National Guard (Nicaragua)

In Nicaragua, the National Guard (Spanish: Guardia Nacional, otherwise known as Guardia) was a militia and a gendarmerie created during the occupation of that country by the United States from 1909 to 1933. It became notorious for human rights abuses and corruption under the regime of the Somoza family.

Prior to the U.S. occupation, the long period of civil strife had encouraged the development of a variety of private armies. The freshly elected government of President Carlos José Solórzano requested that the U.S. Marines (equally interested in central control) remain in Nicaragua until an indigenous security force could be trained; the Nicaraguan government hired a retired US General to set up the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua. US forces left in 1925, but after a civil war broke out, returned in 1926, taking over command of the National Guard until 1933, when it was returned to Nicaraguan control under the government of Juan Bautista Sacasa.

Sacasa, under political pressure from José María Moncada, who had been a leader of a rebel faction which later joined the government after U.S. mediation efforts, appointed Anastasio Somoza García as chief director of the National Guard. Somoza Garcia was trusted as a friend of Moncada, a supporter of the liberal revolt, and a nephew of Sacasa. He was trusted by the U.S. from his service as a translator to Henry Stimson during the 1927 peace conference, schooling in the U.S., and training under the U.S. Marines (apparently, as an officer in the National Guard).

After the departure of U.S. troops in 1933 (at the depth of the Great Depression), the Sacasa government opened negotiations with the rebel faction of Augusto César Sandino. Sandino insisted on the dissolution of the National Guard, leading Somoza Garcia to react ruthlessly by arresting and executing Sandino, in violation of a safe passage agreement Sacasa had given the rebel leader. The National Guard then swiftly defeated Sandino's forces, further weakening the Sacasa government. By this time the force had grown to some 3000 troops.

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