18 July 1979: Leaders of the victorious Sandinista movement expected to enter Managua to start rebuilding a country which has been ravaged by civil war

Church bells rang and rifles were joyfully fired into the air throughout Nicaragua yesterday as the crumbling dictatorship of the Somoza family finally ended in Latin America’s first successful popular uprising for 20 years.

Anastasio Somoza, the 53-year-old President whose father had been put into power by the United States Marine Corps in the 1930s, resigned yesterday before flying with his family and a retinue of five aircraft to Homestead Air Force Base, south of Miami.

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But problems arose when the man General Somoza nominated as the new leader of Nicaragua, Congress President, Mr Francisco Urcuyo, indicated that he would not hand over power to the junta. Mr Urcuyo instead pledged support for the National Guard and urged the Sandinistas to lay down their arms.

Leaders of the victorious Sandinista movement were expected to enter Managua later to start rebuilding a country which has been ravaged by civil war.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An 87-year-old veteran of the first Sandino rebellion stands with an 18-year-old Sandinista guerrilla in Nicaragua, June 19, 1979. Photograph: Richard Cross/AP

Somoza agreed to resign only after the guerrillas had promised to integrate all but the top ranks of the National Guard, which fought to save him, into a new army. The key concession was transmitted to General Somoza by the US mediator who was dealing with the provisional Sandinista junta in Costa Rica.

In Miami, General Somoza gave a press conference and said he resigned “because I am a realist I hope the best thing for my people would be my resignation.”

In San Jose, the capital of neighbouring Costa Rica, the Provisional Government of National Reconstruction announced it would arrive with the Foreign Ministers of the six Andean Pact nations who had flown from Caracas, Venezuela, for talks with the provisional junta.

In the town of Jinotepe, 23 miles south of the capital, the first news of Somoza’s resignation came across the rebel radio Sandino in the form of a communique from the provisional government.

Minutes afterwards, the bells of the town’s church began chiming out the hour of liberation, bonfires were lit on every corner, and Sandinista songs and the now famous cry of “Patria libre o morir” (A free country or death) echoed around the streets.

Sandinista militants gave impromptu victory speeches in half a dozen parts of the town and people gathered around the Sandinista headquarters clamouring for Comandante Willy, the local commander.

In Managua, people waited nervously to see whether the remnants of the National Guard, still stationed at the southern edges of the city, would abide by the agreement reached by Washington and the provisional junta and return to barracks.

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The man whom Spinoza had appointed as the new head of the National Guard, Colonel Federico Mejia, is an unknown quantity. Sporadic outbursts of firing can still be heard in the shanty towns on the city’s periphery. After 43 years of rule by the Somoza family and the National Guard, the citizens of this bomb-scarred capital are waiting to see the hated Guardsmen of the streets before they start celebrating.

In Washington, officials hope that with Somoza’s departure the bloody civil war will end, that there will be a peaceful transition to a new government and that Centrists can play an increasing role in Nicaragua’s future.

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