Agüero Rocha, Fernando (1918–)

Fernando Agüero Rocha (b. 1918), Nicaraguan Conservative Party leader (1960–1972). Agüero assumed the leadership of a revived Conservative Party in 1960. The party's platform not only was anti-Somoza but also favored a "democratic revolution." Agüero stressed the need for economic and social reforms to prevent a Communist takeover in response to Somoza's entrenchment. In early 1963 he announced that the Conservative Party would boycott the forthcoming elections because the Somozas controlled the election machinery. True to Agüero's accusations, René Schick Gutiérrez, the Somoza's handpicked successor, won the presidency.

In the presidential election of 1967, Anastasio Somoza Debayle was a candidate himself. The opposition, consisting of Conservatives, Independent Liberals, and Christian Democrats, formed the National Opposition Union (UNO), and coalesced behind their candidate Agüero. Somoza won by a three-to-one margin, prompting Agüero to charge Somoza with election fraud, claiming that ballot boxes were seized from Granada (an opposition center) and that intimidation at the polls and violation of voting secrecy were commonplace.

The unrest and scandal stemming from Somoza's election led to elaborate plans for his cession of the presidency without relinquishing his power. In 1971, the Kupia-Kumi Pact, arranged between Liberals and Conservatives, provided that Somoza would step down in favor of a three-man junta, comprised of two Liberals and one Conservative. Agüero joined the junta, calling the pact a "national solution," although he still opposed Somoza. The junta, commonly referred to as "The Three Little Pigs," split the opposition. Somoza controlled the junta and the National Guard; thus, the junta wielded no real authority. This lack of power was seen clearly in the aftermath of the 1972 earthquake, when Somoza appointed himself head of a national emergency council with special powers.

Agüero opposed Somoza's rule by decree, so Somoza removed him from the junta. By this time, Agüero had lost the popular backing of students and had been removed as Conservative Party leader anyway. In addition, Agüero's cooperation with Somoza resulted in the alienation and disillusionment of younger Conservatives and others, thereby splintering the Conservatives.

See alsoNicaragua .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bernard Diederich, Somoza and the Legacy of U.S. Involvement in Central America (1982).

Walter La Feber, Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America (1984), esp. p. 163.

John A. Booth, The End and the Beginning: The Nicaraguan Revolution, 2d ed. (1985).

Additional Bibliography

Gambone, Michael D. Capturing the Revolution: The United States, Central America, and Nicaragua, 1961–1972. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001.

Soto, Lilly. Nicaragua, el desarrollo histórico de los partidos políticos en la década del 60 (1960–1969). Managua: L. Soto Vásquez, 1998.

                                        Shannon Bellamy