Artillery Party

Continuismo is the word which Latin Americans use for their Presidents' bad habit of trying to continue in power after their terms have expired. When the U. S. Marines left Nicaragua in 1933, they left behind them an idea of a cure for continuismo: a constitution that forbade a President to be succeeded by a kinsman; and a potent, nonParty, Marine-trained National Guard headed by General Anastasio Somoza, whose wife is President Juan Bautista Sacasa's niece.

What happened was that the National Guard merely became a third party and General Somoza, for all his kinship to the President, went out for the Presidency with all his U. S. guns. Two years ago Somoza's men assassinated his chief enemy, famed Rebel Augusto Cesar Sandino. Last month President Sacasa tried desperately to stall off his kinsmen by getting Nicaragua's two parties to agree to nominate only one Presidential candidate for Nicaragua's elections next autumn, first since the Marines left.

Last week General Somoza showed his hand. His National Guard kicked out the Government's officials in a dozen Nicaraguan towns. Forewarned, President Sacasa prepared Nicaragua's two strongest fortresses: surrounded the pink stone Presidential Palace near Managua on top of a dead volcano with his Guard of Honor, pushed loyal National Guardsmen to Fort Acosasco in Leon. Next day the National Guard assaulted the Presidential Palace in force, were repulsed with two dead, 16 wounded. Meanwhile National Guard artillery pounded away at Fort Acosasco, commanded by the President's kinsman, Major Ramon Sacasa.

That night U. S. Minister Boaz Walton Long, backed by the rest of the diplomatic corps, sent General Somoza a round-robin petition to cease firing. He agreed. Both sides kept their strategic positions but began dickering on a compromise candidate for next President of Nicaragua.

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