Luis Somoza Debayle

Luis Somoza Debayle , 1922-67, president of Nicaragua (1957-63). The oldest son of the dictator Anastasio Somoza , he was educated in the United States. He entered congress in 1950, became acting president (1956) upon the assassination of his father, and then president (1957). He liberalized his father's regime, instituted some social reforms, and greatly extended and diversified his family's business interests. Somoza Debayle was an ardent anti-Communist. Deciding that it would be convenient to put a non-Somoza in the presidency, he pushed a law that prohibited his own reelection and prevented any member of his family from immediately succeeding him. He then relinquished the presidency to a chosen successor, René Schick Gutiérrez. He served in the senate and headed the Somoza-dominated Liberal party until his death.

Somoza A family dynasty that dominated NICARAGUA from the 1930s until 1979. Anastasio Garcia Somoza (1896–1956) engineered a successful coup against the liberal regime and took over the presidency in 1936, exercising dictatorial control until his assassination in 1956. Somoza family rule continued under his sons Luis and Anastasio (Tachito) Somoza Debayle (1956–63, 1967–79, respectively). The Somozas used the National Guard to eliminate political opposition while they accumulated vast amounts of Nicaragua's agrarian and industrial resources. Military and economic assistance from the USA helped maintain the Somozas in power until 1979, when economic problems and world outcry against human rights abuses undermined Tachito's control and the SANDINISTA NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT took power.