Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle (; 5 December 1925 – 17 September 1980) was a Nicaraguan politician who served as the 53rd
President of Nicaragua
The co-presidents of Nicaragua (), officially known as the presidency of the Republic of Nicaragua (), are the heads of state and head of government, government of Nicaragua.
The office was created in the Constitution of 1854. From 1825 until ...
from 1967 to 1972 and again from 1974 to 1979.
As head of 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.
...
, he was ''de facto'' ruler of the country between 1967 and 1979, even during the period when he was not the ''de jure'' ruler.
Somoza Debayle succeeded his older brother,
Luis Somoza Debayle
Luis Anastasio Somoza Debayle (18 November 1922 – 13 April 1967) was the 50th President of Nicaragua from 1957 until his resignation in 1963. He succeeded to the presidency following the death of his father, Anastasio Somoza García. The Somoz ...
, in office. He was the last member of the
Somoza family
The Somoza family () is a political family which ruled Nicaragua under a dictatorship over a period of forty-three years, from 1936 to 1979. Founder, Anastasio Somoza García – who served as the President of Nicaragua from 1937 until 1956 – ...
to be president, ending a dynasty that had been in power since 1937. After insurgents led by the
Sandinista National Liberation Front
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistan ...
(; FSLN) were closing in on Managua in July 1979, Somoza fled Nicaragua. Power was ceded to the
Junta of National Reconstruction
The Junta of National Reconstruction () was the provisional government of Nicaragua from the fall of the Somoza family dictatorship in July 1979 until January 1985, with the election of Daniel Ortega ( FSLN) as president of Nicaragua.
Overview
T ...
. He was assassinated in 1980 while in exile in
Paraguay
Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...
.
Early life and education

Somoza Debayle, nicknamed "Tachito" (Spanish: ''Little Tacho'') by his father, was born in 1925 as the third child of
Anastasio Somoza García
Anastasio Somoza García (1 February 1896 – 29 September 1956) was the leader of Nicaragua from 1936 until his assassination in 1956. He was officially the 21st President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947 and from 21 May 1950 unt ...
and
Salvadora Debayle. At the age of seven, he was enrolled at the Instituto Pedagógico La Salle, run by the
Christian Brothers. One of his classmates was
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 ...
, who later became a journalist and publisher of ''
La Prensa'' newspaper and one of the most prominent opponents of the Somoza dynasty.
From the age of ten, Tachito was educated in the United States. During this period, their father became president of Nicaragua, and served from 1937 to 1947, and again from 1950 into 1956. He and older brother
Luis Somoza Debayle
Luis Anastasio Somoza Debayle (18 November 1922 – 13 April 1967) was the 50th President of Nicaragua from 1957 until his resignation in 1963. He succeeded to the presidency following the death of his father, Anastasio Somoza García. The Somoz ...
both attended
St. Leo College Prep (Florida) and
La Salle Military Academy on Long Island.
Somoza attended La Salle with Lt. Andrew Edward Tuck III, uncle of American television host
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program ''The Colbert Report'' from 2005 to ...
, and would stay at the family home in
Larchmont
Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York. Larchmont is a suburb of New York City, located approximately northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village is 6,453 as of the W ...
during the holidays instead of returning to Nicaragua. This led to Somoza going on several dates with Andrew Edward's sister and Colbert's mother, Lorna.
[
*
*
*
]
Somoza Debayle passed the examination for West Point, entered the
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
on July 3, 1943, and graduated on June 6, 1946.
After his return to Nicaragua, Somoza Debayle was appointed chief of staff of 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.
...
(Nicaragua's national army), by his father. The president had also appointed numerous family members and close personal friends to other important posts in his government. As commander of the Guard, the young Somoza was head of the nation's armed forces, effectively the second-most powerful man in Nicaragua.
Two years after his return from West Point, Somoza Debayle had an affair and fathered a daughter, Patricia. She was later sent to a series of schools abroad.
On 10 December 1950, Somoza married
Hope Portocarrero, an American citizen and his first cousin. Their wedding was held at the Cathedral in Managua and officiated by Archbishop Jose Antonio Lezcano. Over 4,000 guests attended the ceremony. The reception was given by Somoza's father, President Anastasio Somoza García, in the luxurious and modern Palacio de Comunicaciones.
The couple had five children:
*
Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero
*Julio Somoza Portocarrero
*Carolina Somoza Portocarrero, married to James Minskoff Sterling, son of New York real estate developer
Henry H. Minskoff
*Carla Somoza Portocarrero
*Roberto Somoza Portocarrero
Somoza and Hope attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
Following their father's assassination on 21 September 1956, Somoza's elder brother,
Luis
Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...
, took over the presidency. Anastasio also had a large hand in the government during this time; he helped ensure that the presidency was held by politicians loyal to his family from 1963 to 1967.
Presidency

Anastasio was elected president in his own right on 5 February 1967 and took office on 1 May, a few weeks after his brother's death. While Luis had ruled more gently than his father, Anastasio shared his father's cold intolerance of dissent. His rule soon resembled his father's in all significant respects, with harsh repression of dissent.
On education Somoza in his memoirs states "My dream was to provide a University equal to any in the world so that those young men and women with special qualifications could achieve educational equivalency with any student in any part of the world".
In 1968,
Prince Rainier III
Rainier III (Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi; 31 May 1923 – 6 April 2005) was Prince of Monaco from 1949 to Funeral of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, his death in 2005. Rainier ruled the Principality of Monaco for almost 56 year ...
bestowed Somoza with the
Order of St. Charles, Monaco's highest honor.
He was due to leave office in May 1972; at the time, Nicaraguan presidents were barred from immediate re-election. However, prior to that, Somoza worked out an agreement that allowed him to stand for re-election in
1974
Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...
. He would be replaced as president by a three-man junta consisting of two members of his
Nationalist Liberal Party and one member from the opposition
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
while he retained control of 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.
...
. Somoza and his triumvirate drew up a new constitution that was ratified by the triumvirate and the cabinet on April 3, 1971. He stepped down as president on May 1, 1972. However, as head of the National Guard, he remained the ''de facto'' ruler of the country.
Anastasio Somoza and his son were both part owners of Plasmaferesis. The company collected blood plasma from up to 1,000 of Nicaragua's poorest persons every day for sale in the United States and Europe. According to ''El Diario Nuevo'' and ''La Prensa'', "Every morning the homeless, drunks, and poor people went to sell half a liter of blood for 35 (Nicaraguan)
cordobas.
On 23 December 1972, an
earthquake
An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...
struck the nation's capital,
Managua
Managua () is the capital city, capital and largest city of Nicaragua, and one of the List of largest cities in Central America, largest cities in Central America. Located on the shores of Lake Managua, the city had an estimated population of 1, ...
, killing about 5,000 people and virtually destroying the city. The government declared
martial law
Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...
, and Somoza took over ''de jure'' as well as ''de facto'' control of the country as head of the National Emergency Committee. He reportedly embezzled a large amount of money from funds sent to Nicaragua from around the world to help rebuild Managua.
These reports were debunked by the U.S. House subcommittee on International Development March 9, 1978, stating "Since the 1972 earthquake, 28 major audits, two separate congressional staff surveys, and a General Accounting Office report on reconstruction activities have been completed. We are pleased to note that no diversion or misuse of official U.S. assistance has been revealed by these reports."
Some parts of Managua have yet to be rebuilt or restored, including the National Cathedral.
Somoza also allegedly exported freshly imported emergency blood plasma abroad at the time of the earthquake, when most medical supplies in Nicaragua were desperately in short supply.
Somoza was re-elected president in the 1974 election. By this time, the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
had begun to speak out against his government (one of his fiercest critics was
Ernesto Cardenal, a leftist Nicaraguan priest who preached
liberation theology and was later appointed as the Sandinista government's Minister of Culture). By the late 1970s, human rights groups were condemning the record of the Somoza government. Support for the
Sandinistas was growing inside and outside the country.
In July 1977, Somoza had a heart attack, and went to the US to recuperate.
Fall
In 1975 Somoza Debayle launched a campaign to crush the Sandinistas; individuals suspected of supporting the Front were targeted. The Front, named after
Augusto César Sandino
Augusto César Sandino (; 18 May 1895 21 February 1934), full name Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino, was a Nicaraguan revolutionary, founder of the militant group EDSN, and leader of a rebellion between 1927 and 1933 against the United Sta ...
(a Nicaraguan rebel leader in the 1920s), began its guerrilla war against the Somozas in 1963. It received funds from the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
under
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
. Support for the Sandinistas ballooned after the earthquake, especially when U.S. President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
withdrew American support for the regime for human rights reasons, including the televised murder of American journalist
Bill Stewart by government soldiers.
At this point, the opposition to the Somozas included not only Sandinistas, but other prominent figures such as publisher
Pedro Chamorro (assassinated on January 10, 1978).
Because of Somoza's status, most of his family members were forced to flee into
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
,
Guatemala
Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
, and the United States. It is uncertain where the surviving Somozas live; they changed their names to protect their own lives.
On July 17, 1979, Somoza resigned from the presidency and fled to Miami in a converted
Curtiss C-46. He took with him the caskets of his father and brother and, it is claimed, much of Nicaragua's national treasure.
The country was left with $1.6 billion in
foreign debt, the highest in Central America.
After Somoza had fled, the Sandinistas found less than $2 million in the national treasury.
Denied asylum in the U.S. by President Carter, Somoza later took refuge in
Paraguay
Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...
, then under the rule of
Alfredo Stroessner
Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (; 3 November 1912 – 16 August 2006) was a Paraguayan politician, army general and Military dictatorship, military dictator who ruled as the 42nd president of Paraguay from 15 August 1954 until his overthrow in 19 ...
. He bought a ranch and a gated house at Avenida España no. 433 in
Asunción
Asunción (, ) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of Asunción in the north ...
, the capital. The president of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Deputies,
Francisco Urcuyo, took over as acting president, but lasted only a day before peacefully handing Managua to the Sandinistas.
Death
Little more than a year later, Somoza was shot dead in Asunción on September 17, 1980. He was 54 years old. He was ambushed by a seven-strong Sandinista
commando team (four men and three women). The action was known as "Operation Reptile".
The Sandinista team were armed with two Soviet-made machine guns, two
AK-47
The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...
assault rifles, two automatic pistols, and an
RPG-7
The RPG-7 is a portable, reusable, unguided, shoulder-launched, anti-tank, rocket launcher. The RPG-7 and its predecessor, the RPG-2, were designed by the Soviet Union, and are now manufactured by the Russian company Bazalt. The weapon has t ...
rocket launcher, with four anti-tank grenades and two rockets. The leader was
Argentinian Marxist revolutionary
Enrique Gorriarán Merlo (code named "Ramon"), an ex-
Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo member. One of the team members said: "We cannot tolerate the existence of millionaire playboys while thousands of Latin Americans are dying of hunger. We are perfectly willing to give up our lives for this cause."

The Sandinista team had researched and planned their assault over a time period of more than six months. The team studied Somoza's movements via a team member who was staked out at a newspaper kiosk near the estate. The commando team also utilized disinformation tactics to gain access into important residencies under the guise of a famous name, that being
Julio Iglesias
Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top List of best-selling music artists, reco ...
. They waited in ambush for Somoza in Avenida España. Somoza was often driven about the city in a
Mercedes-Benz S-Class
The Mercedes-Benz S-Class, formerly known as "special class" (), is a series of full-sized luxury vehicle, luxury sedans and Coupe, coupés produced by the German automaker Mercedes-Benz. The S-Class is the designation for top-of-the-line Mercede ...
sedan, which was believed to be unarmored. Team member Oswaldo, disguised as a paper boy, watched Somoza exit the estate and signaled when he was leaving at 10:10 am.
Once in position, Hugo Irurzún (''Capitán Santiago'') readied the RPG-7. He tried to fire an anti-tank rocket at the car, but the RPG-7 misfired. Ramon shot the chauffeur while Irurzún quickly reloaded the RPG with a new rocket. The second rocket directly hit the sedan. Accounts said that the car's engine kept running after the rocket explosion. Previously, the commando team had considered the possibility that Somoza's vehicle might be equipped with armor panels in front. Worried that it could deflect the rocket projectile, they chose to make a lateral attack on the vehicle. Somoza was killed instantly and burned, along with his new driver, César Gallardo, and Somoza's financial advisor, Colombian citizen Jou Baittiner. Later media reports in Paraguay said that Somoza's body was so unrecognizable that forensics had to identify him through his feet.
Of the seven assassins, six escaped. Iruzun was killed in a shootout with
Paraguayan police the day after the assassination.
Somoza was buried in Miami, at
Woodlawn Park Cemetery and Mausoleum, although his father
Anastasio Somoza García
Anastasio Somoza García (1 February 1896 – 29 September 1956) was the leader of Nicaragua from 1936 until his assassination in 1956. He was officially the 21st President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947 and from 21 May 1950 unt ...
and brother
Luis Somoza Debayle
Luis Anastasio Somoza Debayle (18 November 1922 – 13 April 1967) was the 50th President of Nicaragua from 1957 until his resignation in 1963. He succeeded to the presidency following the death of his father, Anastasio Somoza García. The Somoz ...
, both prior presidents of Nicaragua, were buried in Nicaragua. A few months before Somoza's murder, his memoirs, ''
Nicaragua Betrayed'', were published. He blamed the
Carter administration
Jimmy Carter's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 39th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Jimmy Carter, his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. Carter, a Democratic Party ...
for his downfall. His son,
Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero, went into exile in
Guatemala
Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
.
Brian Latell, a former US National Intelligence Officer for Latin America and Cuba, argues in his book, ''After Fidel'', that the plan to assassinate Somoza was devised in Havana, with direct input from
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
. According to him, the Sandinistas had won power in July 1979 with the assistance of massive, covert Cuban military aid. Fidel and his brother
Raúl Castro
Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz ( ; ; born 3 June 1931) is a Cuban retired politician and general who served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the One-par ...
purportedly developed a complex, multinational covert action to provide the Sandinistas with huge quantities of modern armaments. Latell claims Cuban intelligence and paramilitary advisors poured into Nicaragua along with the equipment. He says the evidence indicated that Somoza's assassination was similar to other such operations in which Cuban intelligence had been involved. He says that Somoza was a long-time nemesis of Castro after having provided critical support to the U.S. in preparing for the
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called or after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in April 1961 by the United States of America and the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front ...
of Cuba in April 1961. Jorge Masetti, a former Argentine guerrilla working with Cuban intelligence services, describes the Somoza assassination and also asserts that Cuba had a direct role in planning it in his memoir, ''In the Pirate's Den'' (2002).
Somoza's funeral attracted numerous wealthy Nicaraguan and
Cuban exile
A Cuban exile is a person who has been exiled from Cuba. Many Cuban exiles have various differing experiences as emigrants depending on when they emigrated from Cuba, and why they emigrated.
The exile of Cubans has been a dominating factor in C ...
s in South Florida, who protested the left-wing governments of Nicaragua, led by the
Sandinista National Liberation Front
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistan ...
, and Cuba, led by the
Communist Party of Cuba
The Communist Party of Cuba (, PCC) is the sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which was in turn made up of the 26th of July Movement and Popu ...
. But some commentators noted that the exiles in Miami were also relieved at Somoza's death. The newly founded
Contra army, which consisted of many ex-members of Somoza's National Guard, would have had to give the impression of having no relation to the old Somoza regime, for purposes of public relations and world opinion.
In 1979, the Brazilian newspaper ''Gazeta Mercantil'' estimated that the Somoza family's fortune amounted to between $2 billion and $4 billion with its head, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, owning $1 billion. At the time he fled the country, he reportedly personally controlled 22 percent of the agricultural land of Nicaragua.
The Somoza legacy: he failed the people he professed to love
''The Christian Science Monitor'', September 19, 1980
In popular culture
Somoza was the subject of the 1983 film '' Last Plane Out'', in which he was portrayed by actor Lloyd Battista. The film chronicles journalist Jack Cox's journey to Nicaragua, when Somoza was battling insurgents. The same year, he was depicted in '' Under Fire'', set during the 1979 Nicaraguan Revolution
The Nicaraguan Revolution () began with rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the ouster of the dictatorship in 1978–79, and fighting between the government and the Contras from 1981 to 1990. The revolution r ...
, this time portrayed by actor René Enriquez. In Warren Beatty
Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. His career has spanned over six decades, and he has received an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. He also received the Irving G. Thalberg Memor ...
's '' Rules Don't Apply'', Somoza is portrayed by Julio Oscar Mechoso
Julio Óscar Mechoso (May 31, 1955 – November 25, 2017) was a Cuban- American actor who played detective Ruiz in '' Bad Boys'' and appeared in such films as '' Blue Streak'', ''Jurassic Park III'', '' The Legend of Zorro'', '' The Lost City ...
.
In Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century.
Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a re ...
's novel '' The Captain and the Enemy'', the titular character's final act is a failed attempt at assassinating Somoza by crashing a plane into his bunker, though Somoza himself never appears in the book.
American comedian Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program ''The Colbert Report'' from 2005 to ...
's mother briefly dated him. Colbert still has his pants in his house, as mentioned in the podcast '' Strike Force Five''.[
]
Publications
Books
* '' Nicaragua Betrayed'', with Jack Cox. Belmont, Mass.: Western Islands (1980). . Full text.
See also
* National Guard (Nicaragua)
The Nicaraguan National Guard (, otherwise known as ) was a militia and a gendarmerie created in 1925 during the United States occupation of Nicaragua, occupation of Nicaragua by the United States. It became notorious for human rights abuses and ...
* Nicaraguan Revolution
The Nicaraguan Revolution () began with rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the ouster of the dictatorship in 1978–79, and fighting between the government and the Contras from 1981 to 1990. The revolution r ...
* Somoza Family
The Somoza family () is a political family which ruled Nicaragua under a dictatorship over a period of forty-three years, from 1936 to 1979. Founder, Anastasio Somoza García – who served as the President of Nicaragua from 1937 until 1956 – ...
References
Bibliography
*Alegria, Claribel, and Flakoll, Darwin J. ''Death of Somoza''. Curbstone Press, 1996.
*Berman, Karl. ''Under the Big Stick: Nicaragua and the United States Since 1848''. South End Press
South End Press was a non-profit book publisher run on a model of participatory economics. It was founded in 1977 in Boston's South End. It published books written by political activists, notably Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Win ...
, 1986.
*Booth, John A. ''The End And The Beginning: The Nicaraguan Revolution''. Westview Press
Westview Press was an American publishing company headquartered in Boulder, Colorado founded in 1975.
Field of work
Westview primarily publishes textbooks.
History
Westview Press was founded by Frederick A. Praeger in 1975. Praeger sold ...
, 1985.
*Booth, John A. and Thomas W. Walker. ''Understanding Central America''. Westview Press
Westview Press was an American publishing company headquartered in Boulder, Colorado founded in 1975.
Field of work
Westview primarily publishes textbooks.
History
Westview Press was founded by Frederick A. Praeger in 1975. Praeger sold ...
, 1999.
*Christian, Shirley. ''Nicaragua: Revolution in the Family''. Vintage Books
Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was acquired by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Ho ...
, 1986.
*Crawley, Eduardo. ''Dictators Never Die: Nicaragua and the Somoza Dynasty''. Palgrave Macmillan
Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...
, 1979.
*Diederich, Bernard. ''Somoza and the Legacy of U.S. Involvement in Central America''. Markus Wiener Publishers, 2007.
*Dillon, Sam. ''Comandos: The CIA and Nicaragua's Contra Rebels''. Henry Holt & Co., 1992.
* Kinzer, Stephen. ''Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua''. David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, 2007.
*Lake, Anthony. ''Somoza Falling: A Case Study of Washington at Work''. University of Massachusetts Press
The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...
, 1990.
*Leiken, Robert S. (ed.) and Barry M. Rubin (ed.). ''The Central American Crisis Reader''. Summit Books
Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCol ...
, 1987.
*Merrill, Tim (ed.). ''Nicaragua: A Country Study''. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
, 1995.
*Millett, Richard. ''Guardians of the Dynasty''. Orbis Books
Orbis Books is an American imprint of the Maryknoll order. It has been a small but influential publisher of liberation theology works. It was founded by Nicaraguan Maryknoll priest Miguel D'Escoto with Philip J. Scharper in 1970. Its editor- ...
, 1977.
*Norsworthy, Kent and Tom Barry. ''Nicaragua: A Country Guide''. Inter-Hemispheric Education Resource Center, 1990.
*Pastor, Robert A. ''Condemned to Repetition: The United States and Nicaragua''. Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large.
The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...
, 1987.
*Pezzullo, Lawrence and Ralph Pezzullo. ''At the Fall of Somoza''. University of Pittsburgh Press
The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States.
The press ...
, 1994.
* Rees, John (ed.). ''Ally Betrayed...Nicaragua''. Western Goals, 1980.
*Somoza, Anastasio (as told to Jack Cox). '' Nicaragua Betrayed''. Belmont, MA: Western Islands, 1980.
*Towell, Larry. ''Somoza's Last Stand: Testimonies from Nicaragua''. Red Sea Press, 1990.
*Walker, Thomas W. ''Nicaragua: Living in the Shadow of the Eagle''. Westview Press
Westview Press was an American publishing company headquartered in Boulder, Colorado founded in 1975.
Field of work
Westview primarily publishes textbooks.
History
Westview Press was founded by Frederick A. Praeger in 1975. Praeger sold ...
, 2003.
*Zimmermann, Matilde. ''Sandinista: Carlos Fonseca and the Nicaraguan Revolution''. Duke University Press
Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 ...
, 2001.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Somoza Debayle, Anastasio
1925 births
1980 deaths
People from León, Nicaragua
Anastasio
Nicaraguan people of Galician descent
Nicaraguan people of French descent
Nicaraguan Roman Catholics
Nationalist Liberal Party politicians
20th-century presidents of Nicaragua
Nicaraguan anti-communists
Opposition to Fidel Castro
20th-century memoirists
Children of presidents of Nicaragua
People of the Nicaraguan Revolution
People of the Cold War
Saint Leo College Preparatory School alumni
United States Military Academy alumni
Leaders ousted by a coup
Exiled politicians
Nicaraguan exiles
Nicaraguan people murdered abroad
People murdered in Paraguay
Assassinated Nicaraguan politicians
Deaths by explosive device
Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
1980 murders in South America
1980 in Paraguay
Politicide perpetrators
Nicaraguan expatriates in the United States
Nicaraguan expatriates in Paraguay
North American politicians assassinated in the 1980s
Assassinated presidents in North America
National presidents assassinated in the 20th century
Politicians assassinated in 1980