Anastasio Somoza Garcia

Anastasio Somoza Garcia imposed his dictatorship on Nicaragua from 1937 to 1956.

In his youth he lived in the Philippines, where he studied at the Pierce School of Business Administration. Upon his return to Nicaragua, he attempted –without success– to establish himself as a businessman.

In 1925, he participated in the insurrection led by General Chamorro that put the Liberal Party in power. With the landing of the U.S. Marines in the country in 1926, his American accent helped him to quickly ascend to the most important positions in the government. He served as a diplomat in Costa Rica (1929), deputy director of the National Guard (1932) and ultimately head of this institution (1933).

During the occupation, Marines fought against the forces of General Augusto Caesar Sandino. In January 1933 the American troops departed from the country, leaving General Somoza to head the armed forces.

In September 1934, seven months after the murder of Sandino, the political and military power of Somoza was staggering.

He became president after the murder of President John Bautista Sacasa – with this, a dynasty of Nicaraguan dictators had begun. That same year his protegee Leonardo Arguello Barreto assumed power – who he toppled so as to promote his uncle, Victor Roman y Reyes. As Secretary of War and the head of the National Guard, he never relinquished effective control over the country. This did not end with death of Roman y Reyes; Somoza was named interim president and president in 1951.

A supporter of U.S. policies in his country, Somoza exercised merciless repression against his opponents. He attempted to overthrow Costa Rican president Jose Figueres Ferrer (in 1948 and 1955) so as to put Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia in power in that country. He participated decisively in the fall of the Jacobo Arbenz government in Guatemala (1954) and amassed an enormous personal fortune.

On September 21, 1956, Rigoberto Lopez Perez was shot during a party following the Liberal Party convention in which Somoza Garcia was again proclaimed its candidate.

Wounded, he was flown to the Gorgas Hospital in the Panama Canal in an airplane sent by U.S. President Dwight David Eisenhower. However, he died in that American medical center on September 21, 1956. Succeeding him in the presidency –from 1956 to 1963– was his son, Luis Somoza Debayle.

His repressive and corrupt government satisfied the United States for its anti-communist character. U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said of him, “he may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.”