A bit of History is good for the soul.

Sadly, Liberals have no soul.

This is a bit of history I am guessing few people know and some old farts may remember bits of it. You all know about Nicaragua, a country in central America and perhaps at most, you kinda have a passing knowledge of it because of what was part of the Iran-Contra affair. But I will go a bit before that event and tell you about the story of the Somoza Family and the newspaper La Prensa.

The Somoza Family held Nicaragua under their thumb and military boot for over forty years. Anastasio Somoza Garcia was the first of the assholes and went head to toe with the now Lefty icon Cesar Augusto Sandino, managed to put him, his revolution down and anything else that came after. When he died, the rest of the kids followed in the family business, but we know from other families that there is that one kid that is bound to fuck up things.

In the midst of this standard Third World Country tale of oppression, Nicaragua had one newspaper called La Prensa which was pretty much the only voice of opposition to the Somozas. It was led by its editor Pedro Chamorro who used it as a pulpit calling for freedom and chastising the regime. He was a thorn on the side of the Somozas for 20 years, yet he was left alive through this time.

But the last Somoza, Anastasio Jr. finally took offense on something he published and Chamorro ended up shot gunned to death inside his vehicle. About a year after that, the Somozas were kicked out by popular (and obvious Cuban) efforts.

Was Pedro Chamorro that important and that beloved? As a single individual, yes some. But it was what he was giving to the people of Nicaragua who were not happy about the regime: A escape valve. The Last Somoza kid simply fucked up by killing him and thus plugged that escape valve which allowed popular pressure to dramatically increase till it blew the lid of the power structure.

Some conspiracy theorists state that not even “Tachito” Somoza was that stupid, that he understood the value of having Chamorro alive and that his murder was ordered by then the eternally-failing Movimiento Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (AKA The Sandinistas) and in particular by Daniel Ortega. The Sandinistas then made their move and eventually took over and with Ortega as “president” have been ruling Nicaragua almost as long as the whole Somoza family. Not saying that I am a conspiracy theorist, but this version has appealed to me since I heard it first way back in 1978.

And with that, today’s lesson ends. make of it what you wish.