Somoza family

[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.

Anastasio Somoza García in 1936
Luis Somoza Debayle in 1963
Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1968
Anastasio Somoza Debayle and his wife Hope Portocarrero at the abrogation of the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty in 1970
Cleaning up damage caused by the 1972 Managua earthquake
FSLN troops during the insurrection of León July 1979
FSLN troops during the insurrection of León July 1979