Latin America
Related: About this forumGrandaughter of Former Nicaragua Dictator Speaks at Clinton DNC
Grandaughter of Former Nicaragua Dictator Speaks at Clinton DNC
Published 28 July 2016
The great granddaughter of the U.S.-backed dictator supported Hillary Clintons nomination for president.
Anastasia Somoza, the great granddaughter of Nicaraguas U.S.-backed dictator, attended the Democratic National Convention on Monday to support Hillary Clintons nomination.
Anastasio Somoza Garcia and his family governed Nicaragua for more than 40 years while Washington supported Somozas repression and political persecution of opponents, resulting in his family becoming one of the wealthiest in Latin America.
The dictator was overthrown in 1956, but his family continued to rule the country until the Sandinista Revolution took power in 1979. The Sandinista government was soon faced with a violent, U.S.-sponsored counterrevolution in the country, which carried out more than 1,300 terrorist attacks and engaged in widespread human rights violations.
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Grandaughter-of-Former-Nicaragua-Dictator-Speaks-at-Clinton-DNC-20160728-0034.html
(She was on to speak last night, and was mentioned by HRC in her speech tonight.)
sweetloukillbot
(11,068 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,616 posts)Of course, that's absolutely not her fault. She's innocent.
I might add, I believe another person should have been chosen, however. There's a deadly history connected to her grandfather, his father, etc.
On edit, adding WikiLeaks on the first Somoza:
Anastasio "Tacho" Somoza García (1 February 1896 29 September 1956) was officially the President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947 and from 21 May 1950 to 29 September 1956, but ruled effectively as dictator from 1936 until his assassination. Anastasio Somoza started a dynasty that maintained absolute control over Nicaragua for 44 years.
The son of a wealthy coffee planter, Somoza was educated in the United States. After his return to Nicaragua, he helped oust President Adolfo Díaz. He became the foreign secretary and took the title of "General." With the help of the US Marine Corps, which occupied Nicaragua at the time, Somoza became the head of the National Guard. This gave him the power base to remove his wife's uncle, Juan Bautista Sacasa, from the presidency, and make himself president in 1937. In 1947, an ally nominally succeeded him, but he retained power.
A month after his successor had been inaugurated, Somoza used the military to carry out a coup. The president was declared 'incapacitated' by Congress and Somoza served in his stead. Returning to power in his own name in 1951, he maintained an iron grip on his own Liberal Party while making a deal with the Conservatives; thus, he faced no opposition. This left him free to amass a huge personal fortune. On 21 September 1956, he was shot by poet Rigoberto López Pérez. Mortally wounded, he was flown to the Panama Canal Zone where he died a week later. His eldest son Luis Somoza Debayle took over, to be succeeded by his younger brother Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who was forced to flee in 1979 and assassinated in exile in Paraguay the following year.
Biography[edit]
Somoza was born in San Marcos, Carazo Department in Nicaragua, the son of Anastasio Somoza Reyes, a wealthy coffee planter, and Julia García, and a grandson of Anastasio Somoza Martínez and Isabel Reyes. As a teenager, he was sent to live with relatives in Philadelphia, where he attended the Peirce School of Business Administration (now Peirce College).[1] While living in Philadelphia, he met his future wife, Salvadora Debayle Sacasa, a member of one of Nicaragua's wealthiest families, daughter of Dr. Luis Henri Debayle Pallais and wife Casimira Sacasa Sacasa, daughter of Roberto Sacasa Sarria, 44th and 46th President of Nicaragua, and wife and cousin Ángela Sacasa Cuadra. After returning to Nicaragua, he was unsuccessful as a businessman.
. . .
Assassination and legacy[edit]
In 1955, the constitution was amended to allow him to run for another term. Shortly after being nominated, he was shot on 21 September 1956 by the poet Rigoberto López Pérez in the city of León, and died several days later in a Panama Canal Zone hospital. His older son, Luis Somoza, succeeded him.
Somoza's sons, Luis and Anastasio Somoza Debayle, ruled the country directly or through figurehead politicians for the next 23 years. Despite widespread corruption and repression of dissent, they were able to receive support from the United States, which viewed them as anti-communist stalwarts and a source of stability. His daughter Lillian Somoza Debayle, born in León, Nicaragua, on 3 May 1921, married Guillermo Sevilla Sacasa, Nicaraguan Ambassador to the United States during his brother-in-law's rule. He also had a son named José R. Somoza, born to an unknown mother.
Somoza is entombed with his oldest son at Cementerio Occidental in the National Guard Mausoleum in Managua, Nicaragua.
"Our Son of a Bitch"[edit]
Although Somoza was reckoned as a ruthless dictator, the United States continued to support his regime as a non-communist stronghold in Nicaragua. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) supposedly remarked in 1939 that "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch."[4][5][6] According to historian David Schmitz, however, researchers and archivists who have searched the archives of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library have found no evidence that Roosevelt ever made this statement. The statement first appeared in the November 15, 1948 issue of Time magazine and was later mentioned in a March 17, 1960 broadcast of CBS Reports called "Trujillo: Portrait of a Dictator". In this broadcast, however, it was asserted that FDR made the statement in reference to Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. It should be further noted that this statement has been attributed to a variety of United States presidential administrations in regard to foreign dictators. Thus the statement remains apocryphal at this point, though Roosevelt and future presidents certainly supported the Somoza family and their rule over Nicaragua.[7] Andrew Crawley claims that the Roosevelt statement is a myth created by Somoza himself.[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasio_Somoza_Garc%C3%ADa