From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Subject: Who Were "Contras"? The Good Old Days under U.S.-backed Dictatorship
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 09:55:04 GMT

Who Were "Contras"? The Good Old Days under U.S.-backed Dictatorship


[...historical excerpts reproduced at bottom...]

"Alongside this impoverishment of the majority, the other theme
dominating the history of pre-revolutionary Nicaragua is the role of
the United States. In the years following the Spanish-American war,
the U.S. government viewed Nicaragua as part of its expanding empire.
From 1912 to 1933, Nicaragua was occupied by U.S. marines. Popular
opposition to the Marine presence was led by Cesar A. Sandino. Sandino
mobilized an army of the poor which fought a guerilla war against the
marines from 1927 to 1933. Aware that the Marines would be defeated,
the U.S. formed a police unit to "keep the peace" and protect U.S.
interests. This was the Nicaraguan National Guard, with Anastasio
Somoza Garcia in Charge.

                           ================
                           Somoza's Kingdom
                           ================

[From Oxfam America report (see bottom)]

"Sandino was reluctant to see his country under Somoza's control and
refused to lay down his arms. Immediately after the departure of the
U.S. occupation force, Somoza arranged Sandino's assassination. With
this bloody act the long reign of the Somoza family began.

The National Guard quickly became the personal army of the Somozas.
With political power came economic power, passed on from father to
sons. The family came to own a quarter of Nicaragua's land, plus
banks, ports, newspapers, airlines, a shipping fleet, and many
industries. One of them was a plasma corporation that exported the
blood of the country's poor. In 1979, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, son of
the original dictator, was estimated to be the ninth richest man in
the world.

The incredible greed and corruption of the Somozas alienated even
their fellow landowners and businessmen, who could not get what they
thought was their fair share of wealth and political influence under
Somoza's system. Simmering resentment of Somoza reached a boiling
point in the after-math of the 1972 earth-quake, when funds intended
for relief were channeled into the hands of Somoza and his associates.
During the 1960's and 1970's, a new revolutionary movement developed
in Nicaragua. Its deepest roots were in the countryside, where
Catholic clergy and lay workers had been helping peasants organize for
higher wages and an end to evictions from the land. They were aided by
the Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN), founded in 1961. Although the
peasants' protests were peaceful, they were brutally suppressed by
Somoza's National Guard. When even parish priests were killed for
teaching that poverty was not the will of God, the peasants took up
arms in self-defense.

Between 1977 and 1979, the peasant-based resistance became a full-scale
armed rebellion. The Sandinistas were the leaders of this broad
revolutionary movement which included workers, students,
professionals, clergy, and businessmen. By July, 1979, it was clear
that the uprising could not be put down, and the U.S. government
arranged for the departure of Somoza to Miami.

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            =============================================
            T h e   " N i c a r a g u a   L i b r a r y "
            =============================================

*
* =========
* Nicaragua
* =========
*
  WHO-WERE CONTRAS    Contras' origins; make-up; practices - documented
  FSLN     H-RIGHTS  Documented HRs comparison w/Somoza,Guat,ES,others
  FSLN     MISKITOS  Sandinista treatment of Miskitos;Charges & Realit
  FSLN     NICAJEWS  Debunks charges of Sandinista 'Anti-Semitism'
*
  OXFAM84  NICARAG   Oxfam America's 1984 report on Nicaragua, in full
  FSLN     ACHIEVE   Documented: achievements of the Nica. revolution
*
  NICA-84  ELECTION  Documented: Fair under Sandinistas; US subversion
  FAIRNESS NICA-USA  Flwup:`Is Nicaragua More Democratic than the US?'
  NICRAGUA ELECTION  Study in US subversion of '90 Nicaraguan election

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