NICARAGUA: Sandinistas vs. Somoza

A "final offensive " throws country into chaos

It would be, the guerrillas vowed, their "final offensive," an all-out push that would topple Nicaragua's military strongman, President General Anastasio ("Tacho") Somoza Debayle. Bands of well-armed insurgents of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) slipped across the border from Honduras and Costa Rica. The rebels first struck in half a dozen cities in the interior, bottling up government garrisons with torrents of bullets from Belgian-made automatic rifles. Then they moved into the capital of Managua, which had been paralyzed by a general...

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