A Blow at the Brothers

NICARAGUA A Blow at the Brothers

For months, two rival rebel bands have set their sights on the brothers who run Nicaragua. President Luis and General Anastasio ("Tachito") Somoza. One band was infiltrated by Communists, dominated by Fidel Castro and trained in Cuban meadows. The other, anti-Communist and wary of the Cuban group, made ready on secret training grounds in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Last week the anti-Communists struck first with an air invasion of Nicaragua.

The first Costa Rica--based rebel C46 landed 40 men, armed with 7-mm. Mauser rifles and automatic weapons, in a pasture 90 miles east of Managua. There they met 60 allies leading pack mules and horses and headed into trackless jungle to the east. The second C46 landed heavily in a soggy field 65 miles northeast of Managua, was burned by the 35 troops it carried when a damaged landing gear prevented takeoff. When a twelve-man foot patrol of Tachito's national guard arrived to examine the plane's remains, the rebels ambushed the soldiers. In the four-hour fight that followed, three guardsmen and three rebels were killed.

The rebellion was aimed not only at the Somoza brothers, but also at the shade of their late father. Dictator Anastasio Somoza. By torturing, killing or exiling his opponents. ''Tacho" Somoza ran Nicaragua 20 years, stacked up an estimated $60 million in cash and property. When Tacho was cut down by an assassin's bullets 2 1/2 years ago. Luis got himself elected in his father's place. While brother Tachito tried to keep the country quiet under the heavy thumb of the national guard, U.S.-educated (Universities of California. Maryland and Louisiana State) President Luis tried to wipe out the dictator label. He freed the press, treated plotters with unheard-of leniency, promised free elections in 1963. even proposed a constitutional amendment that would prevent him or any near relative from following him to the presidency.

But the Somoza name was hard to live down, and three months ago, two of Tacho's old enemies--Gynecologist Enrique Lacayo Farfan and Pedro Joaquin Chamarro, editor-owner of Managua's La Prensa--began marshaling their forces.

To fight them. West Pointer Tachito has a 4,000-man army, with Garands. Thompson submachine guns, .30-cal. machine guns, a few mortars. For Central America his air force is impressive: 20-odd P-51s. Tracking his troops on an Esso map last week, Tachito disdainfully dismissed the revolt as a "flop.'' For his part, Luis put Nicaragua under a state of siege and pressured the Organization of American States into a reluctant, long-distance study of the uprising.

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