NICARAGUA: Sudden Death in Asunci

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Somoza is killed in an ambush that Nicaraguans cheer

The game was big and artillery appropriately heavy. Shortly before 10 one morning last week, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, 54, the exiled former dictator of Nicaragua, climbed into his white Mercedes-Benz 280 limousine along with his chauffeur and a business associate, and drove away from his luxurious villa in a suburb of the Paraguayan capital of Asunción. The limousine, followed by a backup car carrying three bodyguards, had traveled a mere five blocks when a Chevrolet pickup truck pulled up alongside, and unleashed a hail of automatic rifle fire. As the bodyguards returned the fire, a bazooka rocket, launched from the porch of a nearby house, hit the Somoza limousine broadside, tearing away the roof. The dictator, along with his companions, was killed instantly.

The hit team managed to make a clean getaway, though Paraguayan authorities believed one of the assassins may have been wounded. Paraguayan police launched a manhunt for suspected members of the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), a leftist Argentine guerrilla group. Their presumed motive: solidarity with Nicaragua's Sandinista revolutionaries, who succeeded in overthrowing the Somoza family's ruthless 43-year dynasty last year after a bitter civil war. At week's end, one suspected ERP ringleader was killed in a shootout and 60 people had been picked up for questioning.

When news of Somoza's death reached Managua, Nicaraguans went wild with joy. Thousands of people poured into the streets, singing and dancing and setting off fireworks. Said a journalist in Managua: "Somoza finally brought happiness to his countrymen." The leaders of the ruling Sandinista junta denied any direct role in the assassination. In a brief communiqué, they called it ajusticiamiento—justifiable execution —reminding their followers that the dictator had been responsible for the deaths of 100,000 Nicaraguans. Concluded one Sandinista simply: "Divine justice."

The assassination, as it happened, came at a time when the revolutionary regime has become increasingly worried about the ousted Somoza forces. A few days before the assassination, the Nicaraguan junta revealed that it had thwarted a plot by former National Guard officers to free thousands of jailed former soldiers and put together teams to kill the Sandinista leadership. They identified Somoza's eldest son, Anastasio ("Tachito") Somoza Portocarrero, 29, as the "principal leader" of the plot.

Somoza complained bitterly after his ouster that he had been betrayed by the "traitorous" U.S. Still, it was to Miami that his body was flown for burial. It was Miami that had also been his first stop as an exile. But then, fearful that the U.S. might allow his extradition to Nicaragua, he moved on to Paraguay at the invitation of Dictator Alfredo Stroessner. In Asunción, Somoza's flamboyant social life and amorous escapades offended many Paraguayans. His reluctance to invest his hoarded fortune (estimated at $100 million) in the country was also said to have caused resentment. There was no doubt that Somoza had made bitter personal enemies as well as formidable political foes. But there was still no certain answer to the question that intrigued Nicaraguans: Who got him?