Somoza Debayle, Luis (1923-1967)

Nicaraguan nationalist liberal politician, president 1956-63. He took over the presidency on the assassination of his father, Anastasio Somoza Garcia. He introduced a number of social reforms, including low-cost housing and land reform, and reduced the level of political repression, but remained a staunch anti-Communist, supporting the USA in its 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

As he had promised, Somoza Debayle did not seek re-election at the end of his presidential term in 1963. However, his successor, René Schick Gutiérrez, was his close associate. Somoza Debayle subsequently served in the senate, leading the Liberal Party, until his sudden death in April 1967 from a heart attack.

The oldest and most liberal son of the dictator Anastasio Somoza Garcia, he studied at universities and military academies in the USA before returning to Nicaragua to become a colonel in the national guard. In 1950, he entered the Nicaraguan congress as a nationalist liberal.