NICARAGUA: Bracing for the Aftershocks

Even as smoke still curled above the ruins of Managua, Nicaraguans were already beginning to contemplate recovery from the devastating pre-Christmas earthquake that flattened 80% of the city. Restoration of the country's capital—the home, until the quake, of 400,000 of Nicaragua's 2,000,000 population—now poses both problems and opportunities for the family that had dictator ially governed the country for 40 years. TIME Correspondent David DeVoss toured the ravaged city last week and sent this report:

"GODDAMMIT!" shouted a handsome figure in tailored army fatigues at Managua's Las Mercedes Airport. "What I need is some concertina wire. The U.S. gives me everything but concertina wire." The impatient young man was Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero, 22, a senior at Harvard University, son of and heir apparent to Nicaragua's ruling strongman, General Anastasio ("Tachito") Somoza Debayle, 47. Summoned from a Manhattan debutante party to help with the relief effort, young Somoza stood atop a stack of Sears camping tents, surrounded by crates of Canada Dry, boxes of baby food and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

There is no shortage of food in Managua; the only problem last week was that most of it was piled up in an airport hangar far away from the hungry and homeless of the city. A bevy of Red Cross volunteers and unctuous army officers waited to do young Somoza's bidding; for the moment, he had other things on his mind, namely his misplaced automobile. "Where is my car?" he demanded. "I want the person who took it arrested immediately," he said, and ran off in search of the culprit. Silence. Since nothing could be done without a Somoza signature, all relief activity stopped for a while.

The scene was much the same at Tachito Somoza's hilltop estate in Managua's El Retiro section. Nicaraguan generals, journalists and crew-cut American hucksters panting to sell prefab housing units milled about one day last week waiting for an audience with the general. Somoza's American wife Hope, a striking woman dressed in a red bandanna, print blouse and tight black slacks, directed Red Cross activities from beneath a shade tree. The mood was relaxed and restrained—even though 3,000 Managuans are known to be dead, another 4,000 were buried alive when the earthquake struck, and hundreds lie wounded. More than 120,000 still cling to their shattered homes in Managua despite the absence of water, food and electricity.