Somoza forced the National Congress of Nicaragua to convene at 3 am and declare the now ex-president mentally incompetent.
At the insistence of the diplomatic corps Argüello was not imprisoned but exiled to Mexico where he died in December that year.
Benjamín Lacayo Sacasa was Somoza’s next choice for president, but even the new US administration led by Harry Truman found it impossible to recognize such a blatant corruption of the political process.
[2] A decree of 5 July 1947, signed by Provisional President Lacayo, sent the main leaders of the Socialist Party off to internal exile on the island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua.
They were not accused of doing anything illegal except belonging to a political group that espoused a foreign ideology prohibited by the Constitution.