of relatives in Nicaragua...
...Once the Marines were expelled, Sandino did not turn the antiimperialist struggle into a prolonged people's war...
...capital has much more at stake in Nicaragua through private bank loans...
...Some of these bonds are through specific institutions (development banks, private sector associations, etc...
...In its own evaluation, while enabling the Frente to gain valuable experience with the student and peasant masses, this work was not guided by a clear Marxist-Leninist ideology or by disciplined organization...
...many soldiers are reportedly unwilling to go to the mountains to fight, and some are even said to have deserted over the Honduran border...
...UDEL describes itself as a poly-class alliance, representing the collaboration of labor and capital...
...Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co...
...Marines in the town square of Ocotal, Nicaragua, in 1928...
...Breve Resumen de Medio Ailo de Lucha en Nicaragua," Gaceta Sandinista (Mex...
...sales...
...Yet ironically, it was the U.S...
...and How (through what special mechanisms) has the U.S...
...OPIC covers $784,000 investment...
...On several of his visits here, Tachito has been greeted by protest rallies...
...48 Colombia - and, above all, in U.S...
...task of indirectly policing the region...
...definition of the limits of tolerable Soviet activity in the area...
...Interviews...
...Some sources maintain that Somoza also sent troops and munitions.46 -Somoza has consistently meddled in Guatemalan politics in recent years...
...Lejeune Cummins, Quijote on a Burro (Mexico: Azteca, 1958), pp...
...Development...
...World Bank) Instituto de Fomento Nacional joint venture U.S...
...New streets are paved with bricks from Somoza's factory...
...legal opposition parties refuse participation in government...
...Following the earthquake, moreover, Somoza attempted to consolidate political power, e.g...
...Sandino's ideology was, first and foremost, nationalist and anti-imperialist...
...and John Rarick (D-LA...
...In 1959, for example, the Max Rogel firm paid to send several reporters to Nicaragua...
...The 1967 Pancasan confrontation with the U.S.-trained and -advised GN again resulted in setback and strategic retreat by the FSLN...
...Ambassadors Thomas Whelan from 1951 to 1961 and Turner Shelton from 1970 to 1975 - who became personal representatives of the Somoza dictatorship...
...David Tobis, "Foreign Aid: The Case of Guatemala," Monthly Review, January 1968, p. 45...
...Piedra Santa, 1973...
...owns largest first class hotel, Intercontinental Hotel, with 8 stories, 210 rooms...
...In Nicaragua this generated a widespread call for abrogation of the Bryan Chamorro Treaty as unconstitutional and a violation of sovereignty...
...and Dennis Chavez (D-NM...
...THE GODFATHER" OF CENTRAL AMERICA The regionalization of Somoza power has economic as well as political dimensions, dating back to the 1960s, but increasingly important in recent years...
...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...
...5. Lindley Keasbey, "The Nicaragua Canal and the Monroe Doctrine," and lEmory Johnson, "The Nicaragua Canal and the Economic Development of the U.S...
...Somoza was forced to meet FSLN demands, including publication of a 12,000-word communique denouncing the regime...
...BANIC CNI CABEI Eximbank IFC INFONAC JV OPIC Banco Nicaraguense Corporacion Nicaraguense de Inversiones Central American Bank for Economic Integration U.S...
...Inforpress Centroamericana (Guatemala) #121, p. SA: Panoramas (Guatemala), May 1972 and Nov...
...The particular form of bourgeois domination consolidated by the Somozas in the dictatorial state has taken the form of institutionalized rule by terror and the impossibility of a real democratic opposition...
...News & World Report relates how the procedure worked in the case of one American who formerly managed a U.S...
...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...
...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...
...Fourth, by the 1940s and early 1950s, as part of the process of accumulating their own wealth, the Somozas were making alliances with certain sectors of the traditional comprador bourgeoisie...
...To subscribe, send donation to: Gaceta Sandinista Box 40885 San Francisco CA 94140 Gaceta Sandinista Box 3523 Lennox CA 90304 Although most second-generation Nicaraguan immigrants speak English and become more integrated into mainstream U.S...
...throughout 1972, moreover, the leaders of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua met several times to "achieve the total pacification of Central America...
...ground satellite station inaugurated in '73 operates TV/microwave commercial circuits...
...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...
...2.5 mn...
...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...
...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...
...The main beneficiary of this "reform" was the rising coffee bourgeoisie, which also attempted to establish its political hegemony...
...While creating new possibilities, however, the contradictions in the objective situation and structure of Somoza's power will not by themselves bring down Somoza...
...After Raudales' death, armed actions continued through 1961, but they lacked any clearly defined programatic direction, ideological coherence, central revolutionary organization, or organic roots among the masses...
...mfrs...
...Laboratorios Roche de Centroamerica SA: plant opened in '69...
...Rosario Resources (N.Y...
...SOMOZAPOWER Somoza's installation ended seven years of revolutionary struggle and initiated nearly half a century of counterrevolution...
...opinion and to send medical supplies...
...By late 1974, private U.S...
...Somoza's role is that of the godfather - using his political and economic power to help his friends, and subsequently using them to strengthen his own hand...
...military aid, and is one of the few countries still receiving it...
...Berle, op...
...16, 1970...
...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...
...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...
...Above (left) Tacho with FDR and (right) with Nixon when he was Vice President...
...They, along with Strom Thurmond and other conservative Senators, strongly supported Theberge's nomination...
...Not being technically "at war"7 in Nicaragua, the U.S...
...Most important, he served for years at a right-wing think-tank, and has close ties with the Rockefellers...
...Many of Latin America's leading political figures and intellectuals endorsed Sandino...
...62 ff...
...imperialism in Latin America" was dominant...
...objective in Nicaragua is to prevent revolution and stifle class struggle in Central America...
...For example: -In 1972, when a progressive sector of the Salvadoran army attempted to overthrow President Sanchez and to prevent the fraudulently elected Molina government from taking power, the Sinchez-Molina forces received a little help from their friends in Central America...
...To give a rough idea: U.S...
...have there...
...Ibid., p. 108: Richard Millett, "Anastasio Somoza Garcia: Nicaragua's Different Dictator" (mimeo., 1975), p. 5. 22...
...cit., pp...
...Marines were required "to protect American lives and property" - and to assure U.S...
...interests: especially during World War II, Nicaragua was strategic to the U.S., both as a military base to protect the Panama Canal, and as a source of raw materials for the U.S...
...5, 1975...
...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...
...Excelsior, Nov...
...September) Somoza fraudulently "elected," 20-1, more than 50% voter abstention...
...and Europe, and even got tax incentives for the firm, Plasmaf~resis (run by Cuban exiles...
...significant portion of Rosario Nic...
...1960...
...For example: * Even during the relief stage immediately after the earthquake, according to U.S...
...4. The analysis presented here is based on Wheelock, op...
...Interview...
...With the growth of the FSLN in the late 1960's, the PSN split, with the youth and some rank and file supporting (and even joining) the guerrillas...
...179-82...
...Immediately following the February 1975 CONDECA meeting (just after the December 1974 action of the FSLN), Somoza had a special meeting with Costa Rican President Oduber: he obtained from Oduber an "absolute" pledge not to permit Costa Rica to serve as a trampolin for anti-Somoza activities...
...306-7...
...This did not mean, however, that the U.S...
...officials who fear "another Portugal...
...CABEI loan of $1 mn...
...1972, p. 74...
...as FSLN leaders have pointed out, this resulted in a generally low level of theoretical-ideological development...
...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...
...over 500 workers...
...Aside from the already high interest rates on these loans, Rodriguez charges a 2% "finder's fee...
...built 300 miles of dairy feeder roads...
...effort is partly defensive, since the Somozas have generally faced hostile public opinion in the U.S...
...95% of chlorine sold to Hercules (see above...
...Much of this section is based on interviews conducted in Washington and Nicaragua: see also Jarquin, "Reflexiones...," p. 27...
...Guatemala & CentralAmerica Report # 7, July 1975, p. 1. 64...
...interviews: El Grdfico (Guatemala) Feb...
...Anderson columns, WP, Aug...
...Robert Alexander, Communism in Latin America (New Brunswick: Rutgers Univ...
...These are concentrated in the following areas of the economy: agribusiness and food, banking, chemicals, forest products, mining, tourism and transportation (see Appendix...
...But in fact, these grandiose schemes have proven impossible to realize, given the divisions created by the 1969 war between El Salvador and Honduras, and the increasing separation of the Honduran military government from the three gorila governments since the relatively progressive December 1972 coup in Honduras...
...8, 1975, and other Central American newspaper clips...
...2, 1975...
...4 2 In many respects, the Somozas played a similar role seven years later in the Bay of Pigs invasion against Cuba (see box...
...in addition, the lower class bears the brunt of an unprecedented inflation...
...Life in San Francisco is by no means easy - especially for the "undocumented," who are not legally permitted to work in the U.S., and who live in constant fear of the periodic sweeps by U.S...
...casualties and a number of Marine desertions to "the other side...
...On the side, Davidson, who claimed he was doing it all to fight Communism (especially Castro), and who had "ready access" to J. Edgar Hoover's office, passed on intelligence information to the FBI...
...Jacoby and Fernandez Press Conference, op...
...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...
...interviews...
...William F. Buckley...
...Politically, UDEL represents the willingness of the participating parties to "do without" their ideologies for the moment, in the interest of anti-Somoza unity...
...Aguilera, op...
...Congressional Record, Sept...
...102-3...
...The only sectors currently out of bounds for foreign capital are those where Somoza is clearly dominant...
...Gen., "El Programa de UDEL Como Alternativa para la Democratizaci6n y la Liberaci6n de Nicaragua," in Alianzas Politicas...
...Excelsior, Aug...
...Interviews: Alan Riding in NYT, Aug...
...177 room first class Hotel Sheraton Managua...
...Third, in both Fiscal Years 1975 and 1976, Nicaragua topped all other Latin American countries (including "priority" cases such as Chile) as a recipient of U.S...
...FER, "FSLN: Lucha Hist6rica del Pueblo Nicaraguense" (mimeo...
...A number of the projects were being discussed, moreover, as joint investments with Tachito...
...Although a similar rivalry existed throughout Central America during the 19th century, it was particularly acute in Nicaragua...
...By consistently following an anti-nationalist line, however, Somoza has in recent years undermined rather than enhanced his credibility and his chances for exercising real regional leadership...
...27ff.: Jaime Wheelock Romain, Imperialismo y Dictadura (Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1975), pp...
...Polymer United de Nicaragua: processes raw materials for plastics industry...
...Interviews...
...and U.S...
...25, 1975, Nov...
...2.5 mn...
...They hold primarily blue-collar jobs - the men in factories or as janitors, the women as maids or as seamstresses in big textile factories...
...direct accounts published in Costa Rican press (Excelsior), Aug.-Sept...
...Co., predecessor of today's Brown Bros...
...Nicaraguans are receiving Special Forces training both in the U.S...
...Ibid., pp...
...their presence was crucial in spurring us to write this Report...
...1, 1975: leaflet to Nicaraguan private sector, Fall 1975...
...is crucial for the Nicaraguan struggle...
...FRONT Ultimately the protracted struggle will be directed against U.S...
...The above evaluations come from FSLN self-criticism, e.g., in Ibid., pp...
...11, 1975...
...cit., pp...
...interviews...
...During Hughes' stay in Nicaragua (on and off during 1972) there were many reports and rumors about his intentions of investing heavily in Nicaragua, and perhaps in other Central American countries - in airlines and air terminals, huge tourist development projects and casinos, and even an inter-oceanic canal...
...4 mn...
...Third, and crucial in explaining the ability of the Somozas to retain control at the time of Tacho's assassination, by the 1950s Somoza power was no longer limited to one man, but rather had been institutionalized in an organization extensive enough to insure Somoza's hold over the entire state apparatus...
...to engage militarily for the next six years in its first anti-guerrilla war in Latin America...
...retained exclusive canal rights in Nicaragua through the 1914 Bryan Chamorro Treaty...
...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...
...first inv...
...In several visits abroad (e.g...
...Thus, the rise of Somoza makes sense only in the context of a brief resume of Nicaraguan history and U.S...
...4 mn...
...Moreover, even when armed, they were part of a reformist strategy, designed to pressure rather than to overthrow the system...
...High army and civilian sources say he actually came to Guatemala...
...more than 300 families were massacred...
...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...
...employed by the Somoza...
...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...
...It is essentially political in that it depends on mass support in its area of operation...
...15 ff: Torres R., "Poder Nacional y Sociedad Dependiente," Estudios Sociales Centroamericanos (Costa Rica) #8, May-Aug...
...my son, Sergeant John F. Hemphill, was killed in action against General Sandino's troops...
...Politically, Nicaragua was plagued by armed conflicts between two factions of the ruling class, represented by the Conservative and Liberal parties...
...I ( Ie~ Aazelilx~dl~s -- --IAPPENDIX: __ - Major Foreign Investments Not included in this list are foreign investments in accounting, advertising, insurance, construction, local distribution of foreign products, or franchises...
...Congressional Record (numerous entries): HAR, Jan...
...Sources for the above include interviews...
...First, Tacho owed his initial rise to the GN...
...Thus, the central question of this Report is: What is the nature of the Somoza dictatorship, and what strategy can end it - and overthrow the system it represents...
...1...
...Louisville, subsid...
...From 1966 to 1970 he had been consul general in Nassau, where he had ties with Bebe Rebozo and with Howard Hughes...
...official in the Bahamas...
...Somoza provided troops for the OAS "Peacekeeping Force" in the Dominican Republic after the 1965 U.S...
...Since the 1950s the Somozas have retained the services of several formally registered agents...
...7 8 INVIERNO's ostensible purpose is to improve the delivery of services to the rural population...
...studies indicated that, despite the political problems, Panama was still a more favorable site for a second canal...
...644 ff...
...By the mid-1960s, the Somozas recognized that a revolutionary guerrilla "threat" in Guatemala also threatened their own regime...
...and since UDEL's nationalism lends itself to more modem relations with imperialism, nothing in the UDEL program is unacceptable to the U.S...
...imperialism, he was not initiating, but continuing the class struggle...
...exports storage batteries...
...These U.S.-owned properties became the targets of Sandino's forces * Since the 19th century, the U.S...
...investors in a manner most profitable to both sides...
...during the Schick years (1963-67) West Point-trained Tachito, as head of the GN, was clearly the real ruler...
...50% of fatalities are in children under 14 social: 47% of homes have no sanitary facilities (81% in countryside...
...6 2 (No exact figures are available since the country does not require registration of foreign investment...
...9, 1975, Aug...
...to strike) and other social legislation (regarding health, education, etc...
...COMSAT) (Wash., D.C...
...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...
...and implicitly of the Nicaraguan ruling class - ordered the murder of Sandino and his aides...
...Economic Commission for Latin America, and Central American Permanent Secretariat for Economic Integration, among other sources...
...Embassy in Buenos Aires from 1961 to 1964...
...Thus, the primary usefulness of CONDECA is to fulfill certain very specific functions: for Since ideological diversity in the region has prevented CONDECA from becoming an institutional center to guarantee political-military stability in Central America, Somoza has had to continue taking individual initiatives...
...Fonseca, "Zero Hour," p. 31...
...Adelante UDEL, #16, Sept...
...rescue greatly outpacing the country's economic growth...
...Sources: Interviews in Washington, D.C...
...USAID helped finance its nutrition/market study for introducing hi-protein products...
...interests displaced British interests, particularly in controlling principal exports - coffee, gold, lumber and bananas...
...private investors would no longer enjoy total freedom, Nicaragua could not be used as a base for Washington's machinations in other Central American and Caribbean nations), such a regime would also resolve the existing contradictions, which make Somoza's Nicaragua, ironically, the "weakest link" against change in Central America...
...These committees, consciously organized to support the revolutionary anti-Somoza effort in Nicaragua, and complemented by international forums such as the Bertrand Russell Tribunal, can play a crucial role today, as did the Anti-Imperialist League in support of Sandino, educating the North American people and preparing them to act if necessary...
...and Communiqu6 of Dec...
...Nicaraguense Mercantil e Industrial de Ultramar SA (Nicamar): 50%-owned JV with BANIC interests and INFONAC...
...mfrs...
...cit., p. 187...
...WP, Mar...
...We shall consider these two contemporary strategies in the context of the history of anti-Somoza efforts, and of objective conditions in Nicaragua today...
...cit., pp...
...1974, in Alianzas Politicas...
...The country's creditors fell into four major categories of lending institutions, with the largest being U.S...
...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...
...OPIC covers $1 mn...
...Interview in Siempre, op...
...4 In the mid-19th century, the U.S...
...28, 1974;Excelsior, July 24, 1975...
...38-41), Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science...
...intervention2, the Liberal Party was reconstituted more or less as the civilian appendage of the GN and its director...
...interviews...
...80 In any case, the U.S...
...that ended the Liberal interlude...
...interests in the area...
...ASARCO received $2 mn...
...Libertad (Costa Rican Communist Party newspaper), Jan...
...Louis) Purina-Nubasa SA: JV...
...multiwall paper bags...
...In late 1973, there were news stories about a $250 million Hughes project to mine ocean floor minerals off the Nicaraguan coast...
...114-21: Macaulay, op...
...Textiles Largaespada SA (TELASA): mfrs...
...Westinghouse Electric (Pittsburgh) Electra de Centroamerica SA: $2 mn...
...More clearly undertaken on behalf of the U.S...
...In 1959, for example, U.S...
...AGRIBUSINESS & FOOD BANKING Booth Fisheries (Divn...
...JV with Fabricato, CNI, INFONAC & IFC/Bank of America each owning 25% equity ($1.1 mn...
...Typeset by Archetype...
...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...
...of Pan American World Airways, N.Y...
...Sheraton Hotel Corp...
...moreover, his wife was the niece of Juan B. Sacasa, the president "elected" in 1932...
...Conservative guaranteed 40% of Congressional seats in 1972 election...
...tried for propaganda reasons to justify its intervention as being against a small band of Nicaraguan "bandits," in fact it was involved in a classic guerrilla war...
...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 to embarrass Somoza in the international press...
...116...
...thus, Arana was beholden to Somoza, had more or less the same interests and allies, and could be counted on to support similar policies...
...Somoza has gotten into the profitable business of selling blood of Nicaraguan citizens to the U.S...
...Inforpress #113, p. 4A...
...After a long academic career (including a stint at the U.S...
...it is directed essentially against bourgeois rule and the capitalist system...
...108...
...enterprises in bananas, wood and mining created new concentrations of labor...
...Washington's basic support for Somoza continued throughout the 1950's, 1960's and into the 1970's...
...Somoza & pipes it 35 miles to Managua...
...troops) and to increase his personal fortune...
...military authorities - ventured into the mountains to interview Sandino for The Nation...
...For critique by a FSLN leader, see Fonseca, op...
...180 employees...
...N.Y...
...100...
...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...
...5 116 Salvador war (and the closing of the Panamerican Highway linking El Salvador with points south) has enjoyed an absolute monopoly on shipping...
...In Central America, as in Nicaragua, Somoza's empire has thus far presented no threats of encroachment on or serious competition with U.S...
...7. Neill Macaulay, The Sandino Affair (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1967), p. 26...
...Its concerns include: credit, cooperatives, technical assistance, infrastructure, marketing, housing, storage, and training of peasant leaders...
...Plywood de Nicaragua: JV of U.S., Israeli & Nic...
...participants captured and shot or imprisoned 1956 (September 21) poet Rigoberto L6pez Pdrez assassinates Tacho Somoza, many others accused of participation in the supposed "plot...
...154, 173...
...Along with her older children and perhaps her own parents, she is left with the least desirable and lowest paid tasks...
...5 6 U.S...
...see also L. F. Stone's Weekly, June 21, 1965...
...support remained crucial...
...Murphy made an impassioned defense of Tachito...
...destroyed in '72 quake...
...Since coming to Nicaragua in 1973, he has become known in U.S...
...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...
...200 employees...
...Sears Roebuck & Co...
...These concerns are particularly relevant at this time because the Somoza dictatorship is in profound crisis...
...Boston, subsid...
...John Martz, Central America (Chapel Hitl: Univ...
...During February 1934 negotiations, Somoza - with the support of the U.S...
...4 9 On the issue of the Panama Canal, Somoza has attempted to play the role of "intermediary" between the Pentagon and Torrijos, in effect supporting the U.S...
...but in this case, the decision to overthrow Arbenz was made in Washington, and Somoza became an accessory...
...operations such as the 1954 overthrow of Arbenz in Guatemala and the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion...
...2, 2A, #128 pp...
...President: According to dispatches of today (January 3) from Managua...
...life, the community has been bound together by social and civic clubs...
...This summary is based on FSLN sources in note 106 above., 110...
...immigration laws were favorable...
...1974, pp...
...Virgilio Godoy, "La Estructura del Poder en Nicaragua y la Integraci6n Econ6mica Centroamericana" (mimeo., 1973), pp...
...since the mid-1950s - to visit his children studying here, to attend West Point functions, to appear on U.S...
...8 5 In August 1975, nationally syndicated columnist Jack Anderson ran three articles denouncing Tachito as "the world's greediest dictator...
...Even in as agrarian a country as Vietnam, that proletariat, though small, was considered to play the leading role in the Vietnamese Workers' Party...
...Beatrice Berle and Travis Jacobs) (NY: Harcourt Brace, 1973), pp...
...Luxembourg) Industrias Quimicas SA (INQUISA): JV with INFONAC & private Nic...
...the Venezuelan Senate passed a resolution expressing "disgust" over his presence in the country...
...harsh repression, also against revolutionary student group 1957 Luis Somoza "elected" President...
...1963 (February) with Luis Somoza's term up, his hand-picked successor, Rend Schick "elected...
...Though this account dates from 1956, recent interviews indicate the practice continues...
...Cockeysville, MD), INFONAC & others...
...The potential for using state power for family gain was most fully realized after the 1972 earthquake, primarily through the diversion of millions of dollars of foreign aid reconstruction funds for personal profit (see Section V...
...Agency for International Development, 1971 Nicaraguan Census, U.N...
...rebels capture two GN garrisons...
...172 ff., 177 ff...
...Hughes, who was there at the time, departed immediately, not even bothering to leave a check for earthquake relief...
...occupation...
...Somoza patronage...
...rather than Panama...
...monopoly capital, working as a functionary of several U.S...
...Even their presence did not prevent at least ten armed uprisings between 1913 and 1924, and several important strikes against U.S...
...Even before the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Luis Somoza sold equipment to the Batista government for fighting the Castro rebels...
...Initially, Somoza used the 1972 earthquake to consolidate his political power (with the help of 600 U.S...
...cit., p. 182...
...cities, sees itself as a broad-based organization to educate and mobilize Nicaraguans in the U.S...
...42% are turpentine (part of which from ATCHEMCO, see forest products, below...
...taxpayers' money, and failed to use its leverage to stop it...
...OPIC covers $1.2 mn...
...in Central America...
...Theberge's mission is apparently to alter the image of total U.S...
...Ambassador Turner Shelton from 1970 to 1975, the State Department appointed a new Ambassador, James Theberge...
...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...
...1975: Sergio Ramirez (ed...
...hold majority ownership...
...L. Charles Foresti) (Cambridge: Univ...
...HAR, Nov...
...chemical complex operated with Pennwalt (see below...
...Only a child remained to describe the slaughter in one village recently...
...The home was to be constructed on land which the government, using aid funds, bought from the Somoza family.7 Thus, the Somoza government's November 1974 ad in the Wall Street Journal calling the earthquake a "phenomenon of development" accurately described the effects for Somoza and his friends...
...All have been U.S.-educated and fluent in English...
...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...
...1os According to the PSN analysis, UDEL is an ideologically pluralist and poly-class tactical alliance, including the national bourgeoisie, as well as the petty bourgeoisie and organized labor, to achieve "democratic and patriotic" objectives...
...Steel Corp...
...Macaulay, op...
...However, concern about these aspects without political analysis leaves no clue as to how to change the situation - which is, after all, our primary reason for writing about it...
...owns 40% Hercules de Centroamerica & 60% of Electroquimica Pennsalt (see below...
...Centroamericana de Productos Lacteos SA (Prolacsa): JV...
...taxpayers, the Somozas have had to cultivate a favorable image here...
...Perhaps this is another reason why, at a time when most Latin American heads of state are distancing themselves from the U.S., Somoza still insists that "the U.S...
...Industrias Metalurgicas Unidas SA (IMUSA) (Medellin, Colombia) Imusa Centroamericana SA: JV with half the $860,000 equity held by CNI, and 25% each by IMUSA and Corp...
...arms sales credits and another $.5 to $1 million a year in training programs...
...20, 1975, Mar...
...Although the initial rationale for intervention had been protection of U.S...
...has adapted to similar changes in other countries...
...Continuing attacks on the Sandinistas by the GN forced Sandino to negotiate with the government in Managua...
...For example, in the face of vehement criticism of the cozy relationship between Somoza and U.S...
...New Orleans) & Nic...
...Fonseca, op...
...aid they enjoy, and because they have always had an active lobby here, the anti-Somoza forces and the FSLN need broad and active support in the U.S...
...surplus military equipment...
...Southern Command has generally attended CONDECA meetings - a situation which the Salvadoran representative characterized in August 1974 as "beneficial, since the U.S...
...Inforpress #26 p. 14, #89 p. 3A and others...
...This flare-up was resolved by the OAS and a visit by Vice President Nixon in early 1955.14 1960s, Nicaraguan exiles continued to operate out of Costa Rica (although increasingly restricted), and Somoza continued to provide material and moral assistance to right-wing Costa Ricans...
...exports drums to United Fruit Co...
...Also during the 1950s he rationalized the administration of the family fortune...
...to transport troops and munitions across Nicaragua to provide "protection" for the route...
...Nicaraguense de Telecomunicaciones por Satelite (NICATELSAT): 49%-owned with Nic...
...Metales y Estructuras SA (METASA): JV with Somoza interests & others...
...some U.S...
...but Somoza's friends rallied to his defense...
...big business overseas was too high...
...with its stress on organization and education, UDEL plans to last beyond the next election...
...Macaulay, op...
...And although the U.S...
...by early January 1976, the matter remained unresolved.7...
...Bemis Inc...
...Fabrica de Hilados y Tejidos del Hato SA (Fabricato) (Medellin, Colombia) Textiles Fabricato de Nicaragua SA (Fabritex): $9.2 mn...
...interviews...
...Senate voted to end the Treaty...
...In 1948-49, and repeatedly as late as 1955, Somoza charged that Costa Rica was permitting activities subversive to his regime...
...imperialism...
...Vernon Megee, "The Genesis of Air Support in Guerrilla Operations," U.S...
...b) although PSN influence undoubtedly accounts for UDEL's inclusion of demands for labor rights (as part of the democratic content of the UDEL program), it seems clear that a sector of the bourgeoisie, rather than the working class, is dominant within UDEL...
...The same anti-fascist currents which brought a bourgeois democratic revolution to Guatemala in 1944 enabled the Nicaraguan opposition to threaten a general strike, and finally forced Somoza to put up a democratic facade, i.e...
...Finally, it is through Cuban exiles that Tachito has economic ties with other Central American political leaders such as Guatemala's Arana: if they are not yet directly in business together, at least they have the same partners and allies...
...UDEL is a coalition of 7 political parties and two labor union confederations, ranging from the dissident (anti-Somoza) forces within the traditional bourgeois parties and the private sector (including ex-Somocistas in the ruling class, such as Ramiro30 Sacasa) to the Communist Party (Partido Socialista Nicaraguenese - PSN...
...also supplies packaging for meat, soap, liquor, etc...
...1, 1975, and Torres reply (mimeo...
...intervention, he served as Minister of War, then Foreign Minister...
...investment in Nicaragua is not due to restrictive legislation...
...and Nicaragua, 1975...
...During one four day period in 1931 its radio station was put out of commission...
...Press of Cambridge, 1954...
...Evans Products (Portland, OR) Maderas Centroamerica SA: acquired in '69 from Max Herschfeld (Los Angeles...
...interests and property...
...Standard Fruit & Steamship Co...
...military mission is actively advising Nicaraguan counterinsurgency forces...
...113 ff...
...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...
...Fertilizantes de Nicaragua SA: mixes and packs insecticides...
...investors...
...Figueres, meanwhile, put his country at the disposal of moderate Nicaraguan exiles plotting against Somoza, aided by the Caribbean Legion - a semi-formal, semi-clandestine military brigade made up of social democratic exiles from various Caribbean nations, dedicated to the overthrow of their local dictators, including Somoza...
...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...
...What makes the Nicaraguan case significant for other struggles is the issue: Why has the Somoza dictatorship lasted forty years...
...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...
...plant opened '60 mfrs...
...In California, "Management Recruiters" went searching for new p.r...
...April 30, 1961, March 17, 1965, and numerous other newspaper clips from the Central American and U.S...
...Admiral Arleigh "thirty-one knots" Burke, Chief of Naval Operations from 1955-61, became Chairman...
...cit., pp...
...Regis Paper Co...
...b) Somoza has also profited by placing members of his extended family in key positions as heads of government agencies...
...Ambassador Theberge at reception with UDEL opposition leaders, 1975.18 The 1975 appointment of James D. Theberge to replace Turner Shelton as U.S...
...Perhaps the most important concrete link in that empire is a growing relationship with Cuban exiles, with whom not only Somoza but also Arana do have joint investments and political ventures (see box...
...If for no other reason, the U.S...
...bombers supporting the exiles to take off from Nicaragua...
...Somoza, in turn, built up his armed forces through Lend Lease programs, and in general used U.S...
...Inforpress #49 p. 3A, #54 p. 4A...
...and even some businessmen known to have ties with Somoza enterprises...
...25, 1975...
...8 2 In the White House, the Somozas have had a personal friendship with Richard Nixon, dating back to Nixon's Central American tours in 1955 and 1958...
...Interview with Doris Tijerino, op...
...The second major blow to the Somoza regime came from the revolutionary guerrilla Frente Sandinista de Liberaci6n Nacional (FSLN): on December 27, 1974, an FSLN unit invaded a party of Somoza's closest political associates, including some relatives, and held them for more than sixty hours...
...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...
...interviews...
...Whatever direct investment he does have in Central America is virtually impossible to trace, since it is not registered under his name...
...mixes liquid insecticides in Leon...
...New Orleans, subsid...
...The first major U.S...
...firm Mackay & Assoc...
...Steel, the Intercontinental Hotels venture with Pan Am, and the LANICA investment with Howard Hughes (see box...
...the solution, which the U.S...
...cit., p. 198...
...The only consistent anti-Somoza voice in Congress was Rep...
...Based on this fear, U.S...
...gov't...
...of British-American Tobacco Co., London) Tabacalera Nicaraguense SA: JV including Somoza interests...
...intervention was clearly a matter of defending U.S...
...In 1974 Tachito made a $3 million investment in Rucker Co., an Oakland-based oil equipment supplier...
...18, 19, 22, 1975...
...GN remains loyal, fires on opposition rally of 50,000, leaving more than 60 dead and many wounded...
...cit., p. 23...
...Again in the early 1960s, he tried actively but in vain to get such an invitation for Somoza from the Kennedy White House (even though the Somozas had made, through lobbyist Frank Barry, a $10,000 contribution to the JFK presidential campaign in 1960, after Johnson lost the Democratic nomination...
...sends from 1962 to present, guerrilla activities of FSLN build up, periodic encounters with GN, accompanied by strikes, student protests, etc...
...What we are doing is nothing less than murder, for the sole purpose of keeping in power a puppet President, and acting as a collector for Wall Street, which is certainly against the spirit and letter of our Constitution...
...For example: some Somoza enterprises enjoy free electricity, with Tachito's uncle Luis Manuel Debayle heading ENALUF, the National Power Co...
...PSN, El Popular, Afio 3 #6, 1975...
...Address all correspondence to Box 57, Cathedral Station, New York, NY 10025, or Box 226, Berkeley, CA 94701...
...Baltimore) Maderas Industriales SA: Cadmus is largest investor in JV with Philip Myers & Assocs...
...No significant commercial deposits have been found to date, though exploration continues...
...21, 1975...
...6A-7A...
...Arana is said to have received moral and financial support from Somoza for his 1970 Presidential campaign...
...It also required and received support from other sectors of the population, including property owners and Congressman Adolfo Cockburn (who was secretly a Sandinista general...
...Local government authorities function at the service of the landowners, violently enforcing class rule and the "rights of property...
...Open criticism mounted as a result of Shelton's inexcusable behavior during the earthquake (refusing to open the doors of his residence to the stricken Nicaraguans or even to U.S...
...The arrests have become more arbitrary and more frequent since the December 1974 FSLN action...
...In the early 1960's, and particularly after the January 1964 anti-U.S...
...receipts are from freighting agreement with Neptune (see above...
...Excelsior (Costa Rica), Aug...
...Ultimately, the strongest solidarity comes from relating the struggle in Nicaragua to the struggle in the U.S...
...fails when internal uprising does not materialize...
...OPIC covers $.3 mn...
...31, 1974, reprinted in Vanguardia #2, Feb...
...When this arrangement was threatened in 1912 by a revolt, the U.S...
...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...
...The PSN was formally founded in 1944--at a time when the "theory of conciliation with the capitalist class and with U.S...
...cit., pp...
...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...
...7 ff...
...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...
...mfrs...
...Further, Nicaragua has the smallest population in Central America, only 2 million people, many of whom live outside the consumer market...
...99% have no drinking water in countryside Sources: These statistics are compiled from U.S...
...Interview...
...Aside from being a good business venture, this was a good source of favorable publicity for the Somozas in the U.S...
...8 mn...
...Frente Estudiantil Revolucionario (FER), "Jornada Heroica de Pancasan" #4, Aug...
...cit., pp...
...Westport, CT) Insecticidas Stauffer SA: 38%-owned...
...private commercial bank active in financing coffee industry & trade...
...to make suggestions for U.S...
...With some workers at the mine, he6 organized his own forces and joined the struggle...
...99 t In fact, echoing Lenin's observation that "a democratic republic is the best possible shell for capitalism," the Nicaraguan private sector recently circulated a statement concluding, "Let us cooperate to install an authentic democratic system, in which free enterprise is the motor of development...
...Naval Institute Proceedings, June 1965...
...Until recently, these charges came primarily from the FSLN...
...Noranda Mines Ltd...
...U.S...
...Conservative Emiliano Chamorro staged a coup, only to be faced by a Liberal rebellion in 1926 to restore the constitution and elected government...
...adhesives...
...sales...
...in fact, it was Shelton who arranged a personal meeting between Hughes and Somoza when Hughes first came to Nicaragua in 1972...
...founding of Communist Party (PSN) 1947 anti-fascist and "democratic" currents force Somoza to hold election...
...Stauffer Chemical Co...
...UNITED STATES Of AMIERICA "p i19 Since arriving in August 1975, Theberge (who unlike Shelton does speak Spanish) has conspicuously made the rounds of moderate opposition leaders, supposedly to sound out their opinions - more likely to keep them under control...
...The FSLN's 14-year history reveals its strengths as a revolutionary organization...
...Somoza had given his sons a "preparation" similar to his own: both were sent to study in U.S...
...Finally, they moved definitively into the area of finance, with several branches of the family establishing new banks, insurance and other financial institutions...
...X, No...
...sources, $9-$10 million of U.S...
...It is of concern to us, first because we can learn a great deal from the experience of the Left and anti-Somoza forces in Nicaragua...
...9 For all its brutality, however, the repression is becoming less effective...
...However, the U.S...
...Armistead Selden (D-AL), an expert on "Communist penetration" in Latin America who, after losing his Congressional seat, became a lobbyist for Somoza interests...
...Following independence from Spain in 1821, Nicaragua passed to the British trade sphere...
...taxpayers have provided Somoza with $246.7 million through AID since 1962 - $76.7 million for earthquake reconstruction alone since 1973...
...Its organizational continuity contrasts with the experience of more ideologically advanced movements in other countries, which have undergone major splits...
...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...
...Cadmus Intl...
...But Somoza's machinations are useful to the U.S...
...principal mines are El Limon and La India gold mines in Leon dept...
...Ruth Shereff in NY Free Press, Mar...
...support to secure his position...
...Atlas Chemical Industries (Wilmington) Industrias Quimicas Atlas de CentroAmerica SA: 75%-owned plant in Leon produces insecticides & emulsifiers...
...Clearly too, it is a serious alternative to the opposition "Zancudo," the loyal opposition of the comprador bourgeoisie, which, basing itself on the model of the Democratic and Republican Parties in the U.S., continues to participate in elections, to accept minority positions in the government itself, and thereby to legitimize the Somoza system...
...powdered milk plant in Matagalpa opened in '70...
...imperialism but also of the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie, which is essentially a comprador bourgeoisie, compromised with and dependent on U.S...
...Tactically, the Frente considers that the present stage of the struggle requires and makes possible a degree of cooperation with other progressive anti-Somoza forces...
...newspaper: Diario Novedades television: Televisi6n de Nicaragua radio: Estaci6n X meat (slaughterhouse): CARNIC fish/fishing: PESCANICA sugar refining complex: Central de Ingenios tobacco: various rice: various coffee: various construction: CASANICA asbestos cement: NICALIT cement: Cementera Nacional concrete: Concretos Pretensados metals: METASA textiles: El Porvenir fiber glass: Pesqueros Anticorrosivos packaging: Envases y Cartones salt (industrial): Clorsalina blood export: Plasmafrresis vehicle distribution: Caribe Motors (Mercedes Benz) finance: Banco de Centroamerica insurance: Compania Nacional de Seguros -13 IV...
...and on the other hand, hoping to remove Somoza through elections...
...citizens including Spruille Braden, former U.S...
...For example: In the 1950s, the cotton bourgeoisie depended on the Somoza state for its rise and enrichment...
...69-70...
...This Report is part of an ongoing NACLA project on Central America...
...and Central American newspaper clips...
...FSLN Communiqu6 of Dec...
...After sixty hours of negotiations, Somoza was forced to meet the major FSLN demands, including payment of $1 million, freedom for 14 Frente prisoners, and safeconduct to Cuba for them and the guerrillas involved in the action...
...55-6...
...After this setback, the FSLN abandoned clandestine armed action and focused almost exclusively on legal mass work, especially during 1964-65...
...Discontent was rife among these sectors, particularly in northern and eastern Nicaragua, where unemployment and land problems were aggravated by economic crisis...
...FSLN Communiqu6 of Dec...
...the others may come into public view one by one, if at all...
...of United Brands, N.Y...
...When the rumblings in Nicaragua found their echo in a growing wave of criticism in the U.S...
...and Inforpress #155, p. 11...
...moreover, recognizing it could not follow PSN leadership, the FSLN attempted in vain to engage the PSN in ideological struggle...
...In 1959 he paid a Washington Star reporter to write pro-Somioza articles...
...est'd...
...10031 election, and subsequently backed Arguello's anti-Somoza efforts...
...11 and 25, 1975, Feb...
...As implied in "Sandinist Front: People's War," op...
...Subscriptions: $10 per year for individuals ($1e' for two years), $16 per year for non-profit institutions ($30 for two years...
...For example, he arranged the 1971 Somoza-Aguero pact...
...Excelsior, Sept...
...By the time of his assassination, he was worth $60 million by conservative estimates (other U.S...
...1975 (mimeo...
...OPIC covers $.8 mn...
...3 Not only the formal political prisoners but the entire Nicaraguan population directly and daily experiences the country as a concentration camp, under permanent state of siege, with Somoza as jailer...
...cit., pp...
...This does not even count World Bank or Inter-American Development Bank funds, which come mainly from the U.S...
...For this reason, even now the unity must be "at the base with the most honest sectors" of the anti-Somoza opposition, not exclusively with the leadership...
...Mercadeo Industrial SA: mfrs...
...They have almost no public transportation for getting around in the now endless city sprawl...
...cit.: see also Macaulay, op...
...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...
...Former functionaries of Somoza's own Liberal Party now seek the ouster of their one-time patron...
...29, 1975...
...Secretary of State Dulles and Vice President Nixon - were more favorable to Somoza...
...would have to intervene on a constant and daily basis to prop up the Somoza regime and to preserve other U.S...
...interests...
...For example: -In addition to sending 4600 troops, the U.S...
...Envases Industriales Nicaraguenses SA: JV formed in '65...
...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...
...Journal of Commerce, Oct...
...5, 1975...
...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...
...in Honduras for packing banana puree...
...At the end of 1974 this debt totaled $500 million...
...News & World Report, October 5, 1956, p. 64...
...99ff...
...Jeremiah O'Leary in Washington Star, Nov...
...of Lloyds Bank, Ltd., London): several branches...
...Similarly, the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie is flexible enough to make such an adjustment, and has in fact been preparing for a change by playing both sides (Somoza and the opposition...
...members of Nicaragua's leading families...
...Military Group in Nicaragua was also a West Point graduate - as have been most directors (U.S...
...U' LO 'z.t pI as a vase ior anu-omroza exile activities.* Throughout the 1950s and sporadically in the early * The feud became acute in 1948, in the Costa Rican civil war, when Somoza clearly supported the anti-Figueres forces and even sponsored an invasion of Costa Rica from Nicaragua after Figueres had won...
...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...
...property (e.g., explosives and machinery in the U.S.-owned San Albino gold mine) to "save it...
...Douglass Cater and Walter Pincus, "The Foreign Legion of U.S...
...9 3 Thus, of the bourgeois institutions which nourished the Somoza dictatorship, the only sure prop remaining is the U.S...
...Atlanta) Cia...
...Even the best public relations efforts of the U.S...
...According to State Department sources, this signifies more a change of style than of basic U.S...
...caustic soda & chlorine plant established '67...
...was Somoza's activity in the early 1950s against the progressive, democratic nationalist Arbenz government in Guatemala...
...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...
...Congressmen, led by Rep...
...Notas sobre el Sistema Imperialista," OCLAE #66, June 1972: Juan HernAndez Pico et al., "Il golpe de cstado del 25 de marzo de 1972," El Salvado: Ahio Politico, 1970-72 (Guatemala: Id...
...But, he continued, Nicaragua remains a very favorable climate for U.S...
...1, 1973...
...During the 1960s, when Alliance for Progress rhetoric was the order of the day, and into the 1970s, the Somozas had to adopt less blatant, more subtle forms of intervention against progressive or insurgent forces in Central America...
...And even in the 1970s, Tachito continues to make such statements, and there are (unconfirmed) reports about new exile bases in Nicaragua...
...WP, June 9, 1972: interviews...
...Tokyo) Polimeros Centroamericanos SA (POLICASA): Mitsui & Shin-Etsu Chemical Co...
...115...
...manner in the ice the g and e U.S...
...FOREST PRODUCTS Adela Investment Co...
...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...
...Imperialism World-Wide Few governments have proved as loyal and reliable a supporter of U.S...
...In 1974-75 this cooperation is being stepped up: Nicaraguan security police are generally believed to be operating directly in Costa Rica...
...Inforpress #83, p. IV, W84, p. 2. 48...
...In 1974 Somoza's cement monopoly obtained permission to import cement duty-free...
...For some this means payoffs and "gifts," for others it means giving Somoza a minority equity participation, or arranging loans or contracts for his enterprises...
...cit., pp...
...Although the Comintern had previously rallied much international support for Sandino, there were always tensions and tactical disagreements...
...cit., pp...
...110-14: Fonseca, "Cr6nica Secreta: Augusto Cesar Sandino ante sus Verdugos," Casa de las Americas, Sept.-Oct...
...OPIC covers $510,000 inv...
...kenaf & jute bags in Diriamba...
...Concretely, from 1962 to 1975, the Somozas gave exile leader Manuel Artime free rein to operate training camps in Nicaragua...
...100 employees...
...NY Herald Tribune, June 3, 1962...
...The above account based on Cummins, op...
...Donald Grant, "Guatemala and U.S...
...including unlimited rights to remit profits and capital, no restrictions on the purchase of foreign exchange, and absolute secrecy regarding its operations...
...and of the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie, would negotiate in good faith...
...he controlled prices on others...
...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...
...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...
...6. Wheelock, op...
...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...
...In its forty years of rule, it became increasingly an instrument not only of U.S...
...In Roosevelt's unforgettable words, "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch...
...Inforpress #124, pp...
...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...
...taxpayers' dollars through economic and military aid to the Somoza regime...
...The most important aspect of the program, say U.S...
...This study is not intended to be comprehensive...
...Principal sources include: Business Latin America, Infbrpress, Moody's Industrial Manual, Noticias, OPIC, newspaper articles, corporate annual reports and interviews...
...government, and even the horror stories about Sandinista atrocities printed in the established U.S...
...policy toward Somoza...
...cit., pp...
...cit., p. 88 and p. 241 (quoting Marine historian): Carlos I onseca Amador, "Sandino: Proletarian Guerrilla,"39 Tricontinental (U.S...
...Tensions were renewed with the expedition led by U.S...
...The Marines were in Nicaragua almost continuously between 1912 and 1933.9 The Somoza dictatorship was born as an instrument of U.S...
...for chemical plants...
...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...
...other figures come from AID publications...
...insistence, might well participate in an UDEL-type government...
...Sandino himself, although from a family of landowners, acquired direct experience with U.S...
...HAR, Feb...
...She may be brought to the city to be a "daughter of the house," a virtual slave, below even the regular maids, paid nothing for doing the hardest housework...
...taxpayers, who are providing the bulk of this aid...
...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...
...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...
...Please send any corrections or additions to: NACLA Central America Project, Box 226, Berkeley, Calif...
...newspaper clippings...
...It is for this reason that the anti-imperialist movement and the Nicaraguan community in the U.S...
...273-74...
...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...
...primarily in California...
...Idem.: Macaulay, op...
...158-69...
...It must be particularly reassuring to the U.S., at a time of increasing third world and anti-U.S...
...Jack Anderson columns, WP, Feb...
...Fonseca, "Zero Hour," p. 41...
...OPIC covers $395,000 inv...
...roasted & instant coffee...
...Certainly the relatively low U.S...
...cit., pp...
...FSLN encounters with GN at Pancasan, defeat for FSLN 1971 Somoza-Conservative pact, arranged by U.S...
...105...
...January 1896...
...Politically, it showed that a people's army, using guerrilla warfare, could force a modem industrial power to abandon military intervention...
...in supporting and using the Somozas at every step along the way (Section V...
...Also involved, as head of the government welfare agency, was Tachito's wife, Hope...
...Inforpress...
...According to U.S...
...in sawmill, dry kiln & furniture parts plant at Matagalpa...
...produces aluminum pots & pans, stainless flatware & plastic household goods and supplies containers to dairy, cosmetic, chemical & pharmaceutical industries...
...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...
...Galloway and Johnson, op...
...None was well enough organized or had sufficient mass base to have any real chance of succeeding...
...31, 1975...
...the PSN is the only real party of the opposition...
...invested in '67 to double capacity...
...Concretely, this took the form of a division between Figueres supporters and Somoza supporters...
...La Prensa, July 21, 1975...
...4, 1968...
...Here too she is a virtual slave, never able to get out of debt...
...1956 and July 1957...
...Most likely, she ends up in jail, during one of the periodic sweeps by police to "clean up" the brothels (while the brothel-owners get a kick-back) -- or because she is finally driven to petty theft...
...Nicaragua, like Vietnam in Indochina, is crucial as a "domino" which, from Washington's perspective, ,must not fall...
...refrigeration plant produces for CACM...
...equity inv...
...My comPany finally transferred me to another country...
...while sp making of armed struggle, the PSN focused on legal work...
...in support of the struggle in Nicaragua...
...bankers put the public foreign debt at $500 million, with a skyrocketing debt service ratio of 16-18 percent...
...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...
...As one former insider put it, "There are always three or four of them in Tachito's waiting room...
...1974: interviews...
...1893 marked the end of Conservative rule and the beginning of the "Liberal Reform" of Jos6 Santos Zelaya (1893-1909...
...Hotelera de Nicaragua SA: JV with Somoza family and Adela (which holds $369,000 equity inv...
...Since that time, according to informed Panamanian sources, the U.S...
...war industries, bases for protecting the Panama Canal, and a possible alternative route if anything happened to the Canal...
...OPIC covers $158,000 inv...
...e.g., U.S...
...31, 1975, op...
...the attitude of the PSN (which, unless excluded at U.S...
...Fearing that Somoza's presence is "a pretext for the multiplication of guerrilla ventures," they are sending their investment capital abroad...
...U.S...
...15 yr...
...In 1960, Luis Somoza contributed (through Davidson) to Nixon's campaign...
...One article, "Key Targets of Soviet Diplomacy: Chile and Peru," was the first publication of the AmericanChilean Council, an association of right-wing Chileans and U.S...
...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...
...plant mfrs...
...troops...
...Nicaragua's minimum wage laws are never enforced in the countryside...
...The U.S...
...IX #1, 1955, pp...
...18 and 19...
...Inforpress #121, p. 2A: Guatemala & Central America Report (Berkeley: American Friends of Guatemala) #5, June 1974...
...Cukra Development Co.: grows & processes African palm oil, peanuts, okra near Bluefields...
...OAS mediation efforts failed to resolve the problem...
...76, 111: Irnesto Cruz Alfaro, "El pensamiento politico de Sandino," Estudios Centroamericanos (El Salvador), lFeb.-Mar...
...direct investment amounted to only $18 million (out of $350 million in all Central America...
...government, by its silence on the subject (or explicit denials of wrongdoing), has24 acquiesced in this misuse of U.S...
...Chart by Fred Goff References NOTE: Material in text with no footnote number generally comes from interviews conducted in the U.S...
...should strengthen its ties with Latin America...
...as a point of stability, favored their economic and political expansion...
...115-18...
...Earthquake Profiteering: To characterize the massive influx of aid for earthquake relief and reconstruction simply as "humanitarian," as AID officials do, is somewhat misleading...
...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...
...intervention...
...24, 1975 (and other Costa Rican newspapers...
...1912...
...OPIC covers $915,000 inv...
...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...
...Industrias Unidas de Centroamerica SA: JV...
...pressure on Conservative Party to support Somoza and close ranks against guerrilla "threat" of FSLN leads to pact between government and opposition...
...the contradictions within that class are secondary to the unity...
...each...
...After the War, Somoza consolidated his economic base in the lucrative businesses of cattle raising and gold mining: e.g., he controlled cattle exports and sold export rights to a few other chosen ranchers...
...In the United Nations too, Nicaragua is one vote the U.S...
...Much of Tachito's economic power in Central America comes not from direct investments but from indirect operations...
...State Department (to forestall British intervention as a result of Nicaraguan government default on a loan from a British syndicate) gave New York's Brown Brothers bank control of the National Bank and the government-owned Pacific Railway...
...Allen Ellender (D-LA), who, after visiting all Latin America, had special praise for Trujillo and Somoza...
...Theberge confirmation hearings before Senate Foreign Relations Committee (not yet published), July 8, 1975...
...Mitsui Co...
...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...
...Given the 40 years of firm U.S...
...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...
...In evolving from a guerrilla foco to being part of a revolutionary party, guided by Marxist-Leninist ideology, representing the worker-peasant alliance, the Frente can gain the capacity to structure and lead mass struggles...
...University students, always a source of anti-Somoza activity, have become more active...
...Electroquimica Pennsalt SA (ELPESA): 40%-owned JV with INQUISA (see Adela, above...
...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...
...Northfield, Ill...
...Somoza paid $50 in taxes on his half a billion dollar fortune in 1974...
...fully integrated cigarette manufacturing monopoly...
...6, 1975;Inforpress #156, p. 5A...
...officials, has been the training provided to almost 5000 of the 6000-man GN: nearly all GN officers spend their last year of training at the U.S...
...William Krehm, Democracia y Tiranias en el Caribe (Buenos Aires: Parnaso, 1957), p. 186...
...ElPensamiento Vivo de Sandino (San Jos6: IDUCA, 1974): Gregorio Selser, Sandino, General de Hombres Libres (San Jos6: IDUCA, 1974...
...The state apparatus too has been so thoroughly corrupted as to preclude efficient functioning...
...2) Money Down the Drain More important than U.S...
...violated its agreement with the British by signing a treaty directly with Nicaragua...
...AEI Special Projects Chairman David M. Abshire became Executive Director of the Center...
...a CACM "integration industry...
...Agency for International Development (AID), Capital Assistance Paper: Nicaragua, Urban Sector Loan (Managua Reconstruction) (AID-DLC/P-2049) (Washington: AID, 1974), p. 132...
...N.Y...
...Even after building the Panama Canal, the U.S...
...Party leaders...
...Somoza also took advantage of the War to gain ownership of German-owned coffee plantations and other properties, once they had been "expropriated" by the government...
...Second, in early 1909, Zelaya defied U.S...
...Ore & Fertilizer Co...
...estimates range from 20,000 to 40,000 (followed by Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans and Washington...
...cit., esp...
...Somoza's joint ventures include the METASA investment with U.S...
...cit., p. 33: "Foreign Military Sales and Military Assistance Program," Congressional Presentation Document, FY 1976 and 1977, Nov...
...Thus, Somoza always supported regional pacification schemes, and took an active role in the Central American Defense Council, CONDECA, after its creation in 1964 under U.S...
...45% of raw materials are chlorine from Pennwalt plant...
...government agency had given Anderson official government documents or classified information...
...In the 1960s, with the Alliance for Progress "aid" funds and the Central American Common Market (CACM), the Somozas organized a number of industries for the regional market (meat, fish, paper) and granted them all the maximum fiscal incentives...
...However, it also seems clear that the U.S...
...Wheelock, op...
...In the truce, signed in February 1933, Sandino accepted a gradual disarmament, permitting him to Sandino's brother Socrates at far left, standing on chair, addressing New York rally of All-American Anti-Imperialist League in support of Nicaraguan struggle...
...Fonseca, "Zero Hour in Nicaragua," Tricontinental (Cuba) #14, Sept.-Oct...
...technical agreement with IMUSA...
...The Somozas form part of a constellation of interlocking economic groups...
...Once secure at the head of the GN, Somoza, with Washington behind him, overthrew Sacasa in 1936, and subsequently maneuvered his own "election...
...efforts to impose a solution, the conflict proved impossible to contain...
...In early 1975, Theberge was chosen to prepare a report on Latin America for the Rockefeller Commission on Critical Choices by Nancy Kissinger, who is in charge of the foreign policy studies of the Commission...
...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...
...Several Senators, including Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Borah, followed the lead of early anti-interventionists (such as Sen...
...Both because the Somozas could not last long without the massive U.S...
...This came out in articles in La Prensa throughout 1975...
...and "Somoza's presence in political power is their best guarantee for maintaining the stability of the bourgeois order...
...Dallas) Elaboradora Farmaceutica SA: mfrs...
...With the CACM and industrialization of the 1960s, nearly all sectors of the bourgeoisie relied on the state to take advantage of new investment opportunities...
...Ambassador Theberge accompanied Somoza to Matagalpa to sign the loan in order to demonstrate the government's control over the area...
...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...
...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...
...28, 1968;AdvertisingAge, Mar...
...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...
...By 1974, many inside the State Department regarded him as an embarrassment and no longer believed his rosy pro-Somoza reports of the situation in Nicaragua...
...In the House, Rep...
...in Vietnam and in other insurgency situations...
...containers & electrical equipment...
...Observers have noted dissidence among young officers hurt by Somoza's In the heart of "downtown" Managua, 1975...
...In 1973, labor unrest exploded as workers felt directly the effects of post-earthquake measures (longer hours, lower wages...
...2 mn...
...and escalation during 1975 of FSLN-GN encounters in the northern countryside, leaving casualties on both sides.* Faced with a growing loss of authority, the Somoza regime has intensified repression against the entire Nicaraguan population...
...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...
...There was not even an American Chamber of Commerce in Nicaragua until December 1973...
...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...
...another calls the Vietnam war "a full-scale Nicaragua...
...Sources: Interviews, primarily with Nicaraguan-American sociologist doing Ph.D...
...could not "win" militarily or politically...
...These factors are of concern not only to Nicaraguans, but also to U.S...
...Already in 1952, Somoza was making plans with top officials of the Truman Administration to oust Arbenz...
...troops to preserve order, but also by trying to persuade the opposition to accept Somoza's assumption of absolute power...
...HAR, Sept...
...1 o It was this active participation of workers and peasants that transformed the constitutionalist war of 1926 into an anti-imperialist war of national liberation...
...In addition, Nicaragua gets around $3 million a year in U.S...
...Panama's Torrijos) and outside the region (e.g...
...El Grdfico, Oct...
...Ultimately, these attempts must be seen as a continuation of traditional inter-bourgeois (Liberal-Conservative) strife, with some of the country's most powerful families financing the anti-Somoza revolts, while indirectly benefiting from the Somoza dictatorship.9 Nevertheless, these unsuccessful attempts are important as precedents for the FSLN's more effective armed resistance today, and as a source of lessons for the future...
...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...
...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...
...company's interests in Nicaragua: After I had been here for a short time, Somoza sent for me...
...During the 1960s, after the development of a guerrilla opposition movement, the repressive apparatus was "modernized," with the introduction of new techniques similar to those used by the U.S...
...she earns a fraction of the amount earned by a man for the same back-breaking labor...
...objective remains to isolate the Nicaraguan Communist Party, currently in a coalition with a broad front of opposition parties...
...and international aid is "development...
...Charles Porter (D-OR), who refused to visit Nicaragua on the grounds that it would legitimate the Somoza dictatorship and undermine social democratic forces...
...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...
...Interviews...
...government loans, pushing for a Nicaraguan canal, or generally spreading kind words about them...
...113...
...arms and helicopters are arriving daily in support of GN operations...
...Marines were sent to restore order...
...2. Interview with militant of Frente Sandinista de Liberaci6n Nacional (FSLN) Doris Tijerino by Margaret Randall (mimeo., 1975), pp...
...For a time, in the early 1970s, it appeared that Guatemalan President Arana was pushing to expand CONDECA into a Central American "political community...
...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...
...Meanwhile, the Embassy continues to reinforce Somoza with large amounts of material aid and advice...
...imperialism in Indochina...
...and 4) "national selfdetermination," e.g...
...maneuverability in case something should go wrong with Somoza...
...1 mn...
...Pueblo (Costa Rica) June 9, 1975, Oct...
...in late 1975, the press reported several cases of hepatitis among workers there, and at least one death...
...At the 1960 Republican Convention, Davidson (also on Somoza money) worked to obtain the nomination for Nixon...
...1964, Feb...
...El Gr6fico, Dec...
...Dear Mr...
...began implementing as early as 1927, was "Nicaraguanization," the creation of a Nicaraguan military force (the Guardia Nacional) trained, equipped, and advised by the U.S...
...investments...
...This question is being addressed primarily to North Americans rather than to Nicaraguans who are familiar with it from their own direct experience...
...However, it retained a strong base in some sectors of the labor movement...
...now he reportedly has intentions of attracting the banana investments being nationalized in Honduras and other Central American countries to Nicaragua...
...Jarquin, "Reflexiones....,"pp...
...A good example is the recently granted $14 million loan to the Institute of Peasant Welfare, INVIERNO...
...Finally, in 1967, Tachito took formal power as President, and in the early 1970s made the necessary maneuvers to permit his reelection in 1974...
...Torres, R., "Sintesis...," pp...
...was faced with "a wholly new phenomenon," which, lacking civilian support, it was not prepared to handle.14 More serious were Washington's political problems...
...Sandinist Front: People's War in Central America," Tricontinental #18, May-June 1970...
...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...
...Leigh Textile Co...
...13, 1968...
...of City Investing Co., N.Y...
...80% have no running water in Managua...
...had far superior weapons, firepower, and airpower, it was caught in many of the contradictions it was to face forty years later in Vietnam...
...and other foreign banks...
...arbitrary promotions and firings...
...This assessment is based primarily on 1975 interviews in Washington and Nicaragua...
...Main sources: Congressional Record...
...shrimp freezing & processing plant on Pacific coast opened late '60s...
...2 mn...
...government (taxpayers)-and which would bring the total to around $500 million in public international loans and grants since the late 1940's...
...airport to be completed in '76...
...However, it should be noted that reliable, up-to-date statistics are impossible to obtain.4 II...
...Mario Salazar speech in Gaceta Sandinista #3 (Mexico), p. 10...
...For a time the PSN claimed to support the guerrillas...
...it also initiated public works to facilitate coffee exports...
...OPIC covers $3 mn...
...Adela has $1.6 rmn...
...Sandino's decision to fight the U.S.-imposed political solution forced the U.S...
...until it went bankrupt in 1972...
...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...
...Luis Sinclhez, PSN Sec...
...But by themselves, these efforts will have limited impact...
...The Democratic Party came out against intervention in its 1928 platform, and the Republican Party was very divided...
...functionary, the intelligence unit he was training within the GN had ties not with OPS but with the CIA...
...But the nature of the struggle in Nicaragua - specifically the likelihood that the U.S...
...Behind Washington's friendship lay concrete U.S...
...114...
...VI and charts, pp...
...Rather than preventing civil war between Liberal and Conservative factions (a frequently cited pretext), the 1909 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...
...Following his assassination of Sandino, Anastasio ("Tacho") Somoza became the de facto arbiter of Nicaraguan politics.2 Thus, while fearing Somoza's designs, President Sacasa was powerless to replace him or to challenge the independent power of the Guardia Nacional...
...In fact, this meeting and its aftermath were part of a process of accommodation between Somoza and the Costa Rican social democratic Partido Liberaci6n Nacional (PLN...
...continuation of labor and student unrest, peasant land struggles Main sources: interviews, Hispanic American Report...
...and international press and Nicaraguan bourgeoisie of Somoza's vulnerability and of the broad base of support for the FSLN...
...Pan Am has maintained service to Managua since 1929...
...and other foreign private banks...
...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...
...this treaty granted the U.S...
...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...
...Marines.* Throughout the 1930's, '40's and '50's the dominant U.S...
...Somoza also profits from the operations of his Nicaraguan enterprises in other countries...
...Sandino and the Rise of Somoza BACKGROUND The Somoza dynasty is the product of the U.S.' "first Vietnam" - that is, the U.S...
...While beginning to comprehend the crisis in the Somoza regime, and to hedge its bets, Washington has found no stable alternative...
...Moreover, as seen above, Somoza's Nicaragua has provided a base for countering "undesirable" movements throughout the region...
...cit., pp...
...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...
...Roque Dalton...
...From the outset, Tacho used certain tactics to maintain his hold over the GN: buying off or disposing of officers who were not totally subservient, rewarding loyal officers with desirable and lucrative positions or outright bribes, manipulating the power of troop command, providing retired officers with positions in government agencies or Somoza-controlled enterprises...
...Overseas Private Investment Corp...
...For a good inside view, see Berle, op...
...Rosario also has oil exploration concession...
...Moreover, it involves an organized effort to counter the powerful Somoza lobby in the U.S., to expose and discredit the dictatorship wherever possible...
...II27 The striking thing about the dozens of plots, uprisings, and invasions undertaken by 1960 is their lack of success, despite the extraordinary heroism of the participants, the great, sacrifice and high cost in lives...
...Embassy...
...cit., pp...
...II, pp...
...It is highly mobile and does not seek military control over an area...
...Starting with a nucleiis from the San Albino mine, Sandino recruited from among the peasants with land grievances and the workers in foreign-owned banana, lumber and mining companies...
...Heinl, op...
...Excelsior, Aug...
...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...
...parent...
...Thus in a real sense, Somoza rules on behalf of an entire class...
...The following is based on interviews and Millett, op...
...mixes insecticides...
...and Somoza have operated through a series of internal institutions which are also important to understand...
...10 ff...
...Calculation based on data in: Gert Rosenthal, "The Role of Private Foreign Investment in the Development of the Central American Common Market," (unpublished manuscript, 1971...
...Internally, they were led for the most part by Conservatives (although with some participation by ex-Sandinistas and other leftists...
...in '74...
...it is reported that his nomination as Ambassador was supported by Rockefeller and Kissinger over the opposition of William Rogers and others in the State Department...
...By maintaining control over the GN through its chief, the U.S...
...Moreover, although the goals were not explicitly socialist, the U.S...
...Rheem Intl...
...E. 2.....!I...
...Conservative Party splits over issue of participation in government...
...In this context, the FSLN staged its unprecedented action of December 1974...
...its railroad track was torn up, its trestles burned, and its locomotives damaged...
...In 1956, on behalf of Tachito, Davidson bought $500 worth of tickets to a dinner honoring Eisenhower...
...Novedades (Nicaragua), Nov...
...To get good press, they have retained a series of public relations firms...
...In 1926 he joined the constitutionalist revolt, but was routed...
...fats & oils from cotton seed...
...as one official put it, "The Conservatives are in disarray...
...Embassy officials have spent considerable energy attempting to isolate PSN within UDEL, by playing on the anti-Communism of other UDEL leaders...
...These limitations stemmed from objective factors in Nicaraguan history, such as the lack of a bourgeois democratic revolution permitting the circulation of Marxist ideas...
...have a special responsibility and will play a strategic role...
...40 percent of coffee cutters are women...
...Certainly the U.S...
...government and U.S...
...Although the U.S...
...it is ultimately directed against U.S...
...For examples, see Torres, R., op...
...could not provide such protection against Sandinista attacks, and on a number of occasions was forced to destroy U.S...
...2 7 Second, once any independent power of the traditional ruling class political parties had been destroyed (since both parties became totally dependent on U.S...
...commissaries and other buildings on its banana plantations were looted and burned...
...In short, the Somoza dictatorship has precluded a bourgeois democratic revolution in Nicaragua and has crippled the bourgeois opposition...
...Nicaragua's Puerto Cabezas served as the departure point for the April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion...
...fertilizer & bagging plant in Corinto: OPIC covers $.8 mn...
...policy toward Nicaragua, worked to improve the Somoza image in the U.S., and at times obtained special favors for the Somozas...
...influence...
...Cabezas began producing naval stores (resin, turpentine, pine oil) in '69...
...Hercules Powder Co...
...Nicaraguan Ambassador Sevilla Sacasa (who has served in that post in Washington for 32 years) held a press conference to refute the columns...
...Interviews...
...But they are sufficient to indicate another dimension of Tachito's attachment to the U.S...
...37-9...
...24, 1975;Prensa Libre, Aug...
...A clear understanding of the contradictions in the Somoza dictatorship will expose its vulnerability and counter the myth of the Somozas' permanence...
...More recently in 1975, Oduber is said to have agreed to crack down on Nicaraguan exile activities,* in exchange for Somoza's promise to stop financing the extreme rightist, golpista Movimiento Costa Rica Libre (which he began aiding as early as 1964).4s Somoza has also intervened directly or indirectly in specific crisis situations...
...In 1965-66, Theberge held a high post in the State Department Latin American division, also advising USIS and the Treasury secretary...
...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...
...Drew Pearson, WP, Feb...
...predominant aspects of the economy were production of meat (not for export), and for most Nicaraguans, land-based subsistence...
...HAR, Feb...
...From 1966 to 1968 he was associate director of AID in Saigon, and subsequently Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Social and Civic Development in Washington...
...Historical and recent events in Nicaragua suggest that by itself the UDEL strategy could not bring down the Somoza regime...
...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...
...intervention in Nicaragua in the face of a serious "threat" to the region...
...In this sense, we can see Somoza as being at the center of a network - not a political-economic group in the traditional or strict sense, but an informal mafia...
...Chamorro at meeting of InterAmerican Press Association in Brazil, Oct...
...I The Comite Civico Latinoamericano Pro- Liberacion de Nicaragua publishes a monthly newspaper, Gaceta Sandinista, in order to keep all Latin Americans in the U.S., and particularly the Nicaraguan community, informed about the situation in Nicaragua...
...107 ff...
...The Army to Defend Nicaraguan National Sovereignty was rooted primarily in the Nicaraguan peasantry and proletariat...
...107 This initial stage ended with the founding of the FSLN in 1962 as the first unified political-military organization of the revolutionary struggle...
...Ambassador is of significance for Nicaragua and Central America...
...Inforpress #43, p. 4A, # 122, p. 6A, #137, p. 13...
...Anti-intervention opinion spread from the Left to broader sectors - particularly after the Depression reinforced feelings that the price of protecting U.S...
...by his own admission, he obtained state bank11 credits available to no private citizen...
...cit., pp...
...Congress, helping them get U.S...
...Jack Anderson column, Washington Post (WP), Aug...
...3 5 f) Somoza has also managed relations with U.S...
...loan...
...all sectors relied on U.S...
...8 9 No doubt, these are only a few of Somoza's U.S...
...oil companies have sunk a reported $40 milion into exploring for oil and gas, both offshore and onshore...
...929 "Long live the poor...
...livestock & poultry feed...
...But between the lines, nearly everyone in Nicaragua reads a more strategic U.S...
...requires action, and if the FSLN were to await the affiliation of everyone or even of the majority of the Nicaraguan people to build a mass organization, it would see the dawn of the 21st century without doing anything...
...Chicago) Booth Nicaragua SA: acquired 56% in early '6 s & exports shrimp, lobster at El Bluff on east coast...
...For a fee of $1000 a month plus expenses, Davidson performed the following services, among others: *At the 1960 Democratic convention Davidson worked in the Lyndon Johnson camp which, he claimed, had promised a "housecleaning" of "communistic" (i.e., pro-social democrat, anti-dictator) elements in the State Department Central * U.S...
...645 ff...
...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...
...was intervening to preserve, and Sandino was fighting to overthrow, the rule of the Nicaraguan oligarchy, class rule...
...27 leaders of boycott campaign deprived of political rights until March 1975...
...regime had replaced Zelaya, Washington assured its control over Nicaragua's foreign debts by appointing representatives to collect and retain customs revenue...
...Wheelock, op...
...net earnings of $3.2 mn...
...A high point of the Congress was.its declaration of solidarity with the Pinochet regime in Chile...
...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...
...increasing student protest...
...Macaulay, op...
...28, 1967...
...Inforpress #74, p. 5A...
...cit., p. 40...
...April-August) militant worker and student protests...
...s Moreover, PSN practice, relying on "mass mobilization," and its statements criticizing the FSLN actions appear to exclude the armed aspect of the struggle which is inevitable in a case like Nicaragua...
...Even more important was public opinion in the U.S...
...rebuilding new quarters 3 times original size in new Motocentro shopping center...
...Some, however, do exist, and for Americans the Monroe Doctrine is one of the most enduring of them all...
...Moreover, U.S...
...1972, p. 12...
...1, 1975: La Prensa, Sept...
...Embassy...
...265 employees...
...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...
...5, 1275, pp...
...The Zelaya regime modernized and strengthened the institutions and laws of the bourgeois state...
...won that first round - through a "Nicaraguanization" which left the entire country occupied by the U.S.-trained Guardia Nacional and its leader...
...Interviews;MiamiHerald, Jan...
...Tr(iL, - 1...
...is a series of business ventures here...
...2 2 Thus ended the first phase of Nicaragua's national liberation struggle...
...28, 1975...
...By the end of the War, new forces were moving in Central America...
...262-64...
...After a lull of more than twenty years, incipient revolutionary (as distinct from reformist) anti-Somoza activity began after the assassination of Tacho in 1956, with increasing student activism by 1958 and the 1958 guerrilla action led by Sandinista Ramon Raudales...
...interests...
...1975...
...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...
...plant in Chinandega mixes insecticides...
...The only wrinkle in an otherwise smooth relationship resulted from an ongoing dispute within the State Department between those who felt squeamish about absolute U.S...
...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...
...policy...
...Western Intl...
...The U.S., now entering the Cold War, did nothing to prevent the golpe...
...Marines too completely as the enemy and to believe that Sacasa and Somoza, representatives of the U.S...
...22 through April 11, 1928, and Beals, Banana Gold...
...However, U.S...
...OUR "FIRST VIETNAM" No less important as background for Sandino's antiimperialist war against the U.S...
...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...
...according to informed U.S...
...The immediate task of bringing down the Somoza dictatorship is seen as a stage in a class struggle for socialism, for the overthrow of bourgeois rule and the capitalist system...
...first class Camino Real Hotel near Managua's intl...
...Edition) #2, p. 107...
...imperialism...
...In 1971, as President, Nixon honored Tachito with a White House dinner...
...Ambassador Shelton, and took hostage many of the leading figures of the regime, including some of Tachito's relatives...
...150 employees...
...regarding use of the land for illegal cattle traffic between the two countries...
...107...
...Finally, there is a sizeable community of Nicaraguans living in the U.S...
...support for corrupt dictatorships and those who had no such qualms...
...cannot afford to lose Nicaragua - primarily because it cannot risk losing the entire Central American region...
...He has close ties with exile businessmen, some of whom have been operating in Nicaragua since the Bay of Pigs days...
...Ralston Purina (St...
...In fact, the Frente has evolved considerably from its largely student base of the early 1960's...
...Strom Thurmond (R-SC...
...Washington can afford to lose Somoza, and at this point (while not moving against him) would probably not intervene to save him...
...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...
...only with the Kennedy Administration was he finally replaced in February 1961.68 Turner Shelton, a personal friend and campaign contributor to President Nixon, was about to be retired from the Foreign Service when Nixon appointed him Ambassador to Nicaragua in 1970...
...13, 1975: interviews and leaflets...
...investment accounting for at least 80 percent of this total...
...However, the Somozas' accumulation of wealth was part of a more general process of capitalist concentration in Nicaragua...
...It taught the U.S...
...One of the early U.S...
...Inforpress #33, p. 3A...
...cards for all Nicaraguans (to be provided by the U.S...
...HAR (various...
...replacing the Somoza dictatorship with a nationalist and progressive bourgeois democracy is a real possibility...
...command resented the Marines, and staged ten mutinies.'s Internationally, and particularly in Latin America, there was broad support for Sandino and none for the U.S...
...Cosco Intl...
...N.Y...
...Interview...
...cit., Chap...
...TheNation, July 1, 1961...
...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...
...Unless otherwise stated, the local company is based in Managua...
...Wheelock, op...
...be able to avoid direct involvement...
...At the very least, Somoza obtained from his old compadre, Honduran President L6pez, a promise not to take advantage of the internal chaos to invade El Salvador (which would have crippled the Salvadoran army in putting down the revolt...
...The foreign parent company is listed first, followed by its local subsidiary and a description of its operations...
...FSLN guerrillas armed confrontations at the Coco and Bocay Rivers (entering from Honduras) which resulted in the FSLN's defeat by the GN...
...Chicago): gum plant at Waspan exports to U.S...
...Wheelock, op...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, NY.5 "nationalism" was his unpredictability...
...t Unlike most other Central American countries, Nicaragua never was the site of large foreign-owned railroad/banana/ public utilities empires...
...TELCOR owning 51...
...This would also facilitate the U.S...
...In the evaluation of one Marine historian, for example, "Marine aviation came of age during the Nicaraguan campaign...
...a.!A constant theme of Somoza operations in the 1960s and 1970s has been their political and economic involvement with the Cuban exile network...
...Conversely, Somoza who had sought to disarm Sandino totally, saw in him a source of future problems...
...Thus today the San Francisco ComitM, along with similar groups in Los Angeles and other U.S...
...principal mines are Bonanza gold mine (Zelaya dept...
...largest private commercial bank...
...This impression is reinforced by such aspects of the project as a data bank on the affected area...
...The choice, made by the U.S...
...84 workers in '70...
...By 1910 the production of coffee, gold, lumber and bananas - the principal sources of foreign exchange - was to a large extent in U.S...
...Theberge just happens to be an expert on the Soviet Union and Communist Parties in Latin America...
...100 mn...
...U.S...
...credits to growers & provides technical assistance in exchange for right to buy total production...
...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...
...United Fruit Co...
...Cia...
...Alberto Bayo, Tempestad en el Caribe (Mexico, 1950...
...As one U.S...
...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...
...President of the Constituent Assembly Cornelio Hueck was directly implicated in a land speculation scandal involving AID funds: being privy to inside information regarding the site of temporary housing for the homeless, he bought property there for $17,000 and sold it two days later for $1.2 million to the National Housing Bank...
...mining and lumber companies have for years paid Somoza a "fee" in order to operate without problems and to avoid taxes...
...began a gradual withdrawal of Marines in 1931, and planned to withdraw the rest after a U.S.-supervised election in 1932...
...cotton blankets...
...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...
...If it is true that U.S...
...Most important, Somoza had to permit publication in all the newspapers and broadcast over official radio of the 12,000-word FSLN communique denouncing the government as "the most despicable dictatorship in Latin America...
...Thus, the Somozas turned the pivotal GN into their own personal instrument...
...OIL EXPLORATION Some 30 U.S...
...But these conflicts, while important at times, have tended to be temporary and secondary to the underlying unity of the class and its institutions...
...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...
...from IFC, $3.5 mn...
...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...
...the Somoza government made sure that state enterprises such as the Pacific Railroad serviced private Somoza holdings...
...November) new opposition coalition formed in preparation for 1974 "election...
...supplies.13 -The Sandinistas enjoyed a constant flow of information about U.S...
...Somoza received 25% interest in hotel for making available choice land and tax concessions...
...intervention.12 -To the embarrassment of Marine officials, Sandino was fighting with captured U.S...
...these led to a political break in 1930 between Sandino and Salvadoran Communist Farabundo Marti (who subsequently led the 1932 peasant uprising in his own country...
...Once reinstalled in 1947, Somoza made a pact with a sector of the Conservative opposition which assured his own "election" as President in 1951...
...In 1867, the U.S...
...harsh repression, unions and PSN outlawed 1948 Somoza pact with opponents...
...104...
...HAR, Jan.-June, 1954...
...mfrs...
...Inforpress #68 p. 4A, #93 p. 7A, #95 p. I; interviews...
...investments were concentrated in lumber and gold mining...
...17, 1975, p. H8781...
...holding co...
...Macaulay, op...
...bankers Brown Brothers and Seligman negotiated new loans, with controlling interests in the country's national bank and railroads as security...
...Time, May 16, 1960...
...policy, must come from the revolutionary FSLN.** In fact it is from the actions of the FSLN that UDEL has gained space to maneuver...
...only a correct anti-Somoza strategy, rooted in a longer-range strategy for the Nicaraguan revolution, can realize this potential...
...In 1926, it was the United Fruit workers who initiated the May uprising against Chamorro...
...regulation of foreign investment in the national interest, diplomatic independence from the U S., etc...
...Total foreign investment today lies in the range of $130-170 million, with U.S...
...Interviews;Inforpress #46, p. 3A...
...Hispanic American Report...
...Intercontinental Hotels Corp...
...investors...
...Miami Herald, Aug...
...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...
...this facilitated their control over the bourgeois political opposition at crucial moments...
...N.Y...
...And in the days following the December 1972 earthquake, the Embassy helped Somoza strengthen his grip not only by sending 600 U.S...
...Important sectors of the private business community, for example, have concluded that Somoza is doing more to undermine the established order than to maintain it...
...cit., pp...
...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...
...Tacho is said to have celebrated July 4. Luis once said he hoped to retire in the U.S...
...cit., pp...
...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...
...According to some U.S...
...produces for local market...
...1.2 mn...
...supplies turpentine to Hercules (see chemicals, above...
...and its Nicaraguan puppet government were anxious to make "peace" with (i.e., neutralize) Sandino...
...Tachito...
...investors to Nicaragua...
...military academies, learn English, and work in the U.S...
...Embassy circles as enthusiastically proSomoza, identifying aid to the Somoza regime with development...
...Then, in the Guatemalan election of 1974 (which the Arana regime literally stole for its handpicked candidate, Gen...
...And the 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...
...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...
...32 directly out of previous failures, both of the bourgeois opposition invasions, etc., and of the PSN leadership...
...NYT advertisement supplement on Nicaragua, April 14, 1968, p. 15...
...NACLA, Subliminal Warfare...
...sons of GN officers...
...Foreign investment was encouraged by Liberal President Zelaya after 1893...
...This means overcoming the contradiction of its separation from the PSN, which has a strong base in the urban proletariat, by building a new communist party for the long-range struggle ahead...
...UDEL's strategy relies heavily on the existence of an armed movement outside itself--which, in the absence of organized opposition within the GN and/or a clear change of U.S...
...war needs...
...Following the tradition set in the era of Sandino, peasant land invasions are becoming more common and more militant...
...exports to CACM and ships plywood cores to U.S...
...When I refused, I began to have trouble...
...Silent, vacant lots overgrown with weeds and rubble from demolished buildings are all that is left where downtown used to be...
...diplomatic recognition...
...cit., p. 84...
...420,000 Eximbank loan...
...American Standard Inc...
...The Somoza government has retained his Ultramar Banking Corp...
...Meanwhile, U.S...
...assets, 42 branches...
...See Beals, "With Sandino in Nicaragua," series in The Nation, Feb...
...Thus the U.S...
...functionaries, these official figures reveal only the tip of the iceberg...
...Specifically, this involves a campaign to cut off the flow of U.S...
...housing officials (including Allen Oakley Hunter, a close friend of Vice President Nixon) to get a $350,000 U.S...
...Laboratorios Farmaceuticos de Nicaragua SA: mfrs...
...The Somoza interests also participate indirectly with foreign capital through INFONAC, a state development bank controlled by Somoza which extends credit to and takes equity participation in new ventures.21 What little local opposition exists to the entry of foreign capital is currently being confronted by U.S...
...Thus, the loss of U.S...
...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...
...UDEL leaders initiated the campaign to boycott the 1974 election...
...The Center's Latin American program is supported in part by a grant from the Lilly Foundation...
...What steps foreign banking capital will take today to protect its loans in Nicaragua, should they be threatened, remains to be seen.* SUPPORT FOR THE LOYAL FRIEND (1) Two "Ugly Americans" Within the context of unwavering support from Washington, the Somozas have been graced with two U.S...
...And in the face of military losses and loss of public support, the U.S...
...4.6 mn...
...infant mortality rate: 13...
...Canada...
...17 These doubts were nourished by a few honest voices in the U.S...
...inaugurated Dec...
...but they too were politically unable to continue the struggle, and were gradually eliminated...
...These concerns structure and limit the material in this Report...
...wood products mill established in '68...
...In 1954 an assassination plot against Somoza was discovered in Costa Rica, allegedly with the knowledge of high officials of the Figueres government...
...5 9 (3) Strategic Considerations Because of its location, Nicaragua has at certain times taken on a strategic importance for the U.S...
...A few months thereafter, Shelton was replaced - although not until after Somoza had lobbied to keep him in Nicaragua...
...18, 1975...
...MJB Co...
...But U.S...
...Economically the spread of coffee cultivation and mono-export to the world capitalist market stimulated basic changes - most importantly, the expropriation of communal lands and their redistribution to private landowners...
...11, 185...
...First, these forces brought a "land reform" which concentrated land ownership in the hands of the new coffee bourgeoisie and foreign banana companies, at the expense of Indian communities and small owners, thus laying the conditions for a struggle over land...
...Since little information is available in written, documented form, we have relied largely on interviews, conducted in the U.S...
...Finally, the corruption and misuse of aid funds has become much more blatant...
...and Nicaraguan) of the U.S.-founded Nicaraguan military academy...
...Brown was senior partner of Brown Bros...
...economic aid...
...2 3 For future guerrilla insurgents throughout Latin America, too, it was an important precedent and source of military experience...
...The Communist International sent both moral and material support...
...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...
...to which octogenarian exile living in Costa Rica, Edelberto Torres, aptly replied, "The terrible situation in Nicaragua...
...Arana maintained close ties with Somoza throughout and even after his presidency...
...2 mn...
...interviews...
...sales...
...of North Carolina Press, 1959...
...In Section VI we shall examine more closely its contradictions, as part of a more general analysis of the possibilities and strategies for overthrowing that system...
...objective...
...the Costa Rican Embassy in Nicaragua has denied asylum to some Nicaraguans...
...11, 185...
...supremacy in Central America against the leftist Mexican government which was supporting the Liberals...
...Winthrop Laboratories (N.Y., divn...
...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...
...More important, however, this question requires a reassessment of the strategies employed over the years by the anti-Somoza forces...
...Mexico's...
...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...
...La Prensa (Nicaragua), Oct...
...t Thus, the UDEL strategy lends itself to significantly modifying and democratizing, but not ending, rule on behalf of the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie and U.S...
...Total post-earthquake assistance adds up to more than * Even after his return to Washington, the scandal continued, as Shelton got his friends on Capitol Hill, especially Senator Carl Curtis and Representative John Murphy, to persuade President Ford to name him Ambassador to the Bahamas...
...upon leaving office in 1963, he pledged to dedicate himself to the overthrow of Castro...
...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...
...As one observer summarized it, Tachito (like his e U.S...
...7 3 Yet in October 1974, the Nicaraguan government got the aid agencies to promise $671 million for the period 1975-9.74 Let us see a few examples of how the aid is being used...
...1948-55, passim.: Charles Ameringer, The Democratic Left in Exile (Coral Gables: Univ...
...the role of the U.S...
...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...
...cit., p. 113...
...government could do nothing to stop the League...
...According to 1975 reports in the U.S...
...Quimica de la Costa Atlantica SA: $4 mn...
...gold, wood, rubber...
...117...
...t Despite its small amount, U.S...
...of Sterling Drug Co., N.Y...
...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...
...75 received approval for $4.8 mn...
...Hispanic American Report (HAR) (Stanford), Mar...
...Though Nicaragua is the largest Central American country, it has historically attracted the least foreign investment...
...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...
...long term credit from CABEI...
...Inforpress #115, p. 5A...
...exports vitreous china sanitary ware...
...This is what it means to live in a country that has never known even the most minimal democratic guarantees...
...what is left of the Party is nothing more than Somoza's personal plaything...
...Clearly, the most constant and important source of power has been U.S...
...A number of Somoza enterprises, including Novedades and Plasmafdresis (the blood export venture) are run by Cuban exiles...
...to the Dominican Republic in 1972 and to Venezuela in 1973) Somoza was met by public protests...
...Frequent rotations are needed to prevent the formation of dissident groups...
...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...
...N.Y., subsid...
...2) Solidarity with U.S...
...Adela has $729,000 equity inv...
...Further, in his article "The Doorstep Challenge," Theberge states: "There are very few unchanging principles governing the relations between nations...
...fully integrated textile plant (cotton & synthetic) inaugurated '70...
...40% owned by INQUISA (see Adela above...
...Following in his father's footsteps, Tachito has been making frequent visits to the U.S...
...in dividends in '74...
...backing...
...one Nicaraguan diplomat even acknowledged off the record that he always follows the U.S...
...Edmundo Jarquin, "Nicaragua: Desarrollo Econ6mico, Social y Politico en el Presente Siglo" (mimeo., 1975), pp...
...Somoza has a wide network of influential "friends" and business interests here...
...During his service there, according to one U.S...
...Nabisco Inc...
...2 9 The net result of the iron-fist rule has been to stifle political and ideological development in Nicaragua, to paralyze the "free play of ideas," to maintain Nicaragua's political backwardness...
...See Torres R., and Vinicio Gonzalez, "Naturaleza y crisis del Poder en Centroam6rica," Estudios Sociales Centroamericanos L Poder en Centroambrica," Estudios Sociales Centroamericanos #3, Sept.-Dec...
...146 ff...
...What have been the bases and the nature of the Somoza dictatorship, its strengths and weaknesses...
...Paul) Industrias Kativo de Nicaragua SA: mfrs...
...105a...
...But the U.S...
...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...
...structural steel fabricator (metal structures, tubes, galvanized roofing...
...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...
...By this time, moreover, Somoza's power extended to his two sons, Luis and Anastasio Jr...
...concession over 12 billion bd...
...N.Y...
...majority ownership acquired in '64...
...The Gaceta is sold in Spanish-language establishments and many bookstores in San Francisco, as well as in Los Angeles, Washington, and other cities...
...By the late 1950's, both the opposition in Nicaragua and anti-Somoza forces in the U.S...
...But it also seems clear that the temporary alliance that UDEL represents will dissolve once Somoza is out...
...Charles Ameringer, The Democratic Left in Exile, pp...
...cit., p. 210...
...Lineas Aereas de Nicaragua (LANICA): acquired 25% ownership in exchange for two planes in '72...
...In 1912, at the request of Conservative President Dfaz, 2700 Marines landed to suppress a Liberal rebellion...
...4, 1975 in Mexico: memorandum presented by P.J...
...in late 1975, two UN human rights investigators reported having seen in Managua U.S...
...Copyright 0 1976 by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...interests...
...Since there is no public record of U.S...
...Jack Anderson columns, WP, Aug...
...testimony before Congressional Committees including: House Internal Security Committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, Senate Appropriations Committee...
...He co-sponsored with Senators Bill Brock [R-Tenn.] and Sam Nunn [D-Ga.] a monthly Senate Seminar on Latin America...
...Enrique Corominas, In the Caribbean Political Areas (trans...
...NYT, March 24, 1965...
...1975...
...Guerra Popular Prolongada," pp...
...hands...
...Returning to Nicaragua in 1926, he worked at the U.S.-owned San Albino gold mine, just as the Liberal rebellion was breaking out...
...Tachito, the real power behind Schick begins campaigning for 1967 election...
...Officers who are not subservient or corrupted enough are deprived of troop command, retired, or "exiled" to posts abroad...
...All of the Liberal army leaders agreed to lay down their arms on these terms except for one: Augusto Cesar Sandino...
...and international press,* (and even from liberals within the State Department who want a semblance of democracy), Washington adopted new and perhaps more intelligent measures for supporting Somoza...
...Since colonial times, Nicaragua has been characterized by backward and late development, even in relation to other Central American countries...
...145,000 CABEI loan...
...8, 1973, Mar...
...grows none) destined for flour...
...As Ambassador to Nicaragua (1968-69), counterinsurgent Col...
...In the House, the main Somoza advocates include: Daniel Flood (D-PA), champion of a Nicaragua canal...
...Nelson Rockefeller Takes Care of Everybody," by Robert Scheer, Playboy, October 1975...
...Neptune Mining Co.: (see above) Rosario Mining of Nicaragua: acquired La Luz Mines for 78,030 shares of Rosario Resources stock in 1973...
...Fonseca, "Zero Hour," p. 33: Mario Monteforte Toledo, Centroambrica (Mexico: UNAM, 1972), Vol...
...23, 1973...
...Minneapolis) Sacos Centroamericanos SA: mfrs...
...Monsanto Chemical Co...
...of Miami Press, 1974): Adolf Berle, Navigating the Rapids (ed...
...sales...
...The bankruptcy of this approach becomes obvious from a brief survey of the elections from that of Leonardo Arguello in 1947 to the fraud of 1974 (see chart...
...aid is crucial in maintaining Somoza today, and a future U.S...
...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...
...interest in Nicaragua is the protection of private investment...
...In addition, the Zelaya reform was truncated by the U.S...
...This network or lobby has influenced U.S...
...Swannanoa, NC, subsid...
...on at least two occasions in 1974-75, Nicaraguan student leaders passing through have been detained and interrogated at the Costa Rican airport, and subsequently turned over to Somoza's police.441...
...of Canada, Toronto) Acumuladores Centroamericanos SA (ACUMSA): JV...
...8. Wheelock, op...
...1 0 1 Perceiving that the anti-Somoza opposition was dominated by the Conservative Party, the PSN actually supported Somoza from 1944 to 1947...
...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...
...Wheelock, op...
...Newsweek, November 9, 1969...
...it is predominantly agrarian both because the land question is primary, and because the countryside is the weakest point of the enemy (while the city is Somoza's principal bulwark...
...world-wide policies as Somoza...
...the consolidation of the Somozas' political power, and its extension to all Central America (Sections III and IV...
...CHEMICALS Adela Investment Co...
...signed contract in '70 with INFONAC for revival of banana planting in Chinandega & Leon areas...
...debt & equity...
...4.5 mn...
...But in this area, undocumentable rumors go way beyond confirmed facts, and often obscure the essence of Somoza's operations...
...This action and the escalating Frente offensive during 1975 have indicated the growing strength of the organization...
...talent for Tachito...
...U.S...
...Private Bank Loans: U.S...
...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...
...18, 19, 22, 1975...
...plant is largest corrugated box mfr...
...top 5% of population has median income of $1800 a year (30% of GNP) land ownership: 43.2% of farms (less than 7 hectares each) take up 2.2% of farmland...
...6 3 Standard operating procedure in Nicaragua calls for giving Somoza a cut...
...First, given the shakiness of the Somoza regime, shoring it up was more a strategic than a humanitarian U.S...
...The U.S...
...Somoza's salt co...
...United Brands (N.Y...
...The best example is I. Irving Davidson, whose activities on behalf of the Somozas from 1955 to the mid-1960s (as well as his multiple other lobbying activities) were investigated and made public by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1963...
...Even within the Guardia Nacional, traditionally the Somozas' surest bastion of support, there is growing discontent (if no consolidated opposition...
...for preceding paragraph, see WP, Oct...
...The question which emerges from the experience of the past forty years is whether a coalition lacking any unified vision of the post-Somoza society, and having no clear alternative to the electoral road, is capable of leading a successful movement to overthrow Somoza...
...Thus, it is important to evaluate the two principal strategies...
...3 The basic mechanism, which has taken a number of forms, has been the use of state political power for the accumulation of family wealth...
...Somoza is so worried that his officers might turn against him that he insists on personally authorizing all munitions dispensations...
...6, 1975...
...In addition, the opposition candidate, Gen...
...The Conservatives proved willing to provide such governments until 1925...
...PSN This evaluation of the UDEL strategy is important not so much for its own sake, but rather because of the active participation of the Nicaraguan Communist Party, the PSN-a party which is well organized, has a base in Nicaragua's unions, and claims to be "revolutionary...
...On the one hand, their drive for domination and their usefulness to the U.S...
...arms, lent his own personal estate for CIA training of the right-wing Guatemalan exiles led by Castillo Armas, and allowed U.S...
...But when the Nicaraguan and international press denounced the profiteering, Somoza - who, as Minister of Reconstruction and head of the National Emergency Commit- tee, oversees all expenditures and channels all budget funds - staunchly denied it...
...75, 100, 146, 239...
...In some areas, particularly California, the existence of a sizeable Nicaraguan community provides the natural base for such a movement (see box...
...Wrigley Jr...
...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...
...newspaper clips...
...La Prensa, Nov...
...Interore) (subsid...
...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...
...A second and ongoing objective of U.S...
...cit., pp...
...Chicago): department store opened in '65...
...of $1 mn...
...has used the issue of a canal in Nicaragua principally to improve its bargaining position with Panama...
...Boston) Grasas y Aceites SA: plant in Chinandega mfrs...
...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...
...support...
...AID, Capital Assistance Paper: Nicaragua, Rural Development Sector Loan (AID-DLC/P-2091) (Washington: AID, 1975), passim...
...Excelsior, Sept...
...6 No sooner had the U.S...
...165 employees...
...but the new leadership continued to justify the Party's support of Aguero in the 1967 election...
...troops were sent from the Panama Canal Zone...
...part of $9 mn...
...Basel, Switz...
...Thus during the last 40 years, the Somozas rose from being an instrument of the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie to becoming an integral part of it...
...No doubt, the Somozas are among the richest families in Central America...
...1.5 mn...
...We shall trace the rise of the Somoza dictatorship as a response to the class and anti-imperialist struggle waged by Sandino - a struggle which has given Nicaragua a very special political heritage (Section II...
...to hold an election...
...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...
...younger landowners and ranchers...
...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...
...Given the high level of discontent and spontaneous struggle, it is no accident that a new moderate opposition coalition, UDEL, has emerged, more viable than those attempted previously, and that the revolutionary FSLN has grown much stronger and more active...
...Solidarity committees in Honduras and Mexico were active in mobilizing international opinion and material aid...
...some of the early large strikes were organized by the workers of U.S.-owned banana and lumber companies...
...Subsequently a "Legation Guard" of 120 Marines remained in Nicaragua until 1925...
...P. J. Chamorro speech to UDEL Youth, August 1975 (mimeo...
...For example, Somoza literally sold (or monopolized) permits to import and export certain products...
...K. Bruce Galloway and Robert B. Johnson, West Point: America's Power Fraternity (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1973), p. 217...
...3) Somoza's Friends in Court In addition to official U.S...
...Even more important was another political lesson...
...can always count on...
...and Central American press outside Nicaragua...
...The murder, a betrayal of Sandino's good faith, was carried out on February 21, 1934, as Sandino, along with his brother and aides, was leaving a dinner with President Sacasa...
...6 workers...
...Time, Oct...
...3 2 Pallais was for years head of INFONAC, the National Development Institute, enabling the Somozas to use it as their private bank...
...television shows or be seen with important national or local U.S...
...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...
...In fact the GN controls only the cities...
...Prensa Libre (Guatemala), Aug...
...22 ff., 134, 204-5...
...31, 1975, op...
...According to one of his top aides, Figueres himself began that process in a 1971 meeting with Somoza...
...first shipment of giant Cavendish bananas made in '72...
...Second, the economic crisis in Central America since 1972 (later aggravated in Nicaragua by the earthquake) has significantly raised the level of discontent among the masses...
...of Occidental Petroleum Co., Los Angeles) Abonos Superiores SA: majority-owned JV...
...also see Riding, NYT, Aug...
...began to call for his removal...
...approx...
...In exchange for granting them a totally free hand, he has benefited through payoffs and "fees" they have paid for operating in Nicaragua, and through other indirect arrangements (discussed in more detail in Section V...
...A. Colegrove, "Nicaragua: Another Cuba...
...February) Tachito "elected" President for 1967-72 period...
...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...
...see also, for these and other points below, documents of UDEL inAlianzasPoliticas 99...
...acquired in 1937...
...21, 1975...
...Created by the U.S...
...OPIC covers $3.1 mn...
...was "abandoning" Nicaragua to determine its own future...
...5 0 Even in Central America, and even among generals, progressive nationalism is becoming the order of the day...
...112...
...To develop a political-military strategy for the post-intervention stage of the struggle required a level of political development and organization that the Sandinistas did not have...
...itself...
...Booth Niarauua S: acouird 56% inearlv '6se nack ?6 Bank of America (San Francisco): three branches in Managua opened '64, '69, & '75...
...and in the absence of a stable alternative with GN support Washington remains behind Somoza...
...1 9 Thus in Nicaragua, as later in Vietnam, U.S...
...parent is a large foreign lender to Nic...
...With the withdrawal of Marines and Somoza's appointment as head of the GN in 1933, the U.S...
...The second wave consisted largely of Nicaraguans uprooted by the 1972 Managua earthquake...
...In addition to formal lobbyists, the Somozas have had a team of supporters in the U.S...
...Nicaragua was the latest of the Central American countries to go through the "Liberal Reform," which created more favorable conditions for investment...
...lives and property, the U.S...
...Thus, the U.S...
...took over Banco de Nicaragua in 1894...
...railroad baron Cornelius Vanderbilt (whose Nicaraguan transit company, established in 1851, was confiscated by Walker) managed to rout Walker in 1857...
...JV with local interests including INFONAC...
...private investment, particularly in recent years, has been U.S...
...FSLN...
...adventurer William Walker, who "conquered" Nicaragua in 1856 and received U.S...
...1. Based on personal visit to Managua, October 1975...
...cannot afford to lose Nicaragua because this could mean losing all Central America...
...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...
...cit., p. 217: Herbert Matthews, A World in Revolution (NY: Scribner's, 1971...
...Sources: Inforpress (various), U.S...
...And it is only within the context of FSLN initiatives that the UDEL objective of * Perhaps because of the prominent role of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, publisher of La Prensa, the bourgeois opposition has always used the issue of Somoza's press censorship as one of its strongest weapons to mobilize international support (through international press associations, etc...
...Others have been involved since 1964 in government-aided tobacco plantations to produce Habana puros for the U.S...
...but after the Sandinistas learned to avoid them through camouflage, the bombing attacks produced more civilian casualties than anti-Sandino victories...
...1975: "Mensaje del FSLN," reprinted in Vanguardia #1, 1974...
...CSIS was originally organized in 1962...
...Echeverria), Somoza is becoming obsolete - and less useful perhaps even to Washington than in the past...
...Somoza, under popular pressure, promulgated a Labor Code, recognized the PSN, and permitted it to organize its workers' federation and to gain a strong base in the unions...
...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...
...Neptune Mining Co.: 52%-owned and managed by ASARCO, 36% Rosario Resources, 4% Terra Nova Explorations Ltd...
...1975...
...Van Leer Group of Companies (Holland): plant established in '65 mfrs...
...during the war with U.S...
...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...
...Inforpress #104, pp...
...Herb Caen in San Francisco Chronicle, Sept...
...E.g., Presencia Universitaria (Honduras) #16, Nov...
...The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 temporarily resolved AngloAmerican competition, providing that any canal should not be controlled or fortified by either nation...
...used modem techniques such as aerial bombings...
...Interview in Siempre, op...
...Since this represented almost 10% of the Company's stock, the sale had to be registered with the SEC...
...Tennessee Corp...
...STATISTICS size: 57,143 mi...
...EXXON (N.Y...
...also exports...
...The Commander of the U.S...
...Thus, after a period of rebuilding, and an initial setback following the earthquake, the FSLN was able to initiate a new offensive in 1973-74, taking advantage of the mushrooming popular discontent in the wake of the earthquake, and leading to the spectacular action of December 27, 1974...
...Hercules invested $2 mn...
...As in Vietnam 40 years later, these doubts were fed by the contradictions of the intervention itself - e.g...
...Congressional Record, March 5, 1970...
...Meanwhile, the bulk of the city's inhabitants live in temporary shacks or tents, or have had to leave Managua altogether...
...supplies part of salt requirements...
...govt's...
...Tachito repeatedly said he would be glad to lead another invasion...
...Good Neighbor" Roosevelt violated his own policy of not recognizing golpista regimes, sending a special mission to Nicaragua and inviting Somoza to make an official visit to Washington in 1939...
...17, 1975, p. H8781...
...9. This analysis is based on: Wheelock, op...
...At a time of challenges from relatively progressive and nationalist forces within Central America (e.g...
...And out of these clubs was founded in early 1974 a political association, the ComitM Civico Latinoamericano Pro-Liberaci6n de Nicaragua...
...21, 1975...
...In 1957, Luis had himself elected President, while Tachito became head of the GN...
...Mario Monteforte Toledo, Centro America, Vol...
...could accept a stable UDEL-type bourgeois democracy to replace Somoza - requires that the FSLN have a longer-range strategy and begin now to build a * The military tribunal set up by Somoza after the December 1974 action to investigate FSLN activities revealed the extent to which the Frente enjoys collaboration and participation not only from a growing number of peasants, but also from such diverse sectors as: Catholic priests...
...of UAL Inc., N.Y...
...interests by negotiating a loan of 2.5 million pounds sterling with a London syndicate -- again, an intolerable move...
...In 1970 he went to Guatemala as AID director...
...To maintain his own control over the GN, he has crippled it as an effective counterinsurgency force...
...As seen above, throughout the late 1930's and 1940's, the U.S...
...ALL IN THE FAMILY" When Tacho Somoza rose to political power in the 1930s, he owned little more than a ruined coffee finca...
...processes domestic corn & other grain for feed...
...subsid...
...their function is to carry out assassinations and other tasks too dirty for the official army...
...audiences...
...Manuel Artime, a Somoza friend since the Bay of Pigs, is in the meat export business (some say with Somoza...
...TOURISM & TRANSPORT Hughes Tool Co...
...according to one study, the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing lobby organization, "gave financial and administrative birth to the Georgetown Center...
...companies...
...interests and security obejctives...
...Corporacion Hotelera de Turismo SA: in Sept...
...Financiera Centroamericana of Panama...
...leaflets...
...it is rumored that Theberge was fired from the IDB...
...19, 1974;Inforpress #114, p. 2A...
...U.S...
...Interviews...
...oldest foreign bank...
...9 Less readily acknowledged in Washington is the recurrently reported presence in Nicaragua of U.S...
...First, even though, according to the U.S...
...8 Thus, when Sandino took up arms in open guerrilla war against the sell-out to U.S...
...The political expression of this reality, as we shall see, is that Somoza would not be able to rule without the active complicity of that class as a whole...
...Communications Satellite Corp...
...102-3...
...laminated plastic sheets...
...27-9, 113-14...
...The December 27 action itself probably had the collaboration of someone at the party or one of the guards...
...and to ignore the Somozas' own drive for hegemony...
...As in Indochina, any anti-Somoza victory in Nicaragua will profoundly affect the entire region, and any serious anti-imperialist confrontation in Nicaragua is bound to spill over into other Central American countries.* A number of informed sources in Washington acknowledge the real possibility of U.S...
...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...
...94701...
...November) civilian-military plot within Nicaragua discovered and dismantled 1958 (April) attempted invasion by Nicaraguan exiles from Honduras and Costa Rica fails when discovered and stopped by police in those countries...
...Theberge is not a career diplomat, but an academic expert on the Soviet presence in Latin America, who has held a series of important government-related positions...
...OTHER American Cyanamid (Wayne, NJ): $1.5 mn...
...private capital has played an important role...
...Although not complete, this list does indicate the diversity of Somoza holdings...
...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...
...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...
...Tachito also has an economic stake in the Cuban exile cause...
...Guerra Popular Prolongada en Nicaragua," in Gaceta Sandinista (Mex...
...officials on the spot, large quantities of food, clothing, and other goods sent to be distributed free were being sold on the black market by Guardsmen and government officials...
...Sinchez statement in "Definen Los Objetivos de UDEL," Dec...
...of timber...
...That class struggle was greatly intensified by both the Liberal Reform and the influx of foreign investment in the early 20th century...
...In order to make this "solution" stick in subsequent years, therefore, the U.S...
...even presidents such as Guatemala's Laugerud are beginning to recognize that being associated with Somoza is a political liability...
...Navy, March, 1971...
...4 3 * Even during the late 1960s, Costa Rican police had cooperated by sending Nicaraguan guerrillas caught in Costa Rica back to Nicaragua...
...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...
...Why specifically did Washington come to see Zelaya as a threat and secure his ouster...
...Columnists included prominent pro-Batista Cuban exiles...
...Of more concern to financial analysts, however, are the hard terms on which many of these credits were negotiated...
...Ultimately, however, the consequences have been to undermine the political foundations and institutions of Somoza rule, and to sharpen the basic contradictions...
...Essential aspects of the protracted struggle, as projected by the FSLN, are:' 09 * it cannot rely on a solely "'peaceful" strategy, but is necessarily armed - although violence is to be combined with political struggle and to be used only when, and to the extent, necessary...
...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...
...stood behind Tacho Somoza as he consolidated his power by whatever means necessary, while servicing U.S...
...1975: Alan Riding in New York Times (NYT), Aug...
...formed in 1938...
...drugs...
...3) basic workers' rights (e.g...
...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...
...Philadelphia National Bank (Phila...
...airline: LANICA shipping line: MAMENIC shipping service: Mari'tima Mundial port facilities: Puerto Somoza tourism: Hoteles de Nicaragua S.A...
...and 2) since many of the peasants are also salaried agrarian workers, there is no absolute distinction between peasants and workers - nor, given migration to the cities, between countryside and city.1 1 4 In the case of Nicaragua, a truly proletarian political line will come not from "bureaucratic actions of the labor union leadership," part of which has been corrupted, but from an increasingly proletarianized peasantry...
...258-59...
...The combined efforts of the other Central American governments, England, and U.S...
...interviews: Gabriel Aguilera, La Integraci6n Militar en Centroamerica (Guatemala: INCFP, 1975), pp...
...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...
...In September 1956, following several abortive coup attempts by opposition movements, Rigoberto L6pez Pdrez assassinated Somoza (who was then planning his reelection in 1957...
...Harriman & Co...
...CABEI loaned $1.3 mn...
...60%) & CACM (40...
...Spruille Braden, Diplomats and Demagogues (New Rochelle: Arlington Hse., 1971), p. 411...
...and Costa Rican press, entire villages have been devastated or evacuated, and whole families have been arrested or killed...
...challenged British hegemony, particularly in regard to control over an inter-oceanic canal...
...2 5 The mistake of the Sandinistas in accepting "Nicaraguanization" was not repeated by the Vietnamese forty years later...
...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...
...Major Opposition Movements Since 1944 1944 Somoza's position threatened by movement organized by Gen...
...1974, pp...
...In February 1971, at State Department initiative, with the dissenting votes of a few diehards like Strom Thurmond [R-SCI, the U.S...
...4, 1975, Nov...
...interests...
...Pennwalt Chemical Corp...
...more suitable to the new model were Luis Somoza and his successor Ren6 Schick, who were nominally civilians and slightly more liberal...
...and Macaulay, op...
...O'Leary in Washington Star, Oct...
...supplies all packaging material for Standard Fruit...
...steel drums for insecticides & containers for other chemical products...
...policy...
...sales...
...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...
...21, 1975...
...The Somoza dictatorship is an instrument created by Washington, an outgrowth of the U.S.'s "first Vietnam" (the war of pacification against the guerrilla forces of Augusto Cesar Sandino, from 1927 to 1932...
...For at least ten years, peasants suspected (with or without proof) of having contact with the guerrillas have been arrested, "disappeared, " never to be seen again, or killed outright by Somoza's U.S.-trained Guardia Nacional...
...21 ff...
...The U.S...
...1964...
...In May 1927, the State Department representative finally managed to get a peace agreement signed in exchange for U.S.-supervised elections in 1928...
...9 His program focused on self determination and national sovereignty against U.S...
...In May 1927, Sandino was the only leader who refused to participate in "the betrayal of the Fatherland...
...regarding low salaries and bad living conditions for Costa Rican workers on his fincas...
...Even the Nicaraguan soldiers fighting under U.S...
...Cia...
...193 ff...
...Lenin, The State and Revolution (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1973) p. 15...
...invasion...
...42 employees...
...imperialism, restoration of the constitution through popular action, and land reform...
...9 ' While the Chamber of Industry is calling for a "constitutional" regime, and while a few top capitalists (e.g...
...two branches...
...No doubt, any progressive force in the area was indirectly a threat to Somoza...
...once the Marines left, the economy was deformed by the preponderance of the Somoza dynasty...
...But the Somoza state also has serious weaknesses which, as we shall see in Section VI, have become more evident since the 1972 Managua earthquake...
...in October 1964, the Nicaraguan legislature repudiated the Treaty.60 After 1964, new U.S...
...exclusive rights of transit and even permitted the U.S...
...U.S...
...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...
...Since the Somoza dictatorship reaches beyond Nicaragua and is central to the forces of reaction in the entire region, its elimination is of primary interest for all progressive and revolutionary Central Americans...
...intervention actually aggravated it, disrupting the relative stability established by Zelaya and opening three years of civil war...
...Many of those being held are union leaders, whose only "crime" is labor organizing...
...cit., pp...
...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...
...Because anti-Somoza exiles since the 1940s have operated from other Central American countries, the Somozas early on developed a regional consciousness about counterinsurgency...
...he & Somoza are reportedly involved in other major tourism/resort projects...
...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...
...One article notes that "a list of their early publications reads something like a Defense Department priority sheet...
...cit., p. 109...
...This is a complex web of interrelationships, protected from public view by permissive legislation, and thus requiring much additional research...
...Ambassador Shelton, assures continuation of Somoza regime...
...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...
...14 ff: Jarquin, "Reflexiones sobre la Situacion Actual" (mimeo., 1975), pp...
...For the above, see Millett, op...
...divn...
...Organized from outside Nicaragua, they neither involved the Nicaraguan masses nor presented any explicit ideology which could have mobilized the masses...
...25 per year for profit-making and government organizations ($48 for two years...
...Congressional Record, Sept...
...1969, p. 32...
...Galloway and Johnson, op...
...Empaques Multiwall Ultrafort SA: JV...
...1.4 mn...
...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...
...8 mn...
...and finally, the contradictions of and challenge to the Somoza regime, and the alternative strategies for the Nicaraguan revolution (Section VI...
...sources say $150 million), owning at least 10 percent of the country's arable land and numerous enterprises...
...and Central America...
...principal mines are La Rosita open pit copper, gold & silver mine and Siuna and Riscos de Oro gold mines in Zelaya dept...
...Washington wanted a government it could be sure of controlling...
...commercial banks with $178 million in loans outstanding.* 6 5 * The size and composition of this foreign debt has raised serious questions recently about the country's creditworthiness...
...Even more dramatic than Somoza's immediate humilation have been the long-range effects: recognition in the U.S...
...25 and 28, 1973...
...For example, Somoza financing helped build up Arana's fortunes...
...Although CSIS dissolved its formal ties with AEI in 1967, personnel overlap continued, and the right-wing character of the Center was firmly established...
...Bank of America, Man on the Spot (Nicaragua) May 1975...
...to avoid student-faculty protests at commencement, the degree was given at a private dinner...
...During 1966 the FSLN recognized its error and began preparing the guerrilla base at Pancasan, as well as armed actions in the city...
...35% underemployment in the countryside income distribution: bottom 50% of population has median income $90 a year (15% of GNP...
...2.1 mn...
...11, 1975...
...Some of the more active friends in the Senate have included: Joseph Montoya (D-NM), a "close personal friend" of Tachito...
...A combat unit of the Frente seized the home of a Nicaraguan businessman holding a party for U.S...
...Like Whelan, Shelton spoke no Spanish and became Somoza's trusted confidante, meeting with him often on a daily basis, and playing an active pro-Somoza role in Nicaraguan politics...
...plant established '67 produces chlorinated toxophene insecticides to control cotton insects...
...Edelberto Torres, stalwart of Nicaraguan resistance in exile, en route from Guatemala to Costa Rica, is arrested and jailed by Guardia Nacional (GN) when Pan Am plane (supposedly on non-stop flight) lands in Managua...
...CABEI grants $2.7 mn...
...A Somoza firm also provides the bricks to pave Managua's new streets, drainage ditches, etc...
...unemployed and unorganized workers, especially in Managua since the earthquake...
...guarantees U.S...
...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...
...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...
...German Ornes, "Ugly American Ambassadors," Colorado Quarterly, Fall 1960, pp...
...press, could not dispel the doubts of many Americans...
...His actual shift to Nicaragua was arranged by U.S...
...Yetanother AID official insisted in an interview that Wagner's main task was to reorganize the traffic system in Managua!25 America Division - and had promised that, if elected, Johnson would invite Luis Somoza to the U.S...
...The military tribunal established in January 1975 to investigate FSLN activities (and no doubt to whip up anti-Communist sentiment) has become a source of embarrassment, revealing the depth of support for and collaboration with the Frente...
...7 Clearly the Somozas are at home in the U.S...
...Public Relations," The Reporter, Dec...
...25, 1975...
...intervention when necessary...
...to arrange its Managua reconstruction loans from U.S...
...Moreover, the Somozas' power and the anti-Somoza struggle are being extended to the U.S...
...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...
...The other face of the opposition during the 1940's and 1950's was its participation in rigged elections...
...It would be an oversimplification to view Somoza merely as a tool of the 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...
...Fertilizante Superior SA: majority-owned JV...
...imperialism - although the FSLN at this point makes every effort to avoid provoking direct U.S...
...111...
...And finally, it has yet to discover any reserves of strategic resources (such as oil, bauxite, nickel...
...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...
...The Zelaya regime also went far beyond its predecessors in opening up the country to private foreign investment...
...8 and 12, 1975...
...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...
...the complete picture would be more like $30-$40 million...
...Vesubio lead/zinc mine opened in 1971 after $3 mn...
...By 1975, Somoza businesses in Nicaragua alone were estimated at $400-$500 million, and constituted a full-blown economic-financial group...
...One obvious answer is that it has been kept in power by consistent U.S...
...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...
...During the Alliance for Progress era, Washington became a little more concerned about being totally identified with dictators...
...operates sole oil products refinery...
...Property registration laws and the entire legal structure are written so as to make it nearly impossible to determine the full extent of Somoza holdings...
...Even now, the participating parties have no way to discipline each other's actions beyond the minimum common objectives...
...December) Somoza inaugurated, opposition forms UDEL coalition headed by La Prensa editor, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro...
...Although its list of contributors is confidential, CSIS is known to be supported by "ten oil companies and seven oil-supported foundations," among others...
...of Intl...
...H. B. Fuller Co...
...Phila...
...identification with Somoza, thus improving U.S...
...sales...
...In 1910 the Conservative regime signed agreements making Nicaragua a financial and political ward of U.S...
...In the next three sections we shall focus on the fundamental institutions and props of the system...
...Macaulay, op...
...240-41...
...Already in the 1940s, Somoza began making good use of state banks and other public institutions and state regulatory agencies...
...Wall in Le6n, Nicaragua - "Freedom to Sandinista Political Prisoners...
...by other programs such as I.D...
...Just as the U.S., when on its way to defeat in Vietnam, dropped countless tons of bombs on Hanoi, so too the Somoza dictatorship is attempting to mask its insecurity and vulnerability in brutality...
...353 employees...
...the Somozas seldom repay the loans, and at one point piled up a $35 million debt which remained unpaid.3"* c) In addition to specific positions, the Somozas have used the sheer weight of their political control to expand the empire: businessmen frequently "invite" a member of the clan to be a stockholder (without their making any investment) in order to avoid having problems...
...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...
...Intl...
...At that point, Hughes accepted Somoza's invitation to come to Nicaragua - where he would never be bothered by restrictive legislation...
...8, 1956, p. 43...
...Susanne Jonas Central America Project Research assistance by Fred Goff ofNACLA, Robert High andArun Kapil...
...plastic products, paints, varnishes...
...throughout late 1959 and 1960, uprisings, small invasions continue, now as part of an organized movement, the nucleus of the FSLN...
...loans of $1 mn...
...Even more intolerable to Washington than Zelaya's specific measures of NACLA'S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORT Vol...
...9 7 Specifically, the program emphasizes: 1) democratization, free elections, the principle of non-reelection, freedom of expression, etc...
...Export-Import Bank International Finance Corp...
...Wells Fargo Bank (San Francisco) Banco de America: 18.8% ownership acquired in '66...
...received several CABEI loans...
...cit., p. 654...
...PVC plant inaugurated '70;-imports raw materials from Japan.37 Olin Corp...
...the Marines would remain until a new U.S.-trained constabulary was ready to "keep order...
...Wheeler, who suggested that if the Marines' job was to fight "bandits," they could be put to better use in Chicago...
...Presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Nixon...
...19, 1975, Oct...
...6, 1975...
...OPIC covers $485,000 inv...
...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...
...You have lost a son and know the sorrow, and we as a nation mourned with you in your hour of grief...
...We shall focus on aid since the December 1972 earthquake, for several reasons...
...2.4 mn...
...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...
...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...
...1975 leaflet to Nicaraguan private sector...
...9 Clearly, UDEL is more progressive than previous (strictly bourgeois) opposition efforts, which were organized only to win a particular election...
...For one thing, objective conditions were extremely unfavorable, particularly the full U.S...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...Robert Heinl, "Vietnam War: A Full-Scale Nicaragua," Miami Herald, Aug...
...Given other Hughes ties to the CIA, perhaps someday we will find out the other "real" political and security reasons for Hughes' one-time interest in Nicaragua...
...In the late 1950s, Davidson worked through Ambassador Whelan and several high U.S...
...pressure against the scheme...
...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...
...John Murphy (R-NY), a colleague of Tachito's from West Point, who has made frequent visits to Nicaragua each year...
...U.S.-"educated," Somoza learned English well, and even held a job with the Rockefeller Foundation...
...mfrs...
...Toronto) Empresa Minera de El Setentrion SA: 61%-owned...
...Other than the unified aim to "eradicate the Somoza dynasty from public power and reestablish [sic] the [democratic] republic in Nicaragua," UDEL "has no design for a new society...
...Most important, even after signing the 1903 canal treaty with Panama, Washington wanted to monopolize all future isthmian canal possibilities in order to assure both political-military hegemony and unchecked opportunities for economic expansion abroad...
...Daniel Flood [D-Pa.], began agitating actively for a Nicaragua Canal...
...plywood factory completed in '59...
...These economic and political factors prevented the consolidation of a strong and unified national bourgeoisie...
...And, behind these, the broader issue: What is the nature of the Nicaraguan revolutionary struggle...
...sentiment, to hear Somoza say (in Mexico in 1974), "Nicaragua is aligned with the West, not a neutral country of the Third World...
...While initiating an era of counterrevolution, this did not leave the country truly stabilized...
...On a recent $30 million loan, he was granted not only the usual 2% but also a $3 million commission for a "feasibility study" - a deal so outrageous that the head of INFONAC, Somoza's cousin, Noel Pallais, refused to cooperate and "resigned...
...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...
...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...
...In its place a series of middle-class suburbs and plush shopping centers, stocked with U.S.-made products for the privileged, is strung together by freeways...
...imperialism...
...Bank of London & Montreal (subsid...
...troop movements from the local populace...
...Following Sandino's death and the massacre, a few of his chiefs remained in the mountains...
...government has played and continues to play a crucial role in Nicaragua...
...When Tacho was assassinated in 1956, Washington helped insure a smooth transition to the Somoza sons...
...29, 1975, Nov...
...General Mills (Minneapolis) Industrias Gemina SA: JV with BANIC interests...
...exports flavoring extracts & laxatives.38 ESB Inc...
...flour & feed plant near Chinandega opened early '60s...
...On the other side, today, as for Sandino forty years ago, solidarity from the people of the U.S...
...Ceramica Industrial SA (CERISA): 50%-owned JV with BANIC interests...
...Hotels (divn...
...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...
...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...
...26 To return to the central issue raised at the outset: Why has the Somoza dictatorship lasted forty years...
...investment was Cornelius Vanderbilt's transit company during the California Gold Rush...
...Cia...
...Ambassador," was Anastasio Somoza Garcia...
...from CABEI, & $350,000 from local banks...
...and interviews...
...9 2 Top Church leaders, particularly Archbishop Obando y Bravo, are clearly aligned with the political opposition...
...After the initial plan was dropped by the U.S., Somoza later became an intermediary for passing U.S...
...had to find a Nicaraguan to head it after the planned 1933 withdrawal...
...INTERESTS IN NICARAGUA (1) Focal Point for Pacification of Central America Probably the single most important U.S...
...Inforpress #58, p. 3A...
...and in Nicaragua...
...oil companies in Tampico, Mexico, from 1923 to 1926, a time of great worker unrest there...
...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...
...AID funds for reconstruction are indirectly nourishing the Somoza fortune, since Somoza's factory is the only supplier of cement to rebuild hospitals and other buildings...
...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...
...4, 6: "In Sandino's Footsteps," p. 116...
...investment...
...Posada del Sol SA: JV with Guatemalan and Nic...
...8 mn...
...OPIC covers $.8 mn...
...Press, 1957), p. 381...
...Theberge's connection with the Rockefellers and Kissingers has served him well...
...Charles Ameringer, The Democratic Left in Exile...
...2 0 And when in 1933 the U.S...
...subsequent anti-guerrilla campaigns...
...In Nicaragua foreign investment faces none of the nationalistic pressures it suffers in neighboring Honduras...
...The issue finally forced the expulsion of the anti-guerrilla Party leadership in 1967, but the PSN line did not change fundamentally...
...From that time on, the PSN was too weak to play a significant independent role in Nicaraguan politics...
...esp...
...Sources: Washington Post...
...could tolerate an UDEL-style bourgeois democratic regime, and would not intervene to save Somoza, if there existed a strong and stable enough alternative...
...N.Y...
...troops are not yet directly involved in combat, the question is: How much longer- in the light of increasing GN demoralization and FSLN growth (see below) - will the U.S...
...Washington Monthly, June, 1969...
...Theberge travelled to Venezuela and Mexico in February, and in March made a brief visit to Cuba, where he met with Cuban Vice-Premier Carlos R. Rodriguez...
...79-81...
...NACLA-West3 I. From the Other Side Managua today, since the December 1972 earthquake, is an empty shell, with no central core...
...to take the place of the Marines, but to serve the same functions, the GN had a monopoly over armed force...
...7 Despite U.S...
...cit., and Fdelberto Torres Rivas, "Sintesis Hist6rica del Proceso Politico" in Torres Rivas et al., Centroamerica: Hoy (Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1975), and other works by Torres Rivas...
...During this period Somoza expanded his political base beyond the GN by making alliances with certain groups in the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie...
...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...
...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...
...State Department's biography...
...own 45% & INFONAC & Adela ($441,000 equity & $264,000 debt) & other Nic...
...To be sure, the arbitrariness and avarice of the Somozas has created conflicts with particular groups within that bourgeoisie...
...Aside from the never-ending claims that the FSLN is a Castro creation, the Somozas have participated actively in all the international anti-communist congresses...
...Macaulay, op...
...2) economic development, including agrarian reform, tax reform, equal opportunity for all entrepreneurs...
...Moreira also has extensive fishing operations in Nicaragua - if not directly with Somoza, at least with close Somoza associates...
...Nickel Co...
...mfrs...
...of Castle & Cooke, San Francisco): banana brokers & exporters...
...helps keep him in power...
...Second, aid has become more important as a specific mechanism of U.S...
...riots in Panama, a number of U.S...
...Canal Zone school...
...1967...
...Ambassador to Argentina, and Mrs...
...It is no accident that this effort to establish a government presence in the countryside has chosen, as one of its two target areas, the zone around Matagalpa - a zone of high peasant discontent and of the principal guerrilla activities...
...ENTER SOMOZA Structurally, ever since the interruption of the Liberal Reform in 1909, U.S...
...On the one hand, the policing activities were modernized from direct military intervention to counterinsurgency methods more appropriate to the rising guerrilla threat...
...press...
...The latest Congress, held in Managua in September 1975, featured (Fidel's sister) Juanita Castro, (ex-Cuban President) Carlos Prio Socarris, and representatives of nearly every right-wing movement in Latin America...
...by the end of the War, Somoza had become the largest landowner in the country...
...Demonstration in San Francisco, 1975...
...interview with FSLN leader in Siempre (Mexico), Feb...
...Although the forms of terror have changed, the essence has not...
...11 ff...
...Internationally, the New York Times editorialized (December 31) that the Somoza regime "deserved the humiliation it suffered...
...adhesives...
...Krehm, op...
...Charles Anderson, "The Political Future of Nicaragua," Canadian Forum, August 1959, p. 107;NYT, April 14, 1967: interviews with informed Nicaraguans and Americans...
...In 1938 Somoza further consolidated his position by calling a constituent assembly to change the Constitution and extend his presidential term until 1946...
...drugs...
...imperialism...
...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...
...its lumber camp was burned to the ground...
...Ambassador Turner Shelton, who had dealt with the Hughes empire as a U.S...
...After World War II, there was continuing talk (but no action) about a Nicaraguan canal...
...Concretely, the U.S...
...Meanwhile, the influx of monopolistic U.S...
...INFONACloan in '72 for expansion...
...Luis criticized the Kennedy Administration in Washington for stopping aid to the exiles...
...P. J. Chamorro letter reprinted in Pueblo, Feb...
...Steel acquired control in '68...
...meanwhile, he received, according to one source, $400,000 a year from U.S...
...Twenty-five of his classmates were flown to Managua to attend his 1967 inauguration...
...TWO STRATEGIES The objective situation in Nicaragua since 1972 has created new possibilities for political action...
...Calvin Coolidge Washington, D.C...
...and international aid...
...policy: Why is Nicaragua important to the U.S., and what specific interests does the U.S...
...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...
...Hearing, Part 11, March 8, 1963 (on Davidson) (Washington: GPO, 1963...
...government grant for a self-help housing project in.Nicaragua - a project which the State Department subsequently described as "highly undesirable...
...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...
...Officially, over the past 15 years, Nicaragua has received almost $20 million in U.S...
...Wilmington) Hercules de Centroamerica SA: 60%-owned...
...as his guest, put it, "Hughes can stay a lifetime if he wants to...
...newspaper apologists and sensationalists, only Beals - defying U.S...
...OPIC covers $.7 mn...
...I'oreign Policy," Journal of Inter-American Affairs, Vol...
...In return for his cooperation, Somoza is said to have received an AID loan for a road leading to one of his fincas...
...in '65...
...role is still central: the chief of the U.S...
...war effort...
...On the one hand, while disagreeing with FSLN tactics, many in UDEL refuse to condemn it publicly and eagerly await the latest FSLN communiquds...
...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...
...83 Because they depend so heavily on support from the U.S...
...cit., pp...
...the earthquake sharpened these problems (particularly inflation) and class differences in general...
...Carlos Pasos...
...investment...
...immigration authorities...
...supported a Conservative insurrection against Zelaya...
...Amid all the U.S...
...Early projects, such as the Rama Road (begun during World War II as a possible alternative to the Panama Canal), were linked to specific U.S...
...Although not a Communist, Sandino understood clearly the class content of the struggle - as reflected in the organization of his popular army...
...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...
...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...
...moreover, it was rooted in a workers' movement that was primarily artisan rather than proletarian...
...1.9% of farms (more than 350 hectares each) take up 47.6% of farmland literacy: less than 50% (30% in the countryside) health: 6.8 doctors and 18.2 hospital beds per 10,000 people (and these mainly in cities...
...Nearly all the Somoza supporters are clearly identifiable as right-wing anti-communists...
...occupation had become an integral factor in Nicaraguan power and politics, precluding any independent role for the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie...
...A UDEL-type government could mean either an "opening" for the FSLN to operate semi-legally or the political isolation and continued repression of the FSLN...
...66-7: Latin America (London), March 31, 1972...
...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...
...when this proved impossible, Somoza arranged lavish going-away parties in the National Palace, and reportedly tried to influence the State Department to offer Shelton a prestigious new appointment.* 6 9 In 1975, as in 1961, the change of Ambassadors does not appear to signify any basic modification of U.S...
...the editor was Stanley Ross, who had previously managed Novedades for the Somozas in Nicaragua...
...Miami Herald, June 10, 1974: Inforpress #88, p. 3A, #108, p. 4A...
...of National Distillers & Chemical Corp., N.Y...
...Hundreds of peasants are being held and tortured in military camps in various parts of the country...
...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...
...The American Federation of Labor went on record as opposing intervention...
...JV with INFONAC, Robinson Lumber Co...
...public response was overwhelmingly favorable to the articles...
...101...
...sons Luis and Tadhito take power, respectively as provisional President and head of GN...
...For the above, see Jarquin, op...
...and second, because the U.S...
...casualties could not be hidden, some established newspapers, including the New York Times, added their voices...
...Finally, Somoza has consistently opposed progressive or nationalist measures at the regional level, such as producers' cartels...
...supported Somoza...
...As it turned out, Davidson had never discussed this with Johnson directly...
...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...
...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...
...military involvement against the guerrilla forces of Augusto Cesar Sandino in Nicaragua...
...the country offers the most generous treatment of foreign capital in Central America, * The main target was Standard Fruit, whose operations were already in trouble from low world prices and a banana disease...
...5 mn...
...Fidelity Union Life Ins...
...capital...
...October) Sandinista veteran Ramon Raudales leads invasion from Honduras, operates guerrilla-like with "First Liberation Army of Nicaragua" near border...
...also interviews...
...Somoza will "step down" as President, Somoza-dominated triumvirate will rule between 1972 and 1974, enabling Somoza to run for President in 1974 election 1972 increase in student protests, strikes, mass demonstrations against rising cost of living 1973 following December 1972 earthquake, Somoza assumes absolute power, Conservative Aguero maneuvered out of Triumvirate, replaced by Edmundo Paguagua...
...plant in Granada converts sanitary tissue...
...After directly running the GN in its early years, the U.S...
...counterinsurgency...
...Luxembourg) Atlantic Coast Chemical Co...
...Inforpress #99, p. 3A:Panoramas, Dec...
...had been interested in Nicaragua as a canal site...
...He helped arrange Somoza purchases of U.S...
...press, notably that of Carleton Beals...
...equity acquired in '69...
...Beacon Mfg...
...In fact, while creating new contradictions for the U.S...
...plant near Pto...
...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...
...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...
...Second, the Liberal Reform and foreign monopoly capital also accelerated the formation of a modern proletariat or work-force...
...The inadequacy of this approach became clear in 1956, when the Conservative opposition proved too weak to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the assassination of Tacho Somoza and allowed his sons to take over...
...officials (including Theberge in his Senate confirmation hearing) deny combat involvement (ground or air) of U.S...
...8 Back in the U.S., the All-American Anti-Imperialist League held rallies (featuring Sandino's brother Socrates as speaker), marches on Washington, and numerous other activities to mobilize U.S...
...In short - the huge billboards advertising Somoza's achievements notwithstanding - Managua today is a monument to Somoza's utter lack of concern for the welfare of the Nicaraguan people.' Exploitation in Nicaragua is epitomized by the rural woman who cuts coffee or cotton...
...Once a solidly pro-U.S...
...certain aspects discussed elsewhere (e.g., details regarding repression) will be summarized briefly here...
...A detailed exposition of these groups is in Wheelock, op...
...politicians, and so on.88 Tachito's final bond to the U.S...
...32 ff...
...But its denouement also showed that the U.S...
...1 0 Moreover, the anti-Somoza struggle has created the possibility of building ties with other forces, such as revolutionary Christians, small businessmen and other sectors oppressed by the Somoza dictatorship, and even soldiers who resist orders...
...both of the main textile factories just happened to be Somoza-owned...
...Nevertheless, they do maintain close contact with Nicaragua through their families there or through periodic travel, and they follow events in Nicaragua closely...
...Aceitera Corona SA: 76%-owned JV with Somoza interests...
...John S. Hemphill Ferguson, Missouri (The Nation 25 January 1928)8 keep a number of his guerrillas armed.* Subsequently, Sandino remained in the Segovia mountains, organizing agricultural cooperatives, recognizing the GN as a threat to his forces and to national sovereignty...
...Galloway and Johnson, op...
...By 1930, after U.S...
...Anderson's office received angry calls from Somoza's advocates in the Pentagon and Congress, Sullivan & Sarria, and the New York office of lawyer Theodore Kheel...
...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...
...Already throughout 1972 there were numerous demonstrations against inflation and the lack of public services...
...This data was assembled from numerous sources* and must be considered provisional...
...The possibility of Hughes investments in Nicaragua first came to public light in February 1972 (although discussions had been going on previously) when top Hughes aides were ousted from the Bahamas, where he was headquartered, for violation of immigration laws...
...Carleton Beals, Banana Gold (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1932), pp...
...His salt company was organized to supply Pennwalt's giant caustic soda plant...
...On the other hand, the Somozas stepped up their campaign to obtain political leadership in the region...
...103...
...War College), Theberge was senior economic adviser to the AID mission of the U.S...
...leftist exiles preparing to invade from Honduras are captured...
...in the second case, Somoza stated that his troops could contribute their knowledge of counterinsurgency, and could in return improve their own combat capacity...
...II, pp...
...military intervention (e.g., by not taking Ambassador Shelton as a December 27 hostage...
...Nestle Alimentana (Vevey, Switz...
...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...
...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...
...For example, part of the deal for First National City Bank's entry into Nicaragua involved large FNCB loans to Somoza's cement company...
...these assessments based also on Carlos Garcia C., "Alianzas de la Oposici6n en Nicaragua," in Alianzas Poli'ticas de la Oposici6n en Centroamdrica (Guatemala: INCEP, 1975): and sources mentioned in chart of opposition movements...
...5,000 bpd refinery built in '63...
...lead...
...than the struggle within the Nicaraguan oligarchy was the struggle between the oligarchy and the oppressed...
...17, 1974...
...5 The immediate impetus for the overthrow of Zelaya was his beginning negotiations with Japanese interests for a possible canal...
...Rangers, armed and in combat dress, presumably going into the countryside on counterinsurgency expeditions...
...In 1972 he came to Philadelphia to receive an honorary degree from Hahneman Medical College (with whose president he is said to have joint investments...
...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...
...while in Nicaragua, Hughes even had one meeting with Tachito and Shelton...
...interests there...
...Its significance and its lessons extend far beyond Nicaragua...
...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...
...of Consolidated Foods Corp...
...1960...
...First National City Bank (N.Y...
...But by far the most lucrative' deal has gone to Cuban exile and Somoza associate Eddy Rodrrguez Felieu...
...cit., pp...
...3.4 mn...
...airport...
...plant mfrs...
...The following summary is based largely on Wheelock, op...
...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...
...cit., pp...
...Once again the "services" of U.S...
...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...
...ATCHEMCO) or Cia...
...MINING ASARCO (N.Y...
...could play indirectly the interventionist role it could no longer play directly...
...thus, the principal base must be among33 peasants and agrarian workers...
...Phila., subsid...
...ON THE U.S...
...of IT&T, N.Y...
...As Tacho put it in 1933, "I'll give this country peace, if I have to shoot every other man in Nicaragua to get it...
...San Francisco) Cafe Soluble SA: JV...
...2, 1967...
...There has been considerable struggle, for example, over Somoza's attempts to monopolize the quota for meat exports to the U.S...
...17, 1975...
...Quaker Oats (Chicago): "Avena 3 Minutos" plant opened in '63 produces rolled oats...
...This does not mean upsetting the status quo, but making minor reforms to contain the social pressures for real change...
...public opinion turned anti-interventionist, particularly after it became clear that the U.S...
...handles all imported wheat (Nic...
...106...
...Ambassador Theberge, Novedades, Sept...
...In Sandino's Footsteps," Tricontinental #3, Nov.-Dec...
...Guatemalan Army was wavering as to whether to permit the fraud, Somoza helped direct the fraud...
...Industrias Nabisco-Cristal SA: 60%-owned...
...Inforpress #114, p. 4A: Pueblo, June 9, 1975, July 7, 1975, Aug...
...Top FSLN leadership, such as Carlos Fonseca Amador, has survived repeated jailing and exile to contribute to this continuity...
...The Conservatives spoke for dominant merchant and cattle raising interests of Granada, the Liberals for the artisans of Le6n...
...Another example is the brisk business enjoyed by Somoza's cement firm in Costa Rica, where it sells cement more cheaply than in Nicaragua.s2 More important than Somoza's direct economic operations in the region is the political-economic "community" he is building with certain other Central American leaders and interests...
...In 1911 a $1.5 million loan extended at the request of the U.S...
...11-12, #129 p. 9: for details on CONDECA, see "Integrating the Big Guns," Guatemala (Berkeley: NACLA, 1974...
...OPIC covers $110,000 inv...
...mfrs...
...exports biscuits & crackers...
...22, 1960, p. 20;MH, June 3, 1975...
...cit., p. 13...
...cit., pp.' 101-2...
...The price is always paid by consumers and workers...
...objective...
...For example, a primary U.S...
...using the pretext that Zelaya was "fomenting unrest" in other Central American countries and his execution of two American mercenaries, the U.S...
...Somoza family & govt...
...made in '69...
...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...
...While Somoza profits from the export of beans, thousands are literally starving...
...in stabilizing Central America and performing special services at critical times...
...first opened '67...
...The budding relationship between Tachito and Hughes ended abruptly with the December 1972 earthquake in Managua...
...109...
...in the - both deter lr U1it...
...In Nicaragua the guerrillas were cheered at the airport, as their plane took off for Cuba...
...interests own 55...
...Eventually the anti-interventionist movement forced a modification of U.S...
...During World War II, Nicaragua provided raw materials for U.S...
...Theoretically, this could have been the moment for liberalization or the end of Somoza rule...
...1964, June 1964...
...as one news article headlined it, "Who opened the door for the Frent, " 113 base and an organization for the next stage of the struggle.* Specifically, what this means for the Frente is further developing its strategy and program for and base among urban workers being generated by ongoing (if tardy) industrialization and migration to the cities...
...another group organizing in Cuba never reaches Nicaragua 1960 Youth wing gains control of Conservative Party, stages uprising which fails...
...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...
...influence (plus the absence of any opposition strategy for using this opportunity) once again prevented any real change...
...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...
...within 27 days, Somoza led a coup to depose Arguello, and put his uncle in the Presidency...
...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...
...During the U.S...
...84, 114...
...He attempted to attract U.S...
...Esso Standard Oil Ltda...
...The three main groups are also united by joint investments in certain sectors...
...As late as 1871, the economy was not unified around any one "stable" export to the world market...
...support for the Somozas, their overthrow would be an historic defeat for the U.S...
...Miami Herald (MH), Dec...
...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...
...import substitution industry servicing Nic...
...began production in '68...
...life and property was more a result than a cause of U.S...
...equity & $92,000 debt inv...
...Interviews: newspaper articles, e.g., El Sol de Mexico, Jan...
...could achieve its goals through more subtle methods...
...Edgar Macias, "Breve Informe sobre la UDEL," in Alianzas Politicas...
...His direct investments, according to well-informed Nicaraguans are in safer, stabler realms: in Venezuela and * Yet Somoza was so annoyed with Lopez' agrarian reform that he publicly criticized it as "communistic" and warned his "friend" Lopez that if the reform was carried out, "I'll be waiting for you in Nicaragua, to give you a job in my dairy...
...Nicaraguans refer to the act as an ajusticiamiento - "bringing to justice...
...Borden Inc...
...In the next stage of the struggle, the absence of a target such as Somoza will create new political conditions and contradictions...
...Liberal Leonardo Arguello (Somoza's candidate) wins but, upon attempting to act independently, is ousted by Somoza golpe...
...Most Nicaraguans regard the project as a form of pacification, equivalent to the "strategic hamlet" program in Vietnam...
...When another Embassy officer, James Cheek, defied Shelton by filing counter-reports, he was rewarded with a special citation from Kissinger in late 1974...
...88-9, 120, 186, 198 ff...
...Aside from his millions of dollars in U.S...
...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...
...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...
Vol. 10 • February 1976 • No. 2
