Challenge to a Birthright

In conquest, politics and business, Nicaragua for centuries has attracted the cheekiest and boldest of adventurers. Few have been cheekier, few bolder than the Somoza family, which for 31 years has, in one way or another, ruled Nicaragua. Last week, on the eve of an election that promised to install as President a third Somoza, chubby ex-General Anastasio ("Tachito") Somoza Jr., 41, the opposition tried its best to trigger a coup d'etat. The result was riot and death for Nicaraguans and a narrow escape for a handful of foreigners.

Exhausting the Bar. The trouble started with a noisy political rally in the capital of Managua, where Conservative Party Candidate Fernando Aguero harangued some 30,000 of his followers and called upon the country's 5,000-man army to join his anti-Somoza movement. As the crowd's mood grew uglier, troops moved in with rifle butts and bayonets. Before long, both sides were shooting. The highly emotional Aguero and 1,200 of his followers, mostly peasants just in from the country, fled to the nearby Gran Hotel, where they took 117 guests as hostages, including 89 Americans. For 24 hours, Nicaraguan army machine-gun and rifle fire slapped against the hotel's faded green stucco walls. The total death toll was four guardsmen and 60 civilian rebels. None of the foreigners were killed.

The government finally agreed to let the rebels go free provided that they laid down their arms. Having exhausted the hotel's bar supply, the rebels packed up and left with only jeers for the soldiers rimmed around the hotel. The truce, however, was short-lived. When a new series of anti-Somoza demonstrations broke out, the government closed down two opposition papers and five Managua radio stations, searched homes and stores for arms and arrested 130 opposition leaders. Aguero himself ducked into hiding, then at week's end suddenly reappeared to announce that he still intended to run in the election, scheduled for next week. Against the Fabric. Aguero is up against more than a mere dictatorship; the Somozas are part of the country's basic fabric. When General Anastasio Somoza Sr. seized power in 1936 and launched his dynasty, Nicaragua was a typical down-at-the-peels banana republic. Though he dealt ruthlessly with critics, sometimes having them tortured, the general organized a social-security system and a labor code, built Central America's best road and hospital systems and brought the country its first real economic and political stability. When he was assassinated in 1956, his oldest son Luis took over, later putting power in the hands of two successive puppet Presidents. This year Tachito decided to try to take what he practically considered his birthright by running for President himself.

The Somoza fortune in Nicaragua is estimated to total some $100 million. The Somozas hold majority interests in the national airline, the steamship company, the gold mines, a steel-fabricating plant and the main port complex; they own cattle ranches, cotton warehouses and thousands of acres of real estate. They have neutralized most of their potential opponents by creating a system in which they have allowed even their opposition to grow rich on the prosperity--but not to share the power. So strong is the Somoza power and confidence, in fact, that the current Anastasio--who is ready to switch from the diminutive "Tachito" to the more impressive "Tacho" of his father--does not even feel the need to rig the elections, which he could easily do. "I in- tend to win with votes," he says. No one doubts that he will win--with or without the votes.

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