U.S. Marines kill and die in Nicaragua in defense of United Fruit’s profit margin.

‘Sandino Drives Back U.S. Marines’ from The Daily Worker. Vol. 5 No. 8. January 11, 1928.

TAKE SOMOTILLO; CONSTABULARY IS JOINING SANDINO

U.S. Naval Guns Crush Portworkers’ Strike

According to reports reaching New York City the whole northwestern district of Nicaragua containing the only western port, Corinto, may soon be in the hands of the Liberal armies is seen in the seizure of the town of Somotillo by an armed patrol of at least one hundred men after the defeat of a band of United States marines and National Guardsmen in a battle where one marine is reported to have been killed. Somotillo is only eighteen miles from the city of Chinandega on the Managua-Corinto railroad.

At the approach of the armed patrol, fourteen members of the Nicaraguan National Guard turned their guns on their American marine officer and forced him to take refuge in the neighboring village of Villa Nueva. The fourteen men then joined forces with the armed troop, seizing a machine gun, rifles and several thousand rounds of ammunition.

Invaders Repulsed.

Returning with re-enforcements, the marine officer, Paul W. Payne, later attempted to dislodge the Nicaraguan forces from Somotillo but was repulsed with losses.

The victorious Nicaraguans then evacuated the town. They are said to be intending to carry on a guerilla war in the mountains of the Chinandega district until their forces are sufficiently large to enable them to capture Corinto or march to re-enforce General Sandino in Nueva Segovia. Detachments of marines are being rushed to Somotillo as the United States military authorities tear that armed Nicaraguan forces may sever the railroad between Managua and Corinto, the only western port, and isolate the reactionary government in the capital.

Confiscate Mines.

The government of the republic recently set up in the district of Nueva Segovia by the Liberal leaders who are with General Augustino Sandino, is continuing the work of confiscating the mine properties of American owners, reports from Managua state.

The same reports tell how the Liberal forces seized the machine shop in one American-owned mine and began the construction of anti-aircraft guns out of iron pipes mounted on tripods.

Marines Break Corinto Strike.

Sailors from two United States battleships in the harbor, and detachments of American marines have forced the stevedores who recently declared a strike in sympathy with the Liberal army of General Sandino, to return to work. The military officials have given orders to the stevedores from which there is no appeal, though a “special investigation committee” composed of reactionary Nicaraguans and U.S. officers is reported to be preparing to investigate the case.

Leaders of the strike are said to be in hiding for fear of reprisals on the part of the American officials.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924. National and City (New York and environs) editions exist.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n008-NY-jan-11-1928-DW-LOC.pdf