Peace and order was restored once more, and a new Conservative government came to power. The Conservatives’ authority was challenged by the Liberals, however, who formed their own government. Fighting soon broke out between the rival political parties, which rapidly escalated into a civil war. Once more, the United States intervened in May 1926 and restored peace after threatening to use military force against the Liberals. In the peace treaty that followed, the Conservatives and Liberals agreed to two stipulations: that the Conservative government would complete its term of office before new elections were held; and that all remaining private militias and armed groups would be disbanded and subsequently incorporated into the government forces to form an expanded, non-partisan National Guard.
(Taken from United States Occupation of Nicaragua, 1912 – 1933 – Wars of the 20th Century – Vol. 1)
All armed groups complied with the peace agreement, except for an obscure pro-Liberal militia led by Augusto Sandino, who continued to oppose the authority of the Conservative government. Sandino also condemned the National Guard, which he believed was being used by the United States to meddle into Nicaragua’s internal affairs. From 1927 to 1932, Sandino carried out a guerilla war against the Nicaraguan and American forces, successfully evading capture and gaining the support of the rural people through his calls for both the end of foreign control of the country and the local elite’s social and economic domination of Nicaraguan society.
In 1933, the United States withdrew its forces from Nicaragua because of budgetary constraints from the ongoing Great Depression. The American public’s opposition to the Nicaraguan occupation, as well as mounting soldier casualties, also factored into the U.S. government’s decision to withdraw from that Central American country.
Nicaragua. The U.S. decision to invade Nicaragua in 1912 was due, at least in part, to the American government’s concern that another foreign power would build and then control the Nicaragua Canal. The United States regarded the whole Western Hemisphere as its exclusive sphere of influence. The Nicaragua Canal was intended to be a shipping waterway that connects the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
In Nicaragua, Anastacio Somoza, who led the National Guard, gained considerable influence during the early 1930s. Then in 1934, he ordered the assassination of Sandino, who had begun peace talks with the Nicaraguan government after the American troops departed from the country. Sandino was killed by members of the National Guard in February 1934 in Managua. Through political manipulations, Somoza installed his close friends and allies to high-level government positions and subsequently forced Nicaragua’s president to resign from office in 1936. A year later, Somoza became Nicaragua’s president, starting a dictatorship, a repressive regime, and a political dynasty that lasted over forty years. In 1979, an insurgent group called the Sandinistas, who invoked the ideas of Sandino, ended the Somoza dynasty after overthrowing the dictator’s son, who was Nicaragua’s president by then (next article).