"Para los navegantes con ganas de viento, la memoria es un puerto de partida" / Eduardo Galeano / Arturo Zamora Cortés/United States Marines occupied Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933. From 1910 to 1926, the conservative party ruled Nicaragua. The Chamorro family, which had long dominated the party, effectively controlled the government during that period. In 1914, the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty was signed, giving the US control over the proposed canal, as well as leases for potential canal defenses. Following the evacuation of US Marines, another violent conflict between liberals and conservatives took place in 1926, known as the Constitutionalist War, which resulted in a coalition government and the return of US Marines. From 1927 until 1933, General Augusto César Sandino led a sustained guerrilla war, first against the Conservative regime and subsequently against the US Marines, who withdrew upon the establishment of a new Liberal government. Sandino rejected a 1927 negotiated agreement brokered by the United States to end the latest round of fighting between liberals and conservatives. The revolt finally forced the United States to compromise and leave the country. When the Americans left in 1933, they set up the Guardia Nacional (National Guard), a combined military and police force trained and equipped by the Americans, designed to be loyal to US interests. Anastasio Somoza García, a close friend of the American government, was put in charge. With US support Anastasio Somoza ...