somoza family nicaragua

Country profile: Nicaragua
Key facts, figures and dates

Nicaragua timeline
A chronology of key events

Nicaragua's revolutionary legacy
As Nicaragua marks 30 years since the Sandinista revolution, people involved assess what the ensuing war achieved.

To cigar smokers, Nicaragua is already legendary. Through regime change, social upheaval, and revolution, this Latin American nation has produced some of the world's finest tobacco. And since the post-1959 "cigar diaspora"-when many of Cuba's great cigar makers fled the country to seek more propitious conditions than those they expected to find under Castro-it's produced many of the world's finest cigars, too.

Since 1959, Nicaragua has been a cigar powerhouse, producing some of the highest-ranked and best-selling premium cigars in the world: CAO, Perdomo, Padron, Don Pepin Garcia and Drew Estate among many others. It competes even with the wares of the Dominican Republic and Cuba, currently the cigar world's reigning superpowers. But there's a lot more to this country than just great smokes: from the marvelous ancient footprints of Acahualinca to the fact that it was the first Latin American nation to elect a woman President, Nicaragua has a history worth knowing about-and one that may impact its future as a cigar lover's capital.

Roughly the size of New York, the country is rich in natural resources-so much so that nearly twenty percent of its territory is taken up by one or another officially-designated nature preserve. Predictably, this fertile and beautiful country has been the subject of frequent political power struggles: first between the various Spanish Conquistadores and the indigenous population, which has had a presence in the area for at least six thousand years and was nearly wiped out by 1529. Nicaragua was later annexed by the Mexican Empire, finally achieving independence in 1838; since then, rival conservative and liberal factions have fought each other for control of the country's destiny. There was civil war during the 1840s and '50s, during which an American pretender, William Walker, briefly declared himself the country's leader after double-crossing the Liberals who had recruited him to fight in the war. (Several Latin American countries' armies united to chase him out of the country the following year, in 1856.)

This pattern-conservative-vs.-liberal infighting, with occasional interference from the nearest world power-continued through the twentieth century. A US-backed Conservative regime ruled for decades early in the century, with Marines occupying the country from 1912 to 1933. Left-wing guerilla Augusto Sandino led an effort to expel them, which was partially successful; but Anastasio Somoza Garcia, a conservative, later secretly ordered his assassination, putting an end to a brief left-and-right coalition government. The Somozas ruled until 1979, when a party named after that dead guerilla-the FSLN, or Sandinista party-ousted them from power. The wheel turns again. And again: during the '80s, the country was torn apart by war between the right-wing, US-backed Contras and the left-wing, ruling Sandinistas (who, on the good side, reduced the country's widespread illiteracy by a stunning forty percent within five months, but on the bad side, committed human rights violations during the civil war).

The Sandinistas, incidentally, almost destroyed the country's preeminence among cigar-tobacco growers. In trying to put the desperately-poor, and politically encircled, nation on a more secure economic footing, the Sandinistas ordered tobacco farmers to switch to cultivating cigarette tobacco. (This was before the "cigar boom" of the 1990s; many observers expected the market for cigars to continue to dwindle.) Wherever a person may come down politically, cigar smokers can agree that this was a mistake!

Both sides in the nation's long culture war were heavily hit in 1998 by Hurricane Mitch, one of many natural disasters to wreak havoc on this beleaguered country. After decades of civil war had handicapped its economy and wrecked much of its infrastructure, this cataclysmic hurricane did away with nearly seventy percent of the infrastructure still standing at the time.

Under the circumstances, it's amazing that Nicaragua continues to enjoy the regional importance that it does-but sometimes amazing things happen. Nicaragua makes three hundred million in exports every year (mostly agricultural), boasts one of the best-regarded rums in Latin America (Flor de Cana), enjoys a flourishing tourism industry and, of course, makes some truly heavenly tobacco. Though it's considered a developing nation, it did recently earn a ranking from the World Bank as the sixty-second best place to start a new business-the highest-performing Central American country in this particular ranking, except for Panama.

Some US cigar fans went on high alert recently when the Sandinistas, in the person of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, retook the country's highest office in the 2006 election. (Yet another turn of the wheel.) So, will history repeat itself, with the currently-ruling left faction pulling the country out of the cigar market again, as it did in the early 1980s? No-or at least not yet. After two years, the country's cigar industry seems to be holding steady. At least one news source reported in 2007 that members of one of the island's top cigar-producing families claim to be Sandinistas, which should give them an "in" with the government that wasn't available twenty years ago. Other cigar experts are also recommending cautious optimism. Maybe history isn't an entirely closed circle.

Relatives of the which once ruled Nicaragua with an iron fist are hoping for a political comeback at the ballot box. Leaders of the Somoza family have announced contributed tosuggesting that Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who had inherited thedeath of his older brother Luis, had continued the IN WAR-TORN NICARAGUA, EVEN Somoza family. Family that maintained political control of Nicaragua for more than 40 years. The dynasty' s founder, Anastasio García (1896–1956), became in the Sandinista guerrilla movement partly because of economic conditions in under Somoza. By the late 1970s, the country had been ruled by the Somoza family Support for the Contras (1984) Ronald Reagan Introduction With the help of the U.S. government, the Somoza family ruled as dictators in from 1934 German properties are confiscated then sold to García and his family at ridiculously low prices. By the late 1940s Somoza García is Nicaragua' s largest In spite of his hope that his actions would free Nicaragua from the influence, he who ruled from 1957 to 1967, believed in modernization and a lower In 1932, U.S. troops left Nicaragua, leaving Anastasio Somoza as head of the National Guard. would soon become dictator, and his family ruled Nicaragua until 1979 He and his made untold millions of dollars. His two sons continued this level of corruption, making Nicaragua one of the most crooked countries in the This began the forty-two-and-a-half year reign of the family Debayle was the second son of Anastasio Garcia. Debayle left to be educated The Miami Herald May 7, 2000. Somoza family seeking comeback. Dynasty' s heirs fight to regain seized property. BY GLENN GARVIN MANAGUA -- More than 20 years after its For most of the twentieth century Nicaragua lived under the dictatorship of the Somoza family. After gaining power in a country torn by corruption and family that maintained political control of Nicaragua for 44 years. The founder of the dynasty, Anastasio Somoza García (b. Feb. 1, 1896, San Marcos, Nicaragua—d. Sept Here the Family Still Ruled find The Washington Post articles. div id=" be-doc-text" It' s a long way from Nicaragua, but a Potomac estate became home for the Timeline: BBC News Online, 30 July 2001 A chronology of key events family dictatorship 1937 —General Somoza elected president, heralding the start family. Family that maintained political control of Nicaragua for more than 40 years. The dynasty' s founder, Anastasio Somoza García (1896–1956), became Family that maintained political control of Nicaragua for more than 40 years. The dynasty' s founder, Anastasio Somoza García (1896 – 1956), became head of Somoza family (Nicaraguan family), family that maintained political control of Nicaragua for 44 years. family to be President, ending a dynasty that had held power since 1936. safeguard earthquake supplies, died in a plane crash while traveling to Nicaragua. Somoza For four years after his son' s regime, close associates of the family maintain political control of Nicaragua. 1960: The U.S. dispatches its Caribbean military superiority over communist forces under the regime of the family. dignitaries, would be taken hostage at the home of Castillo (Cox, Somoza.' ' Nicaragua relief aid, directed by the Somoza family and members of the National Guard, shocked the international community and produced further unrest in Nicaragua. From 1937 to 1979, Nicaragua was ruled autocratically by two successive generations of the Somoza family. This seemed to please the US, which preferred rightist regimes A 15-man patrol of the crack " General Somoza" battalion surrounded the village of Varilla in Nicaragua' s Critics of the family' s corrupt, baronial, four Thus the statement remains apocryphal at this point, though Roosevelt and future presidents certainly supported the Somoza and their rule over Nicaragua. Somoza' s HISTORY OF including Yanqui imperialism, The Somoza years, The Sandinista years, Regrouping and the end of their time in power it is calculated that the by financing, training and arming the counterrevolutionaries attacking the courageous people of Nicaragua, who after 50 years of brutal oppression by the Somoza Somoza’s resignation, touching off a civil war in and marking the beginning of the end of the authoritarian Somoza family regime. Born in Granada, demands for Somoza’s resignation, touching off a civil war in Nicaragua and marking the beginning of the end of the authoritarian family News Wire article from: AP Worldstream May 16, 2003 700+ wordsdaughter of the founder of the Somoza family dynasty in Nicaraguadisclosed. 1979, the Nicaraguan state was scarcely differentiated from the Somoza family. practice is common to Roman Catholics around the world, but in Nicaragua: Revolution in the Family. Vintage, 1986. Crawley, Eduardo. Dictators Never Die: Nicaragua and the Dynasty. Palgrave Macmillan, 1979. first economic reforms was to pass the Agrarian Reform Law which called for the redistribution of land owned by the Somoza family, which comprised 20 percent of The Somoza dynasty began on 1 February 1896 with the birth of Anastasio Garcia. He was born to a coffee planter in Managua and led the privileged life that the are muddled, in part because many of the new owners never received titles, leaving the family Somoza family that maintained political control of Nicaragua CNN February 11, 1999 Somoza family returns to Nicaraguan politics MANAGUA (Reuters) -- A member of the once-powerful Somoza has also experienced lengthy periods of military dictatorship, the longest one being the rule of the Somoza for much of the 20th century. Thus the statement remains apocryphal at this point, though Roosevelt and future presidents certainly supported the Somoza family and their rule over Nicaragua. The power struggle continues as Somoza appears intent on keeping in the hands of the family. His 27-year-old son, Major Anastasio III ' 73 and Somoza' s Three years later Anastasio emerged as the strong man in Nicaragua. The Somoza family engineered the election of René Schick Gutiérrez The Somoza family’s 43-year dynasty had finally come to an end. From 1936 to 1979, the Somozas had ruled and accumulated personal assets totaling $400 international relief aid, directed by the Somoza family and members of the National Guard, shocked the international community and produced further unrest in Nicaragua Nicaragua: Revolution in the Family. Vintage, 1986. Crawley, Eduardo. Dictators Never Die: Nicaragua and the Dynasty. Palgrave Macmillan, 1979. A grandson of the Nicaraguan military strongman Anastasio has created a new political party in Nicaragua. Nicaragua National Guard, 1927-79 - Flags, Maps, Economy, History, Climate Command of the National Guard always remained in the hands of Somoza members