José Francisco Cardenal
José Francisco Cardenal (born 1940) was a Nicaraguan businessman who became known as one of the most pugnacious opponents of the Somoza and then the Sandinista regimes of Nicaragua, and played an important role in the early days of the Contras, Contra rebellion. In 1980 he fled Nicaragua for Miami where he began to organize the 15th of September Legion to oppose the Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Somoza regime. On August 11, 1981, his Nicaraguan Democratic Union (UDN) merged with September 15 Legion to form the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN). A political triumvirate was formed, consisting of Cardenal and Mariano Mendoza from the UDN, and Aristides Sánchez from the Legion. However, the strong-willed Cardenal alienated his compatriots. His dealings with his Argentine patrons, intended to show that this was a Nicaraguan struggle to which they were only advisors, they found insulting and ungrateful. His assertions of civilian primacy over the military seemed to the high command to be ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nicaraguan
Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America after Guatemala and Honduras. Nicaragua is bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean and shares maritime borders with El Salvador to the west and Colombia to the east. The country's largest city and national capital is Managua, the fourth-largest city in Central America, with a population of 1,055,247 as of 2020. Nicaragua is known as "the breadbasket of Central America" due to having the most fertile soil and arable land in all of Central America. Nicaragua's multiethnic population includes people of mestizo, indigenous, European, and African heritage. The country's most spoken language is Spanish, though indigenous tribes on the Mosquito Coast speak their own languages and English. Th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aristides Sánchez
José Aristides Sánchez Herdocia served as a key political figure among the Nicaraguan Contras. Early on, he joined Enrique Bermúdez in efforts to start a rebel opposition to the new Sandinista government, a hand-picked choice of the CIA for this position. As the conduit between political leader Adolfo Calero in Miami and rebel base camps in Honduras, he spent more time in the camps than other Contra politicians and had the trust of the rebel field commanders. After working largely behind the scenes, in 1987 he joined the directorate of the Nicaraguan Resistance. Sánchez's Contra career embodied striking contrasts. He was the key ally of the Contra leaders most favored by the CIA and on the agency's payroll, yet he himself was detested by the CIA. Unlike many Contra political leaders, chosen for their ability to woo American Congressmen, he did not speak English. He has been characterized as a Somocista oligarch, but also as an anti-American nationalist. Sánchez came from a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nicaraguan Businesspeople
Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America after Guatemala and Honduras. Nicaragua is bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean and shares maritime borders with El Salvador to the west and Colombia to the east. The country's largest city and national capital is Managua, the fourth-largest city in Central America, with a population of 1,055,247 as of 2020. Nicaragua is known as "the breadbasket of Central America" due to having the most fertile soil and arable land in all of Central America. Nicaragua's multiethnic population includes people of mestizo, indigenous, European, and African heritage. The country's most spoken language is Spanish, though indigenous tribes on the Mosquito Coast speak their own languages and English. The ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Living People
Purpose: Because living persons may suffer personal harm from inappropriate information, we should watch their articles carefully. By adding an article to this category, it marks them with a notice about sources whenever someone tries to edit them, to remind them of WP:BLP (biographies of living persons) policy that these articles must maintain a neutral point of view, maintain factual accuracy, and be properly sourced. Recent changes to these articles are listed on Special:RecentChangesLinked/Living people. Organization: This category should not be sub-categorized. Entries are generally sorted by family name In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give .... Maintenance: Individuals of advanced age (over 90), for whom there has been no new documentation in the last ten ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1940 Births
A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, events related to World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *January 4 – WWII: Luftwaffe Chief and Generalfeldmarschall Hermann Göring assumes control of most war industries in Nazi Germany, Germany, in his capacity as Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan. *January 6 – WWII: Winter War – General Semyon Timoshenko takes command of all Soviet forces. *January 7 – WWII: Winter War: Battle of Raate Road – Outnumbered Finnish troops decisively defeat Soviet forces. *January 8 – WWII: **Winter War: Battle of Suomussalmi – Finnish forces destroy the 44th Rifle Division (Soviet Union), Soviet 44th Rifle Division. **Food rationing in the United Kingdom begins; it will remain in force until 1954. *January 9 – WWII: British submarine is sunk in the Heligoland Bight. *January 10 – WWII: Mechele ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United Nicaraguan Opposition
The United Nicaraguan Opposition (''Unidad Nicaragüense Opositora'', UNO) was a Nicaraguan rebel umbrella group formed in 1985, led by the triumvirate of Adolfo Calero, Alfonso Robelo, and Arturo Cruz. However, the great majority of UNO's military forces came from Calero's Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), and throughout its two-year existence Robelo and Cruz complained that Calero treated them as figureheads rather than equals. Generally, the CIA backed Calero in these struggles, while Elliott Abrams and the State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ... backed Robelo and Cruz. In January 1987, Cruz informed Abrams of his intention to resign. In a bid to prevent this, Abrams pushed Calero into resigning in mid-February, but Cruz left on March 9. With Cr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Caudillo
A ''caudillo'' ( , ; , from Latin language, Latin , diminutive of ''caput'' "head") is a type of Personalist dictatorship, personalist leader wielding military and political power. There is no precise English translation for the term, though it is often used interchangeably with "Military dictatorship, military dictator," "warlord" and "Political strongman, strongman". The term is historically associated with Spain and Hispanic America, after virtually all of the regions in the latter won independence in the early nineteenth century. The roots of ''caudillismo'' may be tied to the framework of rule in medieval and early modern Spain during the Reconquista from the Moors. Spanish conquistadors such as Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro exhibit characteristics of the ''caudillo'', being successful military leaders, having mutual reliance on the leader and their supporters, and rewarding them for their loyalty.Hamill, Hugh M. (1996) "Caudillismo, Caudillo" in ''Encyclopedia of L ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nicaraguan Democratic Force
The Nicaraguan Democratic Force (', or FDN) was one of the earliest Contra groups, formed on August 11, 1981, in Guatemala City. It was formed to oppose Nicaragua's revolutionary Sandinista government following the 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. It merged the 15th of September Legion, which comprised mostly former members of Somoza's National Guard, with the Nicaraguan Democratic Union, an organization of émigrés from the business and professional classes. The new FDN also began assimilating the MILPAS movement, bands led by disenchanted former MAP-ML guerrillas. The FDN military was under the command of former National Guard colonel Enrique Bermúdez. The FDN was heavily backed by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Reagan administration. The FDN was also alleged to be engaged in drug trafficking in order to finance its war against the Sandinista government. Commanders Some of the FDN's most notable commanders include: *Suicida – ''Pedro Pablo Ortiz Centen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Somoza
The Somoza family () is a political family which ruled Nicaragua under a dictatorship over a period of forty-three years, from 1936 to 1979. Founder, Anastasio Somoza García – who served as the President of Nicaragua from 1937 until 1956 – was succeeded by his two sons; the eldest, Luis Somoza Debayle from 1957 to 1963, and youngest, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, serving for two presidential terms between 1967–1972 and 1974–1979. Although the Somozas did not hold the presidency for the full forty-three years, their political influence was continuously exacted via the installation of puppet presidents and ongoing control of the National Guard. While the Somoza family moved towards modernizing Nicaragua, their rule featured repression and inequality. Over four decades, the Somoza family accumulated wealth through corporate bribes, land-grabbing and foreign-aid siphoning. The family received support from the government of the United States, and the leadership styles of each ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nicaraguan Democratic Union
The Nicaraguan Democratic Union (UDN, ') was founded in late 1980 by José Francisco Cardenal, an early leader of the anti-Sandinista rebel movement that became known as the Nicaraguan Contras. The UDN was based in Miami, Florida, among its growing community of exiles from Nicaragua's middle class. It established an armed wing, the Nicaraguan Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARN, ''{{lang, es, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias Nicaragüenses''). The UDN attracted interest from the steadfastly anti-Sandinista Reagan Administration and also received limited funding from Argentina's military junta. However, they conditioned further aid on the UDN unifying its efforts with those of former National Guardsmen who had served the Somoza regime. Cardenal accepted, creating a merged organization known as the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN). Dissenters broke away over the issue and continued to call themselves the UDN-FARN. The FDN would grow into the dominant Contra organization, but Cardenal ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Anastasio Somoza Debayle
Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle (; 5 December 1925 – 17 September 1980) was a Nicaraguan politician who served as the 53rd President of Nicaragua from 1967 to 1972 and again from 1974 to 1979. As head of the National Guard (Nicaragua), National Guard, he was ''de facto'' ruler of the country between 1967 and 1979, even during the period when he was not the ''de jure'' ruler. Somoza Debayle succeeded his older brother, Luis Somoza Debayle, in office. He was the last member of the Somoza family to be president, ending a dynasty that had been in power since 1937. After insurgents led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (; FSLN) were closing in on Managua in July 1979, Somoza fled Nicaragua. Power was ceded to the Junta of National Reconstruction. He was assassinated in 1980 while in exile in Paraguay. Early life and education Somoza Debayle, nicknamed "Tachito" (Spanish: ''Little Tacho'') by his father, was born in 1925 as the third child of Anastasio Somoza ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |