Death of Somoza: The First Person Story of the Guerillas Who Assassinated the Nicaraguan Dictator

by Claribel Alegría, Darwin Flakoll

Overview

Death of Somoza reveals the inside story of the assassination of Anastasio Somoza Debayle in Asuncion, Paraguay in 1980. Alegria and Flakoll, on the recommendation of Julio Cortazar, met "Ramon," a leader in the Argentinian Revolutionary Workers' Party (PRT) and with his help were able to interview all the survivors of the commando team that carried out the "bringing to justice" of Somoza. Alegria and Flakoll rewove these testimonies into a narrative that reads like a thriller and gives a vivid picture of the political and social climate of the time. Enlivened by its colorful cast of characters, Death of Somoza is the definitive account of how Anastasio Somoza Debayle was brought to justice. This story is not an apology for terrorism, but rather the chronicle of a tyrannicide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781880684269
Publisher:	Northwestern University Press
Publication date:	04/01/1996
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1130L (what's this?)

About the Author

Claribel Alegría was a Salvadorian-Nicaraguan poet, essayist, novelist, and journalist who was a major voice in the literature of contemporary Central America. She has been called "one of the region's finest writers" by The Washington Post. Alegría published over forty books, including fifteen collections of poetry, and was a recipient of the Casa de las Americas Prize of Cuba. Her works in English include Ashes of Izalco, Luisa in Realityland, and Family Album. She was awarded the 2006 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. She died in 2018.

In 1947 Alegría married the U.S.-born journalist Darwin J. ("Bud") Flakoll; they had three daughters and one son. Flakoll coauthored some of her novels and translated much of her work into English. He died in 1995. Alegría's Sorrow, a collection of love poems, was written for her deceased husband.

Editorial Reviews

"If truth is stranger than fiction, historical fact can be just as fascinating, as Alegría and Flakoll prove here."

—Publishers Weekly

"The account is a cross‑genre tour de force that weaves a mesmerizing chronicle from fact, informed speculation, historical documentation, and interviews with participants in the operation. Challenged by subject matter with potential to lapse into rhetoric or political diatribe at any juncture, the authors never allow the story to become superficial or strained, balancing their resources for the sake of a credibility."

—George Evans, World Literature Today

"These stories are compelling and believable, and, what’s more, the people who inhabit and narrate them are plausible, singular, dynamic beings..."

—Chuck Wachtel, The Nation

From the Publisher

If truth is stranger than fiction, historical fact can be just as fascinating, as Alegra and Flakoll prove here. Originally published in Nicaragua and Venezuela, this fast-paced account of the pursuit of the elusive Anastasio Somoza Debayle by his self-appointed assassins (a commando team composed of revolutionary veterans of Argentina's "dirty war"), provides the missing chapter of the Nicaraguan revolution. Because this reads like a suspense novel with elements of espionage, it will be of interest to a curious cross section of readers including military intelligence buffs, mystery lovers and students of Latin American affairs. The text includes many voices of its true-life "characters": Susana, the young rebel; Ramon, the grizzled freedom fighter; even that of a lamenting Somoza, the deposed dictator-quoted from his book Nicaragua Betrayed, published in 1980. Alegra is an eminent Salvadoran poet, journalist and author of numerous books including Luisa in Realityland and Family Album. Flakoll, her husband, collaborator and translator, died last year. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

No one has ever known by whom or precisely how Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the repressive Nicaraguan strongman, was assassinated in Asuncion, Paraguay, in 1980, after being forced out of office a year earlier. This book, based on firsthand interviews with the surviving Argentine commando group who carried out the assassination as representatives of the People's Revolutionary Army, conveys their actions in a mix of nonfiction description and fictional dialog. The book effectively reveals interesting points about linkages among revolutionary groups in the 1970s, the disjointed situation in Nicaragua immediately following the Sandinista triumph, and the incompetence of Paraguayan security forces in pursuit of the assassins. Yet the event itself no longer draws much interest. For academic Latin American studies collections. [See also the authors' Tunnel to Canto Grande, reviewed below.-Ed.]-Roderic A. Camp, Latin American Ctr., Tulane Univ., New Orleans

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