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Somoza boasted that his side had already won. Even if that were so, he may have lost the larger war. Two weeks before the fighting began, 15 opposition political parties, labor groups and business organizations, banded into a "Broad Opposition Front," mounted a general strike to force the Somoza family out of power. The strike had a quick effect since the participants controlled 75% of the nation's industry and 90% of its commerce. Last week, in a further show of unity, the front, joined by the Sandinistas, called on five friendly Latin American nations to mediate a ceasefire; the front itself refused to deal directly with Somoza and demanded that he and his family leave the country. It further proposed—when Somoza is gone—a provisional democratic junta and offered three possible "representatives": Industrialist Alfonso Robelo Callejas, 38, Lawyer-Writer Sergio Ramirez Mercado, 36, and Lawyer Rafael Córdova Rivas, 54, who had helped establish the foremost anti-Somoza political coalition, UDEL (Democratic Liberation Union).
The U.S., meanwhile, had cut off military aid for Somoza and was seeking to bring the Broad Opposition Front and the government together in hopes of finding a "Nicaraguan solution." Explained a State Department official: "We're trying to avoid any 'U.S. solution.' If we were to suggest that Somoza should take a three-month vacation, that's exactly what Somoza's people would do—and then say that this was what the Americans told them to do." But Nicaraguan opposition leaders demanded more substantial U.S. support than that; for example, a cut in $11 million worth of food, health and education loans that they maintain have mostly benefited Somoza's politicians. Said one Conservative Party spokesman acidly: "Somoza is part of the American system, not ours." Added Conservative Congressman Eduardo Chamorro Cornel, 44, referring to the American military force that installed Somoza's father in power in 1933: "Somoza is the last Marine." ∎