Troubled Times in Nicaragua
There was an article in the New York Times today about the protests going on right now in Nicaragua following the recent mayoral elections. Polls leading up to the elections indicated that the opposition candidate, Eduardo Montealgre, held a lead over the Sandinista candidate and current vice president, Alexis Arguello. But the results of the elections held on November 9th, as reported by the Sandinista-controlled Election Commission, gave the victory to Arguello. Since that time Montealegre and his party, the PLC, have called for peaceful marches in the streets to request a recount of the votes with international election observers present. Roberto Rivas, the president of the Election Commission, has agreed to a recount but sans election observers.
This story hits home for me because I lived in Nicaragua for two and a half years before moving back to the States last year. I was present for the 2006 elections that ushered Daniel Ortega back in to power thanks to a government power sharing deal between him and Arnoldo Alemán, the de facto leader of the PLC, and a divided opposition vote split between José Rizo and the same Montealgre. I know this all gets very complicated very fast with lots of names, so if you want more information Wikipedia has a great summary here.
I was a Peace Corps volunteer at the time, so I was forbidden from participating or proselytizing in any way, but political conversations were acceptable and I didn’t meet a single Nicaraguan without an opinion on the subject. What struck me right away was the absolute acceptance or resignation that all politicians were corrupt. More than a few people expressed a desire for a benevolent dictator, even though many concurrently acknowledged that one probably doesn’t exist. Another thing is how virtually everyone I knew considered as fact that the elections in 1996 were stolen from Ortega and given to Alemán under the auspices of international election observers like the Organization of American States and the European Union. Some good friends of mine even spoke of their participation in the heist. So when Ortega speaks of his distrust and even disdain for the OAS, and even though I disagree with him, I can understand where he is coming from. It is not my personal opinion, but it is the belief of many Nicaraguans.
But that is probably a topic for another day. The question is what happens now. The immediate problem is the elections do not look clean to anyone, and neither side will concede any time soon. Without hardly any observers one’s belief in the elections results that gave the FSLN (Sandinistas) 100 mayoral offices and the PLC 30 lies depends primarily in which cuadillo one chooses to believe, Ortega or Alemán. Which brings us to the larger problem. The power struggle of the last 15 years between these two men has circumvented nearly every government principle, office or function, and in the process demoralized many from a population that has known nothing but dictatorship or a system of caudillo favors and handouts for the last century.
I really haven’t scratched the surface, but work is calling so I’ll have to leave it here. If I could make one suggestion that would stick it would be to go to the library and checkout Blood of Brothers by Stephen Kinzer. It’s a phenomanal piece of work that sheds some light on so many aspects of a country that most people know very little about.
