Anastasio Somoza García Anastasio ( " Tacho " ) Somoza García ( 1 February 1896 – 29 September 1956 ) was officially the President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947 and from 21 May 1950 to 29 September 1956 , but ruled effectively as dictator from 1936 until his assassination . Anastasio Somoza started a dynasty that maintained absolute control over Nicaragua for 44 years . The son of a wealthy coffee planter , Somoza was educated in the United States . He assisted the ousting of President Adolfo Díaz after his return to Nicaragua , becoming foreign secretary and taking the title of " General . " With the help of the US Marine Corps - occupying Nicaragua at the time - Somoza became head of the National Guard . This gave him the power base to oust President Juan Bautista Sacasa - his wife ' s uncle - becoming president himself in 1937 . In 1947 , he was voted out of office , but remained in power as commander in chief . A month after his opponent had been inaugurated , Somoza announced that the president was ' incapacitated ' and served in his stead . Returning to power in his own name in 1951 , he maintained an iron grip on his own Liberal Party while making a deal with the Conservatives ; thus , he faced no opposition . This left him free to amass a huge personal fortune . On 21 September 1956 , he was shot by poet Rigoberto López Pérez . Mortally wounded , he was flown to the Panama Canal Zone where he died a week later . His eldest son Luis Somoza Debayle took over , to be succeeded by his younger brother Anastasio Somoza Debayle , who was forced to flee in 1979 and assassinated in exile in Paraguay the following year . Biography . Somoza was born in San Marcos , Carazo Department in Nicaragua , the son of Anastasio Somoza Reyes , a wealthy coffee planter , and Julia García , and a grandson of Anastasio Somoza Martínez and Isabel Reyes . As a teenager , he was sent to live with relatives in Philadelphia , where he attended the Peirce School of Business Administration ( now Peirce College ) . While living in Philadelphia , he met his future wife , Salvadora Debayle Sacasa , a member of one of Nicaragua ' s wealthiest families , daughter of Dr . Luis Henri Debayle Pallais and wife Casimira Sacasa Sacasa , daughter of Roberto Sacasa Sarria , 44th and 46th President of Nicaragua , and wife and cousin Ángela Sacasa Cuadra . After returning to Nicaragua , he was unsuccessful as a businessman . Marriage and family . He married Salvadora Debayle in 1919 and had two sons : Luis Somoza Debayle and Anastasio Somoza Debayle and a daughter : Lillian Somoza Debayle de Sevilla Sacasa . Early political career . In 1926 , Somoza joined the Liberal rebellion in support of the presidential claims of Juan Bautista Sacasa , his wife ' s uncle . Although Somoza failed to distinguish himself in battle , leading an unsuccessful attack on the garrison at San Marcos , he had an excellent command of English and acted as an interpreter during the U . S . - brokered negotiations between the warring parties . In the government of President José María Moncada , to whom he was distantly related , he served as governor of the department of León , Nicaraguan Consul to Costa Rica , and Foreign Minister . Despite his limited military experience , Somoza was able to rise through the ranks of the Nicaraguan National Guard ( ) , the constabulary force organized by the United States Marines . Somoza and Sandino . After waging a bitter , six - year struggle with the forces of General Augusto Sandino , in January 1933 , the Marines evacuated the country , following the election of Juan Bautista Sacasa as President . At the urging of the U . S . Ambassador Matthew E . Hanna , Somoza García was appointed as director of the National Guard . During peace talks , Somoza ordered the assassination of General Sandino on February 21 , 1934 in violation of a safe - conduct agreement . Sandino ' s assassination was followed by the murder of former Sandino supporters by the National Guard . In June 1936 , Somoza forced Sacasa to resign . Ruler of Nicaragua . Somoza ' s control of the Government . A series of puppets ruled for the remainder of the year , and , in December , Somoza was elected president by a margin of 107 , 201 votes to 100 — an implausibly high margin that could have been obtained only through massive fraud . He took office on New Year ' s Day 1937 . Somoza , popularly known as " Tacho , " amended the Constitution to centralize all power in his hands . Family members and key supporters monopolized key positions in the government and military . While opposition parties continued to exist on paper , in practice , the system was heavily rigged in favor of Somoza ' s Nationalist Liberal Party . Throughout the 1930s and 1940s , he acquired immense personal wealth , primarily through investments in agricultural exports , particularly coffee , cotton and cattle . Following the massacre of Sandino ' s followers , he acquired most of the land that had been granted to them by Sacasa . Nicaragua and World War II . During World War II , the government confiscated the properties of Nicaragua ' s small , but economically influential German community and sold them to Somoza and his family at ridiculously low prices . By 1944 , Somoza was the largest landowner in Nicaragua , owning fifty - one cattle ranches and forty - six coffee plantations , as well as several sugar mills and rum distilleries . Somoza named himself director of the Pacific Railroad , linking Managua to the nation ' s principal port , Corinto , which moved his merchandise and crops for free and maintained his vehicles and agricultural equipment . He also made substantial profits by granting concessions to foreign ( primarily U . S . ) companies to exploit gold , rubber and timber , for which he received ' executive levies ' and ' presidential commissions . ' He passed laws restricting imports and organized contraband operations , which sold merchandise through his own stores . He also extracted bribes from illegal gambling , prostitution and alcohol distilling . By the end of the decade , he had acquired a fortune estimated to be US $ 400 million . Though Nicaragua was on the Lend Lease in World War II , the unwillingness of Nicaragua to actually fight meant it was given obsolete equipment ( most of it being either purchased from Russia , Spain and Portugal or captured German equipment ) and no Western training . Democratic Window . In 1944 , under pressure from the U . S . , Somoza agreed to implement certain democratization processes . Unions became legal in the country . Also , he agreed not to run for re - election in 1947 . The Nationalist Liberal Party nominated an elderly doctor named Leonardo Argüello , with Somoza using the National Guard to secure his election . Somoza intended for Argüello to be a mere puppet and keep real power in his own hands until he could run again . However upon being sworn in as President in May 1947 , Argüello displayed considerable independence , attempting to reduce the power of the National Guard and the control of Somoza and his associates over the economy . Less than a month later , Somoza orchestrated another coup , naming one of his wife ' s uncles , Benjamín Lacayo , as President . This definitively ended any hopes for further democratization in Nicaragua under the Somoza regime . Second Presidency . When the administration of U . S . President , Harry Truman , refused to recognize the new government , a Constituent Assembly was convened , which appointed Somoza ' s uncle , Víctor Manuel Román y Reyes , as President . In another heavily rigged election , Somoza García again became President in 1950 . In the 1950s , he reorganized and streamlined his business empire , founding a merchant marine company , several textile mills , a national airline ( LANICA , short for Líneas Aéreas de Nicaragua ) and a new container port on the Pacific near Managua , which he named Puerto Somoza ( after the Sandinistas came to power they renamed it Puerto Sandino ) . He also acquired properties in the United States and Canada . Assassination and legacy . In 1955 , the constitution was amended to allow him to run for another term . Shortly after being nominated , he was shot on 21 September 1956 by the poet Rigoberto López Pérez in the city of León , and died several days later after being sent to a Panama Canal Zone hospital . His older son , Luis Somoza , succeeded him . Somoza ' s sons , Luis Somoza and Anastasio Somoza Debayle , ruled the country directly or through figurehead politicians for the next 23 years . Despite widespread corruption and repression of dissent , they were able to receive support from the United States who viewed them as anti - communist stalwarts and a source of stability . His daughter Lillian Somoza Debayle , born in León , Nicaragua , on 3 May 1921 , married Guillermo Sevilla Sacasa , Nicaraguan Ambassador to the United States during his brother in law ' s rule . He also had a son , by an unknown mother , named José R . Somoza . He is entombed at Cementerio Occidental with his oldest son in the National Guard Mausoleum in Managua , Nicaragua . " Our Son of a Bitch " . Although Somoza was reckoned as a ruthless dictator , the United States continued to support his regime as a non - communist stronghold in Nicaragua . President Franklin D . Roosevelt ( FDR ) supposedly remarked in 1939 that " Somoza may be a son of a bitch , but he ' s our son of a bitch . " According to historian David Schmitz , however , researchers and archivists who have searched the archives of the Franklin D . Roosevelt Presidential Library have found no evidence that Roosevelt ever made this statement . The statement first appeared in the November 15 , 1948 issue of " Time " magazine and was later mentioned in a March 17 , 1960 broadcast of " CBS Reports " called " Trujillo : Portrait of a Dictator " . In this broadcast , however , it was asserted that FDR made the statement in reference to Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic . It should be further noted that this statement has been attributed to a variety of United States presidential administrations in regard to foreign dictators . Thus the statement remains apocryphal at this point , though Roosevelt and future presidents certainly supported the Somoza family and their rule over Nicaragua . Andrew Crawley claims that the Roosevelt statement is a myth created by Somoza himself .