Sandinistas succeed

The Sandinistas, named after the resistance leader Cesar Augusto Sandino, started their struggle in Nicaragua in 1962. In the seventies this culminated in a civil war against the government of President Somoza, the third president of the Somoza dynasty since 1933. In July 1979 the Sandinista army seems to be ready to take the city of Managua. Sandinista Junta member Sergio Ramirez Mercado tells reporters on 15 July that U.S. Ambassador Bowler told him that the U.S. was ready to recognize the junta. Two day later President Somoza flees to the USA, and a week later the new government is officially recognized.