Abstract
“I’m going to narrate a case to you,” the young Nicaraguan merchant began.
I am indebted to David C. Brooks, Nora Faires, Robert H. Holden, Rosario Montoya, John Peters, and the editors of this volume for their incisive commentaries on previous drafts of this essay. Research and writing were supported by the Office of Research at the University of Michigan-Flint.
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Notes
Pedro Antonio Arauz, “Después de la terminacion de la guerra constitucionlista,” unpublished ms., Instituto de Estudio del Sandinismo, Managua (currently Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua, hereafter IES), c. 1980. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from the Spanish are mine.
Michael J. Schroeder, “Horse Thieves to Rebels to Dogs: Political Gang Violence and the State in the Western Segovias, Nicaragua, in the Time of Sandino, 1926–1934,” Journal of Latin American Studies 28 (May 1996): 383–434. Unless otherwise indicated, see this source for all evidence and arguments relating to the Hernández case.
See Michael J. Schroeder, “To Defend Our Nation’s Honor: Toward a Social and Cultural History of the Sandino Rebellion in Nicaragua, 1927–1934” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1993), chap. 3.
From a voluminous literature on patron-client relations, S. N. Eisenstadt, Patrons, Clients, and Friends: Interpersonal Relations and the Structure of Trust in Society (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984), remains useful; on patrons and clients in Nicaragua see E. Bradford Burns, Patriarch and Folk: The Emergence of Nicaragua, 1798–1858 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991); José Coronel Urtecho, Reflexiones lexiones sobre la historia de Nicaragua, 3 vols. (Managua, 1962); Salvador Mendieta, La enfermedad de Centro-América, 3 vols. (Barcelona, 1932), esp. vol. 1.
Burns, Patriarch and Folk, 45, 79–80; United States Department of State, The United States and Nicaragua: A Survey of Relations from 1909–1932 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1932).
See Denny, Dollars for Bullets; United States Department of State, United States and Nicaragua.
Jose Torres, for instance, arrested and imprisoned along with Hernández, headed up his own gang that sometimes merged with Hernández’s, as did Teodoro Polanco, Timoteo Blanco, the Cardenas brothers, and others; Medardo Vallejos’s Conservative gang, on the other hand, was in frequent conflict with Hernandez’s. See Schroeder, “Horse Thieves to Rebels to Dogs.”
Marine-guardia archives contain occasional references to such “Conservative clubs,” e.g., letters from Feliciano Gutierrez to Emiliano Chamorro, c. 2 June 1928, NA127/43A/3; R-2 Report, 14 Oct. 1928, p. 6, NA127/209/1.
J. Barcenonal M [?] to Sr. Oficial de Relaciones Civiles, telegram, Managua, 28 May 1928, NA127/220/5; “Conservative citizens,” La Trinidad, to Ministry of Police, Managua, 18 March 1928, NA127/209/12.
J. N. Frisbie to District Commander, 30 May 1928, E. R. Beadle to Commanding General, 4 June 1928, NA127/220/5 and /11; Bn-2 Report, Jinotega, 10 June 1928, NA127/209/2; Surrender of Certain Bandits, F. S. Kieren, 10 June 1928, NA127/220/5. Despite the amnesties, depredations by Conservative gangs were reported as late as November 1928; intelligence reports, June-November, NA127/209/1 and /2 and NA127/43A/4.
Anastacio Somoza, El verdadero Sandino, o el Calvario de las Segovias (Managua, 1936), 95; “List of assassinations committed by bandits, Department of Jinotega, during the registration,” Major Parker, Managua, 4 Nov. 1928, NA127/220/7; Jefe Politico Alvarez to Ministerio de Gobernacion,16 April 1928, NA127/220/5; La Noticia, 20 April 1928; Fidel Vilchez to Gertrudis Mairena and Carmen Vilchez, 4 April 1928, NA127/220/5 and /209/1; R-2 Period Report, A. C. Larsen, Managua, 21 May 1928; B. S. Berry, Communication to Jose Leon Diaz, 3 June 1928, NA127/220/5; Patrol Report, J. M. Cobb, Esteli, 9 June 1930, NA127/202/10/52.
On Juan Buton, see Records of Prisoners, Casefiles and Special Orders, National Penitentiary, Managua, NA127/202/16/76; Prisoners confined in this Penitentiary on orders other than Judges, A. A. Gladden, Division de Penitenciaria Nacional, Managua, 13 Feb. 1929, and Data on Juan H. Rodriguez, n.d., c. July 1928, NA127/209/8. On his death see Contact Report, G. C. Smith, 8 Aug. 1930, Esteli, and First Endorsement to Smith Contact Report, D. McDonald, 8 Aug. 1930, NA127/202/10/52.
On Juan Castillo see R-2 Report, 29 July 1928, NA127/209/1; GN-2 Report, 1 June 1931, NA127/43A/29: Patrol and contact report, W. W. Stevens, Leon, 29 July 1931, NA127/202/11; GN-2 Report, 1 Sept. 1931, NA127/43A/29. On Ruben Barreto, see El Centroamericano, 7 Dec. 1923; B-2 Report, 11 March 1928, NA127/43A/3; R-2 Report, 17 Dec. 1929, and 18 Jan. 1930, NA127/209/1 and /2.
Paul Berman, “In Search of Ben Linder’s Killers,” New Yorker, 23 Sept. 1996, 69.
Ariel C. Armony, “The Former Contras,” in Thomas W. Walker, ed., Nicaragua Without Illusions (Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1997), 207. See also the excellent study of Orlando Nunez et al., La guerra y el campesinado en Nicaragua, 3rd ed. (Managua: CIPRES, 1998), 310–30ff.
Steven Kinzer, Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua (New York: Anchor Books, 1991), 147.
See Marlene Dixon, ed., On Trial: Reagan’s War Against Nicaragua (San Francisco: Synthesis Publications, 1985); Americas Watch, Violations of the Laws of War by Both Sides in Nicaragua, 1981–1985 (New York: Americas Watch Committee, 1985), and Human Rights in Nicaragua: Rhetoric and Reality (New York: Americas Watch Committee, 1985); Witness for Peace, What We Have Seen and Heard: The Effect of Contra Attacks Against Nicaragua (Washington, D.C., 1985); Reed Brody, Contra Terror in Nicaragua: Report of a Fact-Finding Mission: September 1984 January 1985 (Boston: South End Press, 1985); Teofilo Cabestrero, Blood of the Innocent: Victims o f the Contras’ War in Nicaragua (New York: Orbis Books, 1985); Richard Garfield and David Siegel, Health and the War Against Nicaragua, 1981–1984 (New York: Central America Health Rights Network/LINKS, 1985); E. Bradford Burns, At War in Nicaragua: The Reagan Doctrine and the Politics of Nostalgia (New York: Harper & Row, 1987); Catholic Institute for International Relations, Right to Survive: Human Rights in Nicaragua (London: CIIR, 1987); Holly Sklar, Washington’s War on Nicaragua (Boston: South End Press, 1988); Jaime Morales Carazo, La Contra (Mexico City: Grupo Editorial Planeta, 1989); Alejandro Bendana, La tragedia campesina (Managua: Ediart-CEI, 1991).
Bob Barnes, Nicallotes (Nevada City, Calif.: Friendsview Press, 1987), 65.
See Laura Enriquez, Harvesting Change: Labor and Agrarian Reform in Nicaragua, 1979–1990 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991); Paul Ruben and Jan P. de Groot, eds., El debate sobre la reforma agraria en Nicaragua (Managua: INIES, 1989); Nunez et al., La guerra y el campesinado.
Benjamin Linder was a North American mechanical engineer working to produce small rural hydroelectric stations until he was killed by the Contras in April 1987. Berman, “In Search of Ben Linder’s Killers.”
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© 2000 Bruce B. Campbell and Arthur D. Brenner
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Schroeder, M.J. (2000). “To Induce a Sense of Terror”: Caudillo Politics and Political Violence in Northern Nicaragua, 1926–34 and 1981–95. In: Campbell, B.B., Brenner, A.D. (eds) Death Squads in Global Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230108141_2
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