Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero (born 1 February 1951) is a Nicaraguan American colonel and businessman.

Biography

Early life

Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero was born on December 18, 1951, in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

, United States. A member of the

Somoza family The Somoza family ( es, Familia Somoza) is a former political family that ruled Nicaragua for forty-three years from 1936 to 1979. Their family dictatorship was founded by Anastasio Somoza García and was continued by his two sons Luis Somoza ...

, he is a son of former Nicaraguan president

Anastasio Somoza Debayle Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle (; 5 December 1925 – 17 September 1980) was the President of Nicaragua from 1 May 1967 to 1 May 1972 and from 1 December 1974 to 17 July 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was ''de facto'' ruler of t ...

and Hope Portocarrero; he is also a grandson of

Anastasio Somoza García Anastasio Somoza García (1 February 1896 – 29 September 1956) was the leader of Nicaragua from 1937 until his assassination in 1956. He was only officially the 21st President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947 and from 21 May 195 ...

. Also known as ''El Chigüín''—"The spoiled child"—Somoza Portocarrero had been the

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

to the Somoza family dictatorship prior to the ouster of his father by the

Sandinistas The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto ...

in 1979. By early 1978, Somoza Portocarrero had reportedly taken on the appellation "apprentice dictator" and assumed full control of the Somozas' estimated $1 billion business empire, however, by mid-1979 the family had fallen from power and would be forced into exile. He was educated in the United States, including at Kent School in

Kent, Connecticut Kent is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. Located alongside the border with New York, the town's population was 3,019 according to the 2020 census. Kent is home to three boarding schools: Kent School, the Marvelwood Schoo ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, and in England, at Sandhurst. His sister, Carolina, is married to James Minskoff Sterling, son of New York real estate developer

Henry H. Minskoff Henry H. Minskoff (May 27, 1911 – August 13, 1984) was an American real estate developer. Biography Minskoff was born to a Jewish family in New York City the second of six children of Sam Minskoff and Esther Kernstein Minskoff, immigrants fro ...

.New York Times: "Miss Somoza Wed to Dr. J. M. Sterling"
October 16, 1984

Career

He became a Colonel in the Nicaraguan military, which was run by his family. He played an active role in the armed forces during the Sandinista insurrection, and the

National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...

unit which he commanded "was accused of widespread human-rights violations in the final days of the civil war." Like all combatants during the 1979-1989 period, Somoza Portocarrero was included against his wishes in the Blanket Amnesty demanded by the FSLN from incoming President

Violeta Chamorro Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro (; 18 October 1929) is a Nicaraguan politician who served as President of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997. She was the first and, as of 2022, only woman to hold the position of president of Nicaragua. Born into ...

in 1990. In early 1980, the new Sandinista government formally accused Somoza Portocarrero of masterminding the 1978 assassination of opposition journalist

Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal (23 September 1924 – 10 January 1978) was a Nicaraguan journalist and publisher. He was the editor of '' La Prensa'', the only significant opposition newspaper to the long rule of the Somoza family. He is a 1 ...

, and a June 1981 trial that convicted nine people of the crime implicated him but did not go as far as naming him as a defendant ''

in absentia is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent". may also refer to: * Award in absentia * Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body * Election in ab ...

''. In 1980, Sandinista officials also issued a warrant for Somoza Portocarrero's arrest on charges that he embezzled $4 million in governmental funds (via dummy corporations) while his father was still in power. He was living in Miami at the time, and he was not extradited because the US Department of State considered the charges to be politically motivated and thus allowed the matter to die. False reports that Somoza Portocarrero might return to Nicaragua in 2000 after over twenty years in exile led to an uproar in that country. Former Sandinista President

Daniel Ortega José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguan revolutionary and politician serving as President of Nicaragua since 2007. Previously he was leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as coordinator of the Junta of Na ...

suggested that Somoza Portocarrero "will be able to enter

Managua ) , settlement_type = Capital city , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Nicar ...

, but I doubt he will be able to leave because I will confront him with gunshots." Sitting President

Arnoldo Alemán José Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo (born 23 January 1946) is a Nicaraguan politician who served as the 81st president of Nicaragua from 10 January 1997 to 10 January 2002. In 2003, he was convicted of corruption and sentenced to a 20-year prison term; ...

—whose own

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

in part grew out of the old Somoza party—said that Nicaraguans "reject the announced visit of Somoza Portocarrero, whom public opinion considers one of those principally responsible for the destruction, suffering, violations and spilling of blood dramatically suffered by Nicaraguans throughout their history." Somoza Portocarrero was falsely reported to have planned to return for a political rally but ultimately this was found to be invented by Alemán.

Biography

Early life

Career

References

See also