The National Guard (, otherwise known as ) was a militia and a gendarmerie created in 1925 during the occupation of Nicaragua by the United States. It became notorious for human rights abuses and corruption under the regime of the Somoza family (1936–1979). The National Guard was disbanded when the Sandinistas came to power in 1979. Creation Prior to the U.S. occupation, the long period of civil strife had encouraged the development of a variety of private armies. The freshly elected government of President Carlos José Solórzano requested that the U.S. Marines (equally interested in central control) remain in Nicaragua until an indigenous internal security force could be trained; for that effect, the Nicaraguan government hired in 1925 a retired U.S. General to help set up a new paramilitary gendarmerie force, titled the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua (National Guard of Nicaragua). That same year, U.S. forces left the country, but after a civil war broke out, they returned in 1926 and took over the command (and training) of the National Guard from 1927 to 1933, when it was returned to Nicaraguan control under the government of President Juan Bautista Sacasa. President Sacasa, under political pressure from José María Moncada, who had been the leader of a rebel faction which later joined the government after U.S. mediation efforts, appointed Anastasio Somoza García as Chief Director of the National Guard in 1925. Besides being a nephew of Sacasa, Somoza Garcia was a trusted friend of Moncada and a supporter of the liberal revolt. He was trusted by the Americans due to his service as a translator to Henry Stimson during the 1927 peace conference, schooling in the U.S., and training under the U.S. Marines (apparently, as an officer in the National Guard). After the departure of U.S. troops in 1933 (at the height of the Great Depression), the Sacasa government opened negotiations with the National Sovereignty Defense Army (EDSN) rebel guerrilla faction led by Augusto César Sandino, which had fought both the National Guard and the U.S. occupation forces. During the negotiations, Sandino insisted on the disbandment of the National Guard as a pre-condition for any peace agreement, leading Somoza Garcia to react ruthlessly by arresting and executing Sandino, in violation of a safe passage agreement Sacasa had given to the rebel leader. The National Guard then swiftly crushed Sandino's EDSN, further weakening the Sacasa government. By this time, the National Guard