Background
Emiliano Chamorro Vargas was born in Acoyapa on 11 May 1871. Member of a prominent family.
Emiliano Chamorro Vargas was born in Acoyapa on 11 May 1871. Member of a prominent family.
He was only 22 when he led the first of several revolts against Liberal President José Santos Zelaya in 1893. Sixteen years later, Chamorro and Adolfo Diaz, a young secretary of an American-owned mining company, played a major role in organizing a successful uprising against Zelaya late in 1909, under nominal leadership of the Liberal governor of the Mosquito Coast, General Juan J. Estrada.
Subsequently, Estrada—now president—and Conservative leaders Chamorro, Diaz, and Luis Mena agreed on a Constituent Assembly to select Estrada as president for a two-year term and Adolfo Diaz as vice president. In a fight over U.S. participation in control of customs receipts to pay off a loan to the Estrada government, Chamorro was exiled by Estrada, whose government fell shortly thereafter.
Diaz became president (1911-1916) and appointed Chamorro minister to the United States. He signed the controversial Bryan-Chamorro Treaty in 1914, granting the United States exclusive rights to construct a canal across Nicaragua, leasing Great Com and Little Com Islands to the United States for 99 years, and giving the United States the right to set up a naval base on the Gulf of Fonseca—all for $3 million.
Chamorro was president from 1917 to 1920.
In 1920 Chamorro imposed the election of his uncle, Diego Manuel Chamorro, as president. The new president died unexpectedly in 1923 and was succeeded by Vice President Bartolomé Martínez, an anti-Chamorro Conservative, who created a coalition with Liberal Party elements. Conservative Carlos Solorzano was nominated for president and Liberal Juan Bautista Sacasa as vice president, and easily won the October 1924 elections. Chamorro revolted, and was formally accepted as president by the Nicaraguan Congress on March 13, 1926. However, on October 24, 1926, after various intrigues, Diaz became president again, and Chamorro went into diplomatic exile as minister to several European countries.
As the result of various other conspiracies and of negotiations in 1926-1927 involving Henry L. Stimson, a treaty was signed providing for organization of a nonpartisan National Guard and presidential elections in 1928. Chamorro tried unsuccessfully to prevent the treaty’s ratification.
Honest elections under the auspices of the U.S. Marines resulted in Liberal José María Moncada’s inauguration for the 1929-1932 term. In addition, an agreement provided for American training of what was hoped would be an honest and nonpartisan National Guard. However, the treaty’s objectives were never achieved. A Liberal, General Anastasio Somoza García, was ultimately able to take over the Guard and use it to establish a dynasty that would dominate Nicaragua from 1936 to 1979.
On numerous occasions, Emiliano Chamorro sought to restore Conservatives to dominance. Finally despairing of success, he signed a so-called Pact of the Generals in 1950 with Anastasio Somoza, which softened Conservative opposition to Somoza’s regime in return fora fixed percentage of positions in Congress and the bureaucracy.