had grown to some 3,000 troops. After using the influence of the National Guard to support Sacasa's re-election in 1936, Somoza Garcia flouted civilian power, installing military cronies in key civilian posts and then deposed Sacasa in a coup d'état held in June that same year. With an ally appointed interim president, Somoza Garcia then resigned from the position of Chief Director of the National Guard in order to meet the constitutional requirements to run for the presidency himself. Breaking with the Liberal party, he established the Partido Liberal Nacionalista (PLN, National Liberal Party) and won the presidential election with a remarkable 107,201 votes to 108. On 1 January 1937, President Somoza Garcia reappointed himself again chief director of the National Guard, installing a corrupt military dictatorship linked to U.S. business interests that would last four decades. Somoza regime Somoza Garcia rapidly took complete control of Nicaraguan institutions including the National Guard, promoting allies and purging enemies. The National Guard was the backbone of a growing network of control, eventually including telecommunications, railroads, and key civilian agencies from customs to hospitals to tax collection. In 1938, Somoza Garcia appointed a civilian assembly that rubber-stamped constitutional changes allowing him to stay in office; his personal fortune expanded as he and his family took over key areas of the private economy. An increasingly pervasive corruption comparable to a gangland mob, with bribery, kickbacks, and sometimes violent enforcement, protected the power of the Somoza family at all levels. The U.S. supported the National Guard through the World War II Lend-Lease act and under the terms of the Rio Treaty, but did not publicly approve of Somoza Garcia's extraconstitutional governance. The National Guard, which had been until then a predominately light infantry force composed largely of rifle companies equipped with World War I-vintage U.S. small arms, began to acquire surplus heavy equipment such as armoured cars, light tanks, transport vehicles and artillery. The regime permitted nominal political dissent, and, in 1947, agreed to elections, hoping to mollify both the United States and local opponents, but quickly deposed the winning candidate in a coup d'état that brought strong disapproval from the U.S. Government. Under a new constitution, an assembly-appointed president, and a strong anti-communist stance relations improved. Nevertheless, Somoza Garcia was the true power behind the curtain and an increasing target of attempted coups and assassination; he even raised a personal bodyguard separated from the