General Staff, now headed by the new Chief Director Lt. Col. (later General) Federico Mejía González. The 12,000 Guardsmen still under his command, now besieged in the government quarter of Tiscapa hill at Managua and Managua International Airport, and at the remaining holdouts throughout the country were exhorted to continue the fight. After negotiations with the Sandinistas broke down due to his refusal to resign on 18 July, President Urcuyo fled to Guatemala, leaving in charge GN Chief Director General Mejía who tried unsuccessfully to pursue conversations for the cease-fire. Faced with the rejection by the Sandinistas of his list of demands – which included retention of all property belonging to individual officers – in exchange for a surrender, on the dawn of 19 July 1979, General Mejía and most of the high-ranking officers of the General Staff left Nicaragua by plane, leaving their men leaderless. Early in the morning of that same day as 5,000 Sandinista guerrillas and 10,000 assorted "people's militia" took control of Managua's city center and called for a cease-fire. The last senior commander of the National Guard, Lt. Col. Fulgencio Largaespada Baez finally bowed to the inevitable and ordered his demoralised and exhausted soldiers to lay down their arms. Upon the conclusion of the civil war, 7,500 Guardsmen were taken prisoner – with many former Guards suspected of violating human rights being held in detention by the Sandinistas – while another 4,500 officers and enlisted men fled to neighboring Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Guatemala to form the nucleus of an armed opposition force to the new Nicaraguan government, which would later become known as the Contras. The Sandinista junta replaced the disbanded Guardia Nacional with two new forces, the Ejército Popular Sandinista (EPS, Sandinista Popular Army) and the Policía Sandinista (Sandinista Police). Eventually, alumni of the National Guard would be reconstituted, with the support of the CIA and Honduras, as the Contra rebels. Following the collapse of the National Guard, many members relocated to Guatemala and went on to form the Fifteenth of September Legion, which was committed to overthrowing the Sandinista rule. List of Chief Directors Notable National Guard officers Brigadier general José R. Somoza (a.k.a. "Don José", "Papa Chepe") – Inspector-general of the National Guard from 1976 to 1979. Colonel Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero (a.k.a. "El Chigüín") – Founder and Chief Director of the Infantry Basic Training School (EEBI) from 1976 to