Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua
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The Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua , Guardia Nacional, or GN (Spanish for National Guard of Nicaragua) was a military unit that was deployed in Nicaragua from the early 1930s to 1979 . It was installed in 1933 as a force equipped and trained by the US government to protect US interests in Nicaragua, and at the same time formed the state police . From the beginning it was under the leadership and influence of the Somoza clan , who used it to maintain its dictatorship and for private purposes.
origin
The Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua was the immediate successor organization of the Constabulary , which was set up by the US Marines under General Calvin Bruce Matthews (born September 10, 1882, † August 20, 1939) during the US military intervention in Nicaragua 1926-1933 in Nicaragua . This was used to fight the insurgent Ejército Defensor de la Soberanía Nacional (EDSN) under Augusto César Sandino . With the establishment of the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua , the United States Marine Corps withdrew from Nicaragua.
Ejército Defensor de la Soberanía Nacional
Augusto César Sandino received the title General de Hombres Libres (General of the Free Men) and, depending on the situation, continued the fight with 2,000 to 6,000 members of the Ejército Defensor de la Soberanía Nacional -EDSN (Defense Force of National Sovereignty) in northern Nicaragua. On August 21, 1929, the US Navy transporter Henderson and 750 Marines left Corinto for New York. In 1930, 1,000 Marines remained in Nicaragua. On January 2, 1933, one day after Sacasa took office as President, the Marines withdrew from Nicaragua as agreed after they had set up and trained the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua (Nicaraguan National Guard), whose command was Anastasio Somoza García .
Armament
Establishing in 1928 was the National Guard with the M1903 Springfield mm rifle in caliber 7.62 × 63 and the Colt M1911 - gun equipped. The Browning Automatic rifle in caliber 7.62 × 63 mm and the Thompson (submachine gun) in caliber .45 ACP were later used. After the Second World War, the GN was equipped with the semi-automatic M1 Garand rifle with a caliber of 7.62 × 63 mm.
Major missions and promotions
Attempted coup in 1954
On Easter Sunday , April 4, 1954, a group of former officers of the Guardia Nacional and some civilians (including Ernesto Cardenal ) tried to overthrow the Somoza clan. On the Panamericana CA1 in Carazo was for Anastasio Somoza García an ambush set. The attempted coup failed:
- because Somoza García did not go into an ambush but received some horses that Juan Domingo Perón had given him;
- since the coup plotters had no support from the GN ;
- due to a lack of coordination.
Those arrested included: Luis Felipe y Adolfo Báez Bone, Rafael Chosieul Praslin, Pablo Leal Rodríguez (father of Foreign Minister 2002–2007 Ernesto Leal Sanchez), Agustín Alfaro, Luis Felipe Gaboardi, Optaciano Morazán. Some of them were murdered in the Zona de Cuatro Esquinas, near Jinotepe in the provincial capital of Carazo, or later arrested in Carazo cafetales.
The headlines, from La Prensa and Somozas: Novedades claimed that all the conspirators died in battle, which was not true. There was an exchange of fire on the Panamericana on the Pacaya Plain, in which the rebels shot two Guardias Nacionales at a roadblock and offered the survivors a reward if they surrendered .
One of the conspirators, Adolfo Baez Bone, was tortured by Anastasio Somoza Debayle in the presidential palace, with Baez Bone, Somoza spitting blood on his shirt. The rebels' remains were buried near Jinotepe until 1962, when Ernesto Leal Sanchez (Foreign Minister 2002–2007), the son of Pablo Leal Rodríguez, had them transferred to the Cementerio General of Managua, where they were near the crypt Guardia Nacional and the Somozas lay.
The suppression of the Olama and Mollejones guerrillas in 1959
In mid-1959, the guerrillas of Olama and Mollejones operating from Costa Rica tried to overthrow Luis Somoza's government. The company failed right from the start.
The Avenida Roosevelt massacre
During the massacre on Avenida Roosevelt on January 22, 1967, the Guardia Nacional fired their M1 Garand rifles at demonstrators of the Unión Nacional Opositora on Avenida Roosevelt in Managua. In doing so, she murdered around 200 people.
Israeli military aid
In early 1974 Israel Military Industries exhibited in Managua. Jigal Allon was invited to breakfast at Somozas in the bunker. In 1974 Somoza signed a military aid agreement with the government of Yitzchak Rabin . In 1975 Yisrael Galili visited Somoza. The Guardia Nacional was equipped with IMI Galil assault rifles and Uzi submachine guns. Aramid protective vests , IAI Arava and instructors were supplied. When the Jimmy Carter administration made human rights issues a condition of further arms deliveries in 1978 , producers from Israel and Argentina satisfied the need for military material.
resolution
With the capture of Managua on July 19, 1979 by the FSLN , the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua was dissolved. Many members of the Guardia Nacional fled to Costa Rica and Honduras , where they were recruited to the Contra by employees of Oliver North . Enrique Bermúdez Varela (Comandante 380) was one of the recruits . Institutional successors to the GN were the Sandinista People's Army and the Sandinista Police ( Policía Sandinista ).
On March 18, 1989, 1,894 members of the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua were released from prisons in Nicaragua. 39 others convicted for cruel crimes remained in custody.
literature
- Richard Millett: Guardians of the Dynasty. A history of the US created Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua and the Somoza family. Introduction by Miguel d'Escoto , Maryknoll 1977.
- Robert H. Holden: Armies Without Nations. Public Violence and State Formation in Central America, 1821-1960 , New York (Oxford University Press) 2004. ISBN 978-0-19516120-5
- Nicolás López Maltez: Historia de la Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua , Tomo I, Managua (NA López Maltez) 2014. ISBN 978-99964-0-354-5
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/cbmatthews.htm
- ↑ United States Marines in Nicaragua. Message from the President of the United States Transmitting in Response to Senate Resolution No. 386, a Report by the Secretary of State relative to the Maintenance of Marines in Nicaragua. 71st Congress, 3d Session, Senate, Document No. 288, February 17, 1931. p. 15
- ^ Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel Arms and why , IBTauris, 1988, p. 90
- ↑ en: Enrique Bermúdez
- ^ New York Times , Nicaragua Frees 1894 Ex-Guardsmen