July 19 is the anniversary in Nicaragua of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the brutal dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, ending a vicious family dynasty of terror in the name of corporate profits, personal enrichment, and the defense of U.S. imperialism in the region. He was overthrown by a revolution led by the members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), known as the Sandinistas, a group of revolutionaries mostly from intellectual circles and middle class backgrounds, with wide popular support among peasants and the working population of the cities.
Somoza’s dictatorship traced its roots to the occupation of Nicaragua by the U.S. marine corps. The marines occupied Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933, with one of its main goals being to ensure that no country other than the U.S. would build a canal in Nicaragua. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt ended the occupation, he had another plan for U.S. control in the region. It was Anastasio Somoza García. Roosevelt famously said of Somoza, “He’s a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s ours.”
The son of a coffee plantation owner, educated in the U.S., and later general in the Nicaraguan military, Somoza overthrew President Juan Bautista Sacasa in a military coup that had U.S. support, and soon became president. He led one of the most corrupt, self-serving and vicious dictatorships in the history of the continent. One of his first goals was to completely eliminate the rebels who fought alongside Augusto Sandino, a leader of peasants and workers who had formed a guerilla army fighting to expel the U.S. marines in the northern countryside. When U.S. troops left the country in 1933, Sandino agreed to put down his weapons in return for amnesty and some land for his fighters. Somoza double-crossed him and had him captured and assassinated in 1936 during their peace talks. The revolutionaries who rose to fight Somoza’s son in the 1960s, and took power in 1979, took their name from Augusto Sandino, calling themselves the Sandinistas.
Ironically, President Roosevelt named this new policy of withdrawal from direct intervention and control in Central and Latin America, “The Good Neighbor” policy. This title really requires a strong dose of cynicism. Rather than controlling countries such as Haiti, Nicaragua, and Cuba with U.S. marines on foreign ground, this policy proposed that the U.S. use proxy dictators wielding terror and assassination to maintain the rule of profits. Somoza was their man in Nicaragua. When Somoza, the father, was assassinated in 1956, his eldest son, Luís Somoza Debayle acceded to power and continued his father’s despicable legacy, later to be followed by the younger son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle.
In 1972, Nicaragua was hit with a devastating earthquake, and Managua, the capital, was obliterated. Money to aid the Nicaraguans poured in from around the world, and Somoza appropriated a large part of the funds to enrich himself. This was the last straw. The population turned fully against the younger Somoza, and gave its support to the FSLN in the fight to oust him. The more the rebels grew in strength, the more brutal was Somoza’s repression. The greater the repression, the more people’s disgust with his regime grew. Finally, the U.S. government ceased to back Somoza, and he and his entourage fled Managua. On June 19, 1979, the FSLN entered Managua in a spectacular festival atmosphere. Today in Nicaragua this day is a national holiday, celebrating the end of a brutal regime which was supported by a foreign power of extraordinary cynicism, that masks its horror in a flag it claims represents liberty for all.
While the Sandinistas claimed to be creating a socialist society, what they had in mind was really something more modest. They wanted an independent Nicaragua to take its place among the many states in the global economic system. They wanted to take some of the profits that went to U.S. corporations and use them to develop the economy and reduce poverty. The defeat of Somoza’s regime occurred only because the population had had enough, and united to oust this vicious tool of U.S. imperialism.
The Sandinistas have not solved the social problems of Nicaragua which are rooted in capitalism, nor have they even begun to build socialism. Only an international revolution could accomplish this, with the mass participation and leadership of the entire working class, not just a minority of idealistic freedom fighters taking over society on our behalf. But with the end of the Somoza regime, some significant freedoms were won. The new government finally invested in educating its population, reducing illiteracy from 53 percent to 12 percent in a few years. And once again it was proven that the U.S.-backed dictatorships can be defeated, a lesson that the U.S. government would prefer we forget.
featured image credit: Creative Commons / @zavaleux
