Editing Anastasio Somoza Debayle (section)

==Presidency==
{{Expand section|date=May 2020}}
[[File:Asamblea Nicaragua.png|thumb|Place of the Assembly of Nicaragua, where the National Guard killed more than 1,000 protesters against the election of Somoza]]
Anastasio was elected president in his own right on 5 February 1967 and took office on 1 May, a few weeks after his brother's death. While Luis had ruled more gently than his father, Anastasio shared his father's cold intolerance of dissent. His rule soon resembled his father's in all significant respects, with harsh repression of dissent.

On education Somoza in his memoirs states "My dream was to provide a University equal to any in the world so that those young men and women with special qualifications could achieve educational equivalency with any student in any part of the world".<ref name="Thomas H. Holloway 2011 408">{{cite book |author=Somoza |url= |title=Nicaragua betrayed |publisher=Western Islands |year=1980 |isbn= |page=4}}</ref>

[[File:Meeting with President Anastasio Somoza Debayle of Nicaragua, before State Dinner - NARA - 194723 (cropped).tif | thumb | right | Somoza with U.S. President [[Richard Nixon]], 2 June 1971.]]

In 1968, [[Rainier III, Prince of Monaco|Prince Rainier III]] bestowed Somoza with the [[Order of Saint-Charles|Order of St. Charles]], Monaco's highest honor.<ref>[https://journaldemonaco.gouv.mc/var/jdm/storage/original/application/4fd061418ae684bb1bf96ad61d54eec3.pdf Sovereign Ordonnance n° 4.123 of 23 October 1968].</ref>

He was due to leave office in May 1972; at the time, Nicaraguan presidents were barred from immediate re-election. However, prior to that, Somoza worked out an agreement that allowed him to stand for re-election in [[1974 Nicaraguan general election|1974]]. He would be replaced as president by a three-man junta consisting of two members of his [[Nationalist Liberal Party]] and one member from the opposition [[Conservative Party of Nicaragua|Conservative]] while he retained control of the [[National Guard (Nicaragua)|National Guard]]. Somoza and his triumvirate drew up a new constitution that was ratified by the triumvirate and the cabinet on April 3, 1971. He stepped down as president on May 1, 1972. However, as head of the National Guard, he remained the ''de facto'' ruler of the country.

Anastasio Somoza and his son were both part owners of Plasmaferesis. The company collected blood plasma from up to 1,000 of Nicaragua's poorest persons every day for sale in the United States and Europe. According to ''El Diario Nuevo'' and ''La Prensa'', "Every morning the homeless, drunks, and poor people went to sell half a liter of blood for 35 (Nicaraguan) [[Nicaraguan córdoba|cordobas]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1978/07/30/110909196.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=LedeAsset&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=277|title=NATIONAL MUTINY IN NICARAGUA; NICARAGUA|work=The New York Times |language=en|access-date=2019-05-21}}</ref>

On 23 December 1972, an [[1972 Nicaragua earthquake|earthquake]] struck the nation's capital, [[Managua]], killing about 5,000 people and virtually destroying the city. The government declared [[martial law]], and Somoza took over ''de jure'' as well as ''de facto'' control of the country as head of the National Emergency Committee. He reportedly embezzled a large amount of money from funds sent to Nicaragua from around the world to help rebuild Managua.<ref name="Frank J. Coppa 2006 284">{{cite book|author =Frank J. Coppa|title=Encyclopedia of Modern Dictators: From Napoleon to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gTv99LBYSL4C|year=2006|publisher=Peter Lang Publishing|page=284|isbn=9780820450100}}</ref> These reports were debunked by the U.S. House subcommittee on International Development March 9, 1978, stating "Since the 1972 earthquake, 28 major audits, two separate congressional staff surveys, and a General Accounting Office report on reconstruction activities have been completed. We are pleased to note that no diversion or misuse of official U.S. assistance has been revealed by these reports."

Some parts of Managua have yet to be rebuilt or restored, including the National Cathedral.

Somoza also allegedly exported freshly imported emergency blood plasma abroad at the time of the earthquake, when most medical supplies in Nicaragua were desperately in short supply.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Inside The City That Is Watched By American Might
|date=1983-08-12
|work=The Glasgow Herald
|author =Wilson, Brian
|page=4
|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=u8FAAAAAIBAJ&pg=3626,2284582&hl=en
|quote=Another is that the blood plasma which arrived at Managua airport for the relief of earthquake victims was promptly re-exported by a Somoza company to the United States.}}</ref>

Somoza was re-elected president in the 1974 election. By this time, the [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic Church]] had begun to speak out against his government (one of his fiercest critics was [[Ernesto Cardenal]], a leftist Nicaraguan priest who preached [[liberation theology]] and was later appointed as the Sandinista government's Minister of Culture). By the late 1970s, human rights groups were condemning the record of the Somoza government. Support for the [[Sandinista National Liberation Front|Sandinistas]] was growing inside and outside the country.

In July 1977, Somoza had a heart attack, and went to the US to recuperate.<ref>{{cite book|last=Webb|first=Gary|year=1999|pages=56|title=[[Dark Alliance (book)|Dark Alliance]]|publisher=[[Seven Stories Press]]|isbn=978-1-888363-93-7}}</ref>