Massacre on Avenida Roosevelt
The massacre on Avenida Roosevelt in Managua on January 22, 1967 was a bloody episode in the history of Nicaragua .
background
Since 1937 the Somoza clan ruled Nicaragua either directly or through representatives .
As a rival candidate to Anastasio Somoza Debayle , for the presidential election on February 5, 1967, the opposition alliance Unión Nacional Opositora , Fernando Bernabé Aguero Rocha had set up. Pedro Chamorro , editor of the La Prensa newspaper, was the UN coordinator and did the public relations work :
- ¡Basta ya !, No más Somoza en el poder,
- Pinolero, pinolero votá por Agüero,
- Por Aguero muero.
The protest parade on January 22, 1967
La Prensa and the opposition radio stations called for a demonstration in the Plaza de la República in Managua on Sunday 22nd January 1967.
At around 5:00 p.m., a call was made to go down Avenida Roosevelt to the official residence of the President, the Loma de Tiscapa . At that time, Lorenzo Guerrero Gutiérrez acted as President by Somoza's grace .
On Avenida Roosevelt (central Avenida in north-south direction, next east of Avenida Simon Bolivar ), on the corner of the Banco Nacional de Nicaragua (BNN) building (where the Nicaraguan Parliament building is now, which is unused for financial reasons ) the protesters were stopped by the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua . Lieutenant pilot Sixto Pineda Castellón had climbed onto a vehicle of the Managua airport fire brigade in order to use the extinguishing system for a purpose other than a water cannon when a 22 "caliber bullet fatally hit him from the direction of the Ficus microcarpa (Laurel de la India) in front of the Banco Nacional de Nicaragua arcades The Guardia Nacional shot into the crowd, killing around 200 people. The UN leaders fled two blocks towards the lake in the Gran Hotel (currently the Centro Cultural Managua ), whereupon an M4 Sherman Panzer under the command of General Iván Allegret bombarded the hotel. Through the mediation of the US military mission, the hotel was not stormed by the Guardia Nacional . On January 23, 1967, Pedro Chamorro was arrested with others while leaving the hotel. Among the 31 arrested included: Herty Lewites , Edén Pastora Gómez , Carlos Guadamuz Portillo, Samuel Santos López, the brothers Sergio and Danilo Ag uirre Solís. These were imprisoned in the Managua Police Headquarters, El Hormiguero (anthill).
In the days leading up to the election, the state of emergency was in effect, the Guardia Nacional tortured and made people disappear.
On January 22nd, La Prensa was occupied by the Guardia Nacional and could not appear until February 3rd, 1967, when Margarita Cardenal, Pedro Chamorro's mother, enforced an injunction against the Chief of Police of Managua Coronel Ernesto Rugama at the Supreme Court of Nicaragua. The motion stated that the newspaper's material losses would reach 100,000 Cordobas .
consequences
The 31 prisoners were released by an amnesty granted by Parliament on March 4, 1967. On March 28, 1967, Aguero signed a pact with Somoza in the Teatro Rubén Darío , became a member of the Junta Nacional de Gobierno (JNG) from May 1, 1972 to December 1, 1974 and allowed Anastasio Somoza Debayle to be re-elected president, which is why he was seen as a traitor in his party. In 1973 he left the junta and was replaced by Edmundo Paguaga Irías.
When Pedro Chamorro was being considered by the Jimmy Carter government as future President of Nicaragua, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Chamorro, who had visited the Instituto Pedagógico La Salle de Managua with him , murdered on January 10, 1978.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ La Prensa 8 agosto 2006 UN LIBRO QUE RESCATA 80 AÑOS DE HISTORIA
- ↑ El Nuevo Diario February 12, 2004 Sepultaron ayer a Carlos Guadamuz ( Memento of the original from March 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ La Prensa 22 de enero, 2007 Cuando corrió la sangre sobre la Avenida Roosevelt
- ^ Bucks for bullets . In: Der Spiegel . No. 4 , 1978, p. 119-121 ( online ).
