Anastasio Somoza Garcia (1 February 1896-29 September 1956) was President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947, succeeding Carlos Alberto Brenes and preceding Leonardo Arguello Barreto, and again from 21 May 1950 to 29 September 1956, succeeding Manuel Fernando Zurita and preceding Luis Somoza Debayle. He was a strongman from 1937 to 1956, leading the country as a semi-dictator until his murder in 1956.
Biography[]
Anastasio Somoza Garcia was born on 1 February 1896 in San Marcos, Nicaragua, the son of a wealthy coffee planter. He lived in Philadelphia, United States in his younger years, and he married the granddaughter of President Roberto Sacasa Sarria of Nicaragua. Somoza would later return to Nicaragua and help in the overthrow of Adolfo Diaz in 1929, making himself a general. With the help of the occupying US Marine Corps, he became head of the National Guard, and in 1937 he removed his uncle-in-law Juan Bautista Sacasa from power to become the new President of Nicaragua. Somoza was legally only president from 1937 to 1947 and 1950 to 1956, but he was a military strongman; he retained power from 1937 to 1956 as the ultimate ruler of Nicaragua. In 1951, as the leader of the Liberal Party of Nicaragua, he made a deal with the Conservative Party of Nicaragua, removing all opposition to his dictatorship from politics. On 21 September 1956, it would be a poet named Rigoberto Lopez Perez who shot him after he was nominated for president, and he died in Panama of his wounds eight days later.