NICARAGUA: Shots at the President

Delegates of Nicaragua's Nationalist Liberal Party convened in the steamy town of León one day last week and, as usual, picked portly, genial President Anastasio Somoza, for 22 years Nicaragua's unchallenged boss, to be their candidate in next year's election. Flattered and proud, "Tacho" Somoza went that night to mingle with the shirtsleeved crowd in the local Somoza-founded Workers' Club. It was just after 11 o'clock on Sept. 21—Somoza has always thought that 21 was his lucky number—when one of the celebrators pulled a snub-nosed Smith and Wesson .38 revolver and...