ABSTRACT
The Somoza brothers became a target for a few unsuccessful raids from Cuba by Nicaraguan rebels, and the United States, in turn, enlisted the Somozas in their effort to overthrow Castro. Nicaraguan guerrillas had long been trying to overthrow Somoza, but Castro's victory added a new purpose to their ambition. Prior to 1959, most "revolutions" were aimed at overthrowing dictators. Although Nicaragua's middle class generally dates the beginning of Somoza's downfall to the 1972 earthquake, the protagonists—Somoza and the Sandinistas—use different benchmarks. The Sandinista view of the Nicaraguan economy was that it was approaching crisis in the mid-1970s, the culmination of decades of neocolonial Yankee exploitation. However, a closer look at the economic and social data of Nicaragua suggests that this revolution, like others, was the result not of poverty and backwardness but of economic growth.
