Augusto Cesar Sandino (18 May 1895-21 February 1934) was a Nicaraguan revolutionary who led rebellions against the US military occupation of Nicaragua in 1927 and 1933. He drew the US Marine Corps into a guerrilla war, and the Americans were eventually forced to pull back by the effects of the Great Depression. Sandino was assassinated a year later by forces loyal to Anastasio Somoza Garcia, who seized power in a coup d'etat two years later.
Biography[]
Augusto Cesar Sandino was born in Niquinohomo, Nicaragua in 1895. Son of a wealthy plantation owner, he joined the guerrilla movement in its fight against the US occupation of Nicaragua in 1926. After its end in 1933 he continued to oppose the new President Juan Bautista Sacasa, as well as the National Guard under Anastasio Somoza Garcia, as too compliant to the USA. Sandino agreed to meet the new authorities to try and reach a peace agreement, whereupon Somoza ordered his abduction and execution upon his leaving the presidential palace. A martyr at the handsd of Somoza, Sandino inspired those who subsequently fought against the Somoza regime, and who united in 1961 to form the "Sandinistas".