beyler amım yok benimm nolmuş

in the coffin' for somoza. instead of helping to rebuild managua, somoza siphoned off relief money to help pay for national guard luxury homes, while the homeless poor had to make do with hastily constructed wooden shacks. the mishandling of relief money also prompted pittsburgh pirates star roberto clemente to personally fly to managua on 31 december 1972, but he died enroute in an airplane accident.[49] even the economic elite were reluctant to support somoza, as he had acquired monopolies in industries that were key to rebuilding the nation,[50] and did not allow the businessmen to compete with the profits that would result.
in 1973, the year of reconstruction, many new buildings were built, but the level of corruption in the government prevented further growth. strikes and demonstrations developed as citizens became increasingly angry and politically mobilized. the elite were angry that somoza was asking them to pay new emergency taxes to further his own ends. as a result, more of the young elite joined the sandinista liberation front (fsln). the ever increasing tensions and anti-government uprisings slowed growth in the last two years of the somoza dynasty.
[edit]nicaraguan revolution
main articles: nicaraguan revolution and fsln
in 1961 carlos fonseca, turned back to the historical figure of sandino, and along with 2 others founded the sandinista national liberation front (fsln).[37] fonseca turned to the kgb and cuba's dgi for arms and assistance, but the fsln was a tiny party throughout most of the 1960s, but somoza's utter hatred of it and his heavy-handed treatment of anyone he suspected to be a sandinista sympathizer gave many ordinary nicaraguans the idea that the sandinistas were much stronger.
after the 1972 earthquake and somoza's brazen corruption, mishandling of relief aid, and refusal to rebuild managua, the ranks of the sandinistas were flooded with young disaffected nicaraguans who no longer had anything to lose.[51] these economic problems propelled the sandinistas in their struggle against somoza by leading many middle- and upper-class nicaraguans to see the sandinistas as the only hope for removing the brutal somoza regime.
in december 1974, a group of fsln, in an attempt to kidnap u.s. ambassador tuner shelton, held some managuan partygoers hostage (after killing the host, former agriculture minister jose maria castillo, until the somozan government met their demands for a large ransom and free transport to cuba. somoza granted this, then subsequently sent his national guard out into the countryside to look for the perpetrateurs of the kidnapping that were described by opponents of this kidnapping as 'terrorists'. while searching, the national guard pillaged villages and imprisoned, tortured, raped, and executed hundreds of villagers. this led to the roman catholic church withdrawing any and all support of the somoza regime. around this time period, chilean president salvador allende was removed from power in a cia-planned and sponsored military coup that prompted allende to take his own life, as the presidential palace came under fire. with right-wing augusto pinochet in power in chile, several hundred committed chilean revolutionaries joined the sandinista army in nicaragua.[52]
on january 10, 1978, pedro joaquin chamorro, the editor of the national newspaper la prensa and ardent opponent of somoza, was assassinated.[53] this is believed to have led to the extreme general disappointment with somoza. the planners and perpetrators of the murder were at the highest echelons of the somoza regime and included the dictator's son, "el chiguin", the president of housing, cornelio hueck, the attorney general, and pedro ramos, a close ex-patriot, cuban ally who commercialized blood plasma.[53]
the sandinistas, supported by some of the populace, elements of the catholic church, and regional governments (including panama, mexico, costa rica, and venezuela), took power in july 1979. the carter administration, refusing to act unilaterally, decided to work with the new government, though attached a provision for aid forfeiture if it was found to be assisting insurgencies in neighboring countries.[54] a group of prominent citizens known as los doce denounced the somoza regime and said that "there can be no dialogue with somoza... because he is the principal obstacle to all rational understanding... through the long dark history of somocismo, dialogues with the dictatorship have only served to strengthen it... " somoza fled the country and eventually ended up in paraguay, where he was assassinated in september 1980, allegedly by members of the argentinian revolutionary workers party.[55]
to begin the task of establishing a new government, they created a council (or junta) of national reconstruction, made up of five members– sandinista militants daniel ortega and moises hassan, novelist sergio ramírez mercado (a member of los doce "the twelve"), businessman alfonso robelo callejas, and violeta barrios de chamorro (the widow of pedro joaquín chamorro). sandinista supporters thus comprised three of the five members of the junta.
the non-sandinistas, robelo and chamorro later resigned because they had little actual power in the junta. sandinista mass organizations were also powerful: including the sandinista workers' federation (central sandinista de trabajadores), the luisa amanda espinoza association of nicaraguan women (asociación de mujeres nicaragüenses luisa amanda espinoza), and the national union of farmers and ranchers (unión nacional de agricultores y ganaderos).
on the atlantic coast a small uprising also occurred in support of the sandinistas. this event is often overlooked in histories about the sandinista revolution. a group of creoles led by a native of bluefields, dexter hooker (known as commander abel), raided a somoza-owned business to gain access to food, guns and money before heading off to join sandinista fighters who had liberated the city of el rama. the 'black sandinistas' returned to bluefields on july 19, 1979 and took the city without a fight. the black sandinistas were challenged by a group of mestizo sandinista fighters.
the ensuing standoff between the two groups, with the black sandinistas occupying the national guard barracks (the cuartel) and the mestizo group occupying the town hall (palacio) gave the revolution on the atlantic coast a racial dimension which was absent from other parts of the country. the black sandinistas were assisted in their power struggle with the palacio group by the arrival of the simon bolivar international brigade from costa rica.
one of the brigade's members, an afro-costa rican called marvin wright (known as kalalu) became known for the rousing speeches he would make, which included elements of black power ideology in his attempts to unite all the black militias that had formed in bluefields. the introduction of a racial element into the revolution was not welcomed by the sandinista national directorate which expelled kalalu and the rest of the brigade from nicaragua and sent them to panama.[56]
[edit]sandinistas and the contras
main articles: fsln, contras, iran-contra scandal, and nicaragua v. united states
upon assuming office in 1981, u.s. president ronald reagan condemned the fsln for joining with cuba in supporting marxist revolutionary movements in other latin american countries such as el salvador. under the reagan doctrine, his administration authorized the cia to have their paramilitary officers from their elite special activities division begin financing, arming and training rebels, some of whom were the remnants of somoza's national guard, as anti-sandinista guerrillas that were branded "counter-revolutionary" by leftists (contrarrevolucionarios in spanish).[57] reagan was also concerned about the growing soviet and cuban presence in nicaragua, and the soviet hope to turn nicaragua into a "second cuba."
this was shortened to contras, a label the anti-socialist forces chose to embrace. eden pastora and many of the indigenous guerrilla forces unassociated with the "somozistas" also resisted the sandinistas. the contras operated out of camps in the neighboring countries of honduras to the north and costa rica to the south.[57] as was typical in guerrilla warfare, they were engaged in a campaign of economic sabotage in an attempt to combat the sandinista government and disrupted shipping by planting underwater mines in nicaragua's corinto harbour,[58] an action condemned by the world court as illegal.[59][60] the u.s. also sought to place economic pressure on the sandinistas, and the reagan administration imposed a full trade embargo.[61]
u.s. support for this nicaraguan insurgency continued in spite of the fact that impartial observers from international groupings such as the european economic community, religious groups sent to monitor the election, and observers from democratic nations such as canada and the republic of ireland concluded, despite visible evidence of abuse, that the nicaraguan general elections of 1984 were completely free and fair. the reagan administration disputed these results, despite the fact that the government of the united states never had any observers in nicaragua at the time.