17 JULY 1979 — The national convulsion had nearly ended. As the caption of the above picture states, it was rumored that Somoza had fled the country. American and Nicaraguan politicians maneuvered to fill the vacuum. Maneuvered for power. But the opportunity for negotiation had long evaporated. Having exhausted all the peaceful means for change, […]
1 JULY 1979 — Moises Hassan, the only member of the five-person Junta of National Reconstruction already in Nicaragua while fighting still raged across the country, talks about the future during an exclusive interview with myself and colleague Leif Skoogfors. Leif and I were the only two American journalists to have gained access to Masaya […]
25 JUNE 1979 — Anti-government rebels holding positions behind barricades take a break from the battle against Nicaragua’s Somoza dictatorship. Into these poor “barrios” or slums, journalists like myself ventured each day to document the conflict. And because the vast majority of the foreign press corps had fled the country after the killing of ABC […]
23 JUNE 1979 — Members of Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza’s National Guard move into poor “barrios” of eastern Managua to rout guerrilla fighters of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) who have launched a “Final Offensive” to overthrow the U.S.-backed regime. The image making and storytelling skills I acquired during this conflict laid the foundation […]
23 JUNE 1979 — Civilian casualties during insurgency and counter-insurgency operations are a key characteristic of those conflicts. The Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua was no exception. In the photo above, a woman pleads with a National Guardsman for permission to return to her Managua “barrio” to find her husband and son, both trapped in their […]
18 JUNE 1979 — Working from a hotel in Managua during the weeks-long insurgency to oust the Somoza dictatorship, I traveled from city to city in Nicaragua, following reports of fighting. In the picture above, Sandinista fighters fire down a street in the city of Leon at National Guard positions. Leon was the scene of […]