locate and flush out Sandino from his moun-
tain stronghold on El Chipote. Moreover, his
activities garnered him international attention
and a strong following through Central and
South America. When his base camp was fi-
nally uncovered and captured in January
1928, it had already been abandoned. Sandino
continued increasing his notoriety with every
successful ambush and raid, but to the U.S.
and Nicaraguan governments he remained an
enigmatic figure. His political ideology and
revolutionary intentions remained unclear,
even today. In repeated trips to Mexico for
guns and money Sandino may have flirted
with the communists, but he clearly did not
trust them, or they him. However, he re-
mained strongly committed to alleviating the
misery of Nicaraguan peasants. By 1932, more
than 1,000 guerrillas had been slain in fight-
ing, and the National Guard suffered losses of
75 killed. The Marines also sustained 47
deaths in endless bush fighting, and the Amer-
ican public had wearied of the struggle. The
turning point was the skirmish at Achuapa on
December 31, 1930, when Sandinistas at-
tacked a party of Marines repairing a tele-
phone wire; eight were killed. Accordingly,
President Herbert Hoover withdrew the last
contingent of Marines from Nicaragua in Jan-
uary 1932 and adopted the so-called good-
neighbor policy toward Latin America, which
was less disposed to intervene with troops.
Perhaps Sandino had made his point, after all.
Once the foreigners had departed, the last
obstacle to peace had been removed, and
Sandino willingly negotiated a truce with the
new Liberal government of Juan Batista
Sacasa. Sandino’s Defending Army was dis-
armed, save for Sandino’s personal bodyguard
of 100 men. He was also allowed to maintain a
cooperative farm far to the north for his fol-
lowers. These indulgences did not sit well
with Gen. Anastasio Somoza Garcia, head of
the National Guard, who continued to view
Sandino as a threat to national stability. In Au-
gust 1933, he ordered troops to attack the
Sandinistas at Las Segovias, which prompted
Sandino to urge Sacasa to have the National
Guard disbanded. Sacasa, in turn, invited him
to Managua for negotiations. Sandino arrived
at the presidential palace on the evening of
February 21, 1934, and dined with both
Sacasa and Somoza. The dinner was pleasant
and constructive, but while returning home
Sandino and his aides were suddenly kid-
napped by National Guard forces. They were
driven to an open field outside of town and
executed. Thus ended the sad and tragic so-
cial crusade of Augusto Cesar Sandino. But
his national legacy as a symbol of struggle
against oppression remained strong in
Nicaragua and elsewhere. In 1979, communist
revolutionaries, who co-opted the name “San-
dinistas,” shot their way into power by over-
throwing Somoza’s son, the sitting president
of Nicaragua. It is unknowable whether
Sandino, who was never a communist him-
self, would have approved.Bibliography
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tion, University of Michigan, 1994.SANDINO, AUGUSTO