Nica History

I took this picture in a small cigar factory in Granada. I found out that it is a helmet from the Guardia National, an instrument of the brutal Somoza military dictatorship which ruled Nicaragua for four decades. It is sitting on top of the owner's grandmother's typewriter. I have to believe that the irony is intentional. The press was, of course, severely censored during the dictatorship.

Incidentally, the Guardia was set up by a retired US general in the 20's. Furthermore, the US government supported the Somoza regime until it was overturned in the Sandinista revolution in 1979, at which point Somoza (the last of three Somozas in power, and a West Point military academy graduate) fled to Miami.

The Sandinistas, despite their stated ideals, turned out to be similarly repressive. Because they were backed by Castro and the Soviet Union, Reagan felt it necessary to fund the Contras, formed in part by ex-guardsmen. This is how the Cold War turned out to be nothing-but-cold in Nicaragua. Throughout the 80's tens of thousands died in the war between the Contras and the Sandinista forces. Fighting ended, essentially, when the funding dried up on both sides with the end of the Cold War.