Somoza clings on
Socialist Press1978 1978-09-20Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
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in cil war The Somoza regime has barely survived a week of what the Sandinist National Liberation Front now calls an insurrectional war.
Fighting has continued in most of the main towns and, in spite of confused reports, it seems clear that forces lad by the Sandinists control significant urban and rural areas.
Fears on the part of his old sponsor Jimmy Carter that Somoza might be overthrown by a popular revolt under leftwing' leadership has stirred the US administration into action.
Non-provocative
They are searching for a nonprovocative way of asserting the political dominance of imperialism in the country.
The US' local potential allies in the bourgeois opposition to Somoza seem paralysed and so the State Department has turned to the possibility of intervention from elsewhere in Latin America.
It started by backing the efforts of the government of neighbouring Costa Rica to mediate between Somoza and the rebels, sooking to raplace Tank in the streets of Managua Somoza himself as President by another more "acceptable" member of his family.
When this plan predictably hit the rocks the US switched its support to l Venezuelan proposal to call an emergency meeting of the imperialist front, the Organisation of American States to discuss how to "settle"" the Nicaraguan crisis.