[2][6] Ultimately, the Somoza family was overthrown by the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) during the Nicaraguan Revolution[7] of 1961–1990.

[2][4] Anastasio Somoza Debayle declared himself the Head of the National Emergency Committee and used his power to participate in looting and in the mismanagement of international-aid funding.

[4] Discomfort increased in the light of the rise of the Sandinista National Liberation Front and in response to the Somoza government's human-rights violations.

While the Broad Opposition Front (Spanish: Frente Amplio Opositor, FAO) attempted to reach a solution via negotiation, the FSLN pushed insurrection.

[3] On 17 July 1979, Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigned as President of Nicaragua, marking the end of the Somoza-family dictatorship.

[4] The family accumulated wealth through corporate bribes, industrial monopolies, land grabbing, and foreign aid siphoning.

[2][8] The Somoza's wealth is speculated to have reached approximately $533 million, which amounted to half of Nicaragua's debt and 33 percent of the country's 1979 GDP.

He was born into a wealthy coffee planter family as the son of senator Anastasio Somoza Reyes and Julia García.

[2][5] During his time in the United States, he learned the English language and met his wife Salvadora Debayle Sacasa, the daughter of a wealthy and politically connected family.

Somoza was nominated for the presidency a week later at a Liberal Party convention on 16 June 1936 and was inaugurated into office on 1 January 1937.

He was born in León, Nicaragua and received an American education at Saint Leo College Prep School, La Salle Military Academy and Louisiana State University.

[6] Luis' government condemned the Cuban Revolution and played a leading role in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961.

He developed a reputation as a human rights violator and replaced his brother's skilled administrators with unqualified political allies.

[4] While his first term was meant to expire in 1971, Anastasio Somoza Debayle amended the re-election ban in the constitution, allowing him to serve as president for an additional year.

[2][4][7] Although he was not president at the time, Anastasio Somoza Debayle quickly established the National Emergency Committee of which he was the head.

[4] The FSLN began as a group of Marxist, antigovernment student activists at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua in the late 1950s.

[4] As a result, the guerrillas received a US$1 million ransom and had a FSLN declaration read over the radio and printed in La Prensa.

[2] Anastasio Somoza Debayle responded to the increasing opposition brought about by the FSLN by imposing a state of siege and censoring the press.

[3] During this time, the National Guard engaged in widespread torture, rape, arbitrary imprisonment and execution of opponents and peasants.

[2][4] These human rights violations led to national and international condemnation of the Somoza regime and built support for the FSLN.

[2] In 1977, the Jimmy Carter administration made United States military assistance conditional on improvements to human rights.

[4] This, accompanied by condemnation, led Somoza to lift the state of siege and reinstated freedom of the press in September 1977.

[3][4] On 10 January 1978, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, the owner of La Prensa and founder of the Democratic Liberation Union opposition group, was assassinated.

The United People's Movement had a different approach to reaching a solution, promoting warfare and nationwide insurrection as the means to overthrow the dictatorship.

[4] The mediation effort officially collapsed in January 1979, when Somoza refused to hold a national plebiscite and insisted on remaining in power until 1981.

[17] Somoza handed over power to President of the Chamber of Deputies Francisco Urcuyo who would in turn transfer the government to the junta.