Bernabé Somoza

Bernabé Somoza (born July 11, 1815 in Jinotepe , † June 17, 1849 in Rivas ) was the leader of the uprising in Rivas ( Nicaragua ) in 1849 and a member of the Somoza clan .

Life

The father of Bernabé Somoza was Fernando Somoza, quack from Jinotepe, owner of a small finca , member of the Partido Democrático . The Somoza family had a quarrel with Leandro Matus' family, who was also a quack but belonged to the Partido Legitimista (PL). After Leandro Matus was elected mayor, he tried to have Francisco Somoza imprisoned for carrying a machete (Larga, 22 inches ) that exceeded the legal limit after 6 p.m. The young son of Fernando Somoza, Bernabé Somoza, defended his father in a duel and injured Leandro Matus, whereupon the latter brought criminal proceedings against the Somozas. The Somoza family emigrated to El Salvador , where they made contact with the Partido Liberal and took part in some battles of this party. In 1844 they helped in the Guerra de Malespín in the defense of the besieged Leon against the attack of the troops from El Salvador under the conservative Francisco Malespín and Granda .

Bernabé Somoza surrendered to the authorities and wanted his case cleared up. He was found guilty by a court of the conservative government under José León Sandoval (Republicano, 1845–1847), convicted and imprisoned in El Castillo de la Inmaculada prison .

At the same time as Bernabé Somoza, the liberal José María Vallé , alias El Chelón , was imprisoned in San Juan del Norte prison. Both agreed to flee and fight the conservative government. The two escapes headed an army that arose in Nicaragua in July 1845 in the countryside on the initiative of the Partido Liberal and invaded the cities of El Viejo , Chinandega , and León. From March 1846, Bernabé hired himself as a smuggler until he became the leader of the rebels in Rivas. José Trinidad Muñoz Fernández conducted negotiations in some of the insurgent-occupied towns. In Rivas he tried to push the incumbent conservative Capitán Martínez out of the management of the city.

On June 3, 1849, the liberal Prefecto Manuel Selva had negotiated a reconciliation between the two parties. In Rivas, however, the situation escalated again after a group of people did not stop at the request of the guard at a barracks and the guard then shot Ponciano Mora from Buenos Aires . The commander of the barracks stood in front of his guard, whereupon insurgents occupied Rivas and killed the conservative Capitán Martínez. The conservative families fled to Costa Rica and their estates. In this situation, Bernabé Somoza took over the leadership of the insurgents.

The liberal general Muñoz allied himself with the conservative Fruto Chamorro Pérez , as it was opportune for the career of Muñoz and with united forces the uprising in Rivas was suppressed. José Trinidad Muñoz supported the Conservatives between 1845 and 1851.

At the end of the battle of July 14, 1849 in Rivas, Bernabé Somoza Fruto Chamorro surrendered.

Bernabé Somoza was tried together with Juan Lugo, Camilo Mayorga, Apolinar Marenco, alias Veintiuno Marenco and Esteban Bendaña alias Pollo before a military court in which Muñoz acted as prosecutor.

The prisoners appointed Fruto Chamorro as their defender. Bernabé Somoza gave Chamorro the maps that he had received from Muñoz to carry out the revolution so that he could bring them into the court martial. As chairman of the tribunal, Muñoz rejected the cards as evidence. Chamorro was allied with Muñoz at the time and therefore had no interest in the matter. He kept them to himself and nobody mentioned them until Chamorro was reminded of them on August 4, 1851 by the coup initiated by Muñoz.

The court martial sentenced all prisoners to death .

Bernabé Somoza had previously reported that he had murdered 54 peaceful, defenseless people, including women and children, far from the battlefield. Auditor de Guerra Justo Abaunza y Muñoz de Avilés reported on Bernabé Somoza's self-portrayal and stated that Bernabé Somoza had committed the crimes with pleasure. Bernabé Somoza replied that there was no pleasure that he had not had in the world, that he no longer had any wishes and that death was of little interest to him. Somoza was immediately in Rivas in the Plaza firing squad . His body was hung high on a pole on an arterial road north of Rivas for three days before he was buried because of the smell of decay. Juan Lugo, Camilo Mayorga, Apolinar Marenco and Esteban Bendaña were fusiled in the same plaza the day after Somoza. Francisco Barillas was fusilated in Granada.

In 1948 Time magazine read that Anastasio Somoza García’s great-grandfather , Bernabé Somoza, loved cockfighting and killed 20 men with a machete, which is why he was hung in Rivas.

literature

• E. Bradford Burns, Patriarch and Folk: The Emergence of Nicaragua, 1798-1858. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1991
• Ephraim G. Squier : Nicaragua, sus Gentes y Paisajes . Traducción de Luciano Cuadra, Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana, San José, Costa Rica 1970
• Jose Dolores Gamez (1851-1918): Historia de Nicaragua. In: Colección Cultural Banco Nicaragüense. Managua 1993.
• Francisco Ortega Arancibia: Cuarenta anos de historia de Nicaragua (1838–1878). In: Colección Cultural Banco Nicaragüense. Managua 1993.
• Elizabeth Dole: Privatización de la tierra y diferenciación del campesinado en Diriomo, 1850–1920, Revista de Historia No. 5-6, Managua: Instituto de Historia , 1995
• Rafael Casanova Fuertes: Los conflictos políticos y Sociales entre 1845 y 1849 in Nicaragua. UCR San José, CR. 1992.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Leslie Bethell: Central America Since Independence CUP Archive, 1991
2. ↑ El Nuevo Diario , 18 de Enero de 2005 Historia es una puta que se escribe desde el poder ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Time Nov. 15, 1948 "I'm the Champ"
4. ↑ US Senate Elizabeth Dole