- Capitalism and Alternatives -

'He's our son-of-a-bitch.' America's fave dictator, Somoza.

In Reply to: Sandanistas; wake-up call for Nickel Jack posted by Frenchy on February 01, 19100 at 11:22:40:

Here's a bit of info on the U.S.A.-supported dictatorship in Nicaragua:

The Marines invaded Nicaragua in 1912, and stayed until 1933, fighting but never defeating the revolutionary Augusto Sandino. They created the Nicaraguan National Guard and installed Anastasio Somoza Garcia in power. Then Sandino, who had signed a truce and put down his arms, was assassinated by Somoza. A general who led the Marines into Nicaragua, explained, " I was a high class muscle-man for big business, for Wall Street and for the banks. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. l helped purify Nicaragua for an International banking house." President
Franklin Roosevelt put it another way. "Somoza may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he's our son-of-a-bitch." Corruption, torture, and wholesale murder of dissdents continued for 45 years under two generations of Somozas, for after Somoza Garcia was gunned down in the streets in 1956, his son Anastasio Somoza Debayle took control. The Somozas plundered Nicaragua and became millionaires. The younger Somoza, made $12 million a year buying the blood of his people and selling it abroad at a 300% mark-up. In 1972 after an earthquake killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans, Somoza had his National Guard seize $30 million in international relief supplies and sold them to the highest bidder. Near the end of his reign, he aerially bombed his own capital to stay in
power, but he was overthrown in 1979 by a rebel group who called themelves the Sandinistas, after the revolutionary hero his father had slain.

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