Somoza family

The Somoza family was an influential political dynasty who ruled Nicaragua as a family dictatorship from 1936 to 1979. Although they only held the presidency for 30 of those 43 years, they were the power behind the other presidents of the time through their control of the National Guard. Their regime was overthrown by the Sandinista National Liberation Front during the Nicaraguan Revolution.

Anastasio Somoza Garcia
The first of the Somoza regime in Nicaragua. Anastasio Somoza Garcia got rid of the prior president and won by a sham election, eventually becoming a dictator. He was also supported by the president at the time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, largely because he was ultimately pro-American. He was assassinated in 1956.

Anastasio Somoza Debayle
The last of the Somoza regime. In the 1972 Earthquake in Nicaragua, he and the regime pocketed the financial donations for rebuilding Managua. He was eventually toppled by the FSLN, with him being assassinated in 1980, a year after he was thrown out of power.