Military

National Guard : Praetorian Occupation Army

The U.S. military "formula" to stop the civil wars between party factions in Nicaragua and to neutralize the nationalism created by Sandino's army was the formation, under U.S. control, of the "constitutionalist army" in 1926. But the facade of legality, non partisanship and pacifism which this army wore, with the Liberal Gen. Moncada at its head, was very fragile and soon fell. In December 1927, while Sandino was fighting, the Nicaraguan government signed an agreement with the U.S. to establish the National Guard. This army was formed and trained according to the model the U.S. was then using in preparing the armies of Haiti, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic. On February 19, 1928, the Nicaraguan National Congress passed the law creating the National Guard.

Right from the beginning, this "army" had all the characteristics of an "interventionist" army created not to defend national interests but U.S. interests. It acted in close collaboration with the U.S. troops, who trained and commanded it. In January 1933, the marines abandoned Nicaragua, and Sandino disarmed his army. It was at that point that the real nature of the National Guard was seen: a force occupying its own country.

In the north, the National Guard began attacking the Sandinistas in all the rural areas. Sandino denounced the army to President Sacasa as unconstitutional in both its origins and its methods. Sandino's last battles, once the arms were laid aside and the soldiers had been incorporated into agricultural cooperatives in Wiwili, were battles against inequality and the impunity and arbitrariness with which this new army was already acting.

It was Somoza Garcia, a Liberal and a career military officer, elected by the U.S. to lead the National Guard, who assassinated Sandino in February of 1934 "for Nicaragua's own good" as he himself declared.

Until 1979, Nicaragua's army was the National Guard (N.G.). Right from the start, it was organized along the lines of a Praetorian style armed body. For historical reasons, it was impossible that it be an apolitical army. By 1936, when Somoza Garcia became president of the country, the National Guard was already linked to the Somoza Liberals, fulfilling the function of the ever present armed bodyguard of the dictator and his family.

In 1939, the "model" of the N.G. was already defined. It was structured as a military body based on privileges and economic sinecures, which in certain public areas had a monopolistic nature. The N.G. controlled the communication systems (roads, post offices, traffic, etc.), customs and immigration offices, the sale of alcohol, prostitution, etc. Its privileges grew over the years. What united this armed group was neither professionalism nor loyalty to a party ideology but rather loyalty to Somoza and his personal and family interests. The N.G. received from the dictator paternalistic privileges in exchange for unconditional protection. In the last few years, this protection was more and more needed because of the nature of the system itself: an apparatus of repression with a highly developed system of torture. The consolidation of the Somocista state between 1936 and 1979 was in direct proportion to the consolidation of the National Guard.

The United States formed, supported and trained this army, unique in Central America. Between 1959 and 1976, 4,897 members of the N.G. were trained directly by the U.S. From 1949 to 1973, 4,119 N.G. went to Fort Gulick, Panama, for counterinsurgency training. Since 1944, all the N.G. cadets did their final year at that base. The number of Nicaraguans trained directly by the United States in Panama during those years far exceeds that of any other Latin American army. This direct participation of the U.S. army in the formation of the National Guard can be explained by the fact that, before the fall of Somoza, the strongest military link in U.S. regional geopolitics was Nicaragua.

On July 19, 1979, there were 5,500 members of the National Guard and 2,000 elite counterinsurgency troops of the EEBI (Basic Infantry Training School). Because of the nature of the National Guard and its history of repression, it was necessary for the new government to disband this army and create a completely new one.