During his father's rule, he commanded a National Guard unit that was accused of human rights abuses while fighting the Sandinista guerrillas. From September 1978 to the overthrow of his father's presidency in July 1979, he ordered the attacks on guerrillas and the use of artillery and airplanes to bomb the main cities of Nicaragua that had fallen in the hands of the popular uprising led by the Sandinistas. He left Nicaragua on July 17, 1979. He went into exile to Guatemala in 1979, following the Sandinistas' victory.
