Nicaragua used to be considered as the safest country in South America and, at the same
time, the second
poorest. But now, it seems things are changing.
You see, Nicaragua is a country full of contradictions. Its president, DANIEL ORTEGA, likes to brag
about
his deep Marxist-leninist roots. Then again, he self-defines as a Catholic and he has even
banned
abortion on the country. Nonetheless, behind that facade
of moral rectitude, there is a man with an open
trial for abusing his step daughter. If this wasn´t enough, Daniel Ortega is a big time
family man. In
fact… do you know who is the Nicaraguan Vice President? Exactly! His wife, whose name
is ROSARIO MURILLO. Yes, I know what you are thinking… Mr. Ortega
is the kin of guy you wanna have as president, right? Well,
before you start judging him, here is the other side of the coin.
He is been in power since 2007 with a popular support higher than 60%.
This said, there is something we have to admit about this man. When it comes to foreign relations,
he is
a genious. Nicaragua is one of the few countries that holds open ties with Iran, Russia and
Venezuela
and… at the same time, the United States of America. Yes, yes, you heard that right!
Many of his comrades
from his political party, the SANDINISTA front, accuse him of selling his soul to capitalism.
And they
have some point of truth. Although Nicaragua being that poor, it is also one of the most
stable economies
in the region, with an average GDP growth of 4.6%. The population living under the poverty
line is
getting smaller and smaller year after year. Don’t you believe me? Well, just look at
the immigration
statistics, you will see an exodus of Guatemalans and Mexicans moving to USA. But the Nicaraguan
citizens
seem to be kind of confortable staying on their home country. Apparently, they are satisfied
with their
political situation… or, at least, they used to be.
The final straw came with the pensions reform. Government has reduced the amount of money
the retired
people get and, at the same time, it has increased what workers have to pay to the system. As
you can
imagine, nobody liked this policy: nor the businessmen, nor the workers. And this is
how the biggest
demonstration against Daniel Ortega’s regime started. They have tried to repress this protests
with
police brutality and massive imprisonments. Many people have already lost their lives.
Even the
government has sent their own sympathizers to confront the protesters.
But so far, none of this measures has stopped the demonstrations. So the question now is…
Why all of this
is happening now, when Nicaragua has no economic crisis whatsoever? Are we witnessing the end
of Daniel
Ortega’s rule? The end of the SANDINISTA Nicaragua? Today, we will answer all of this
questions but,
before, let’s take a look back at history.
SANDINISTA!!!
Yes, I know, the title will ring a bell to many of you. If you were alive during the
80s, you might have
heard of the SANDINISTA Album, from the British punk band, THE CLASH. The truth is, during
the 80s,
Nicaragua became a symbol of the struggle against the American imperialism.
Back then, the SANDINISTA front have gotten to power after decades of a far right wing
dictatorship. If I
tell you that the SANDINISTA front self-defines itself as Marxist-leninist, Anti American
political
party, you will not be surprised. But here is the funny part… they combine all that
ideology with…
RELIGION! Ever heard about the LIBERATION THEOLOGY? Well, that as a branch within the
Catholic church
that were die hard supporters of the SANDINISTA comrades.
“This is a message of genuine and true Christianism”
The man you see on the screen is DANIEL ORTEGA. Back then, he was already the leader of this
SANDINISTA
front and the president of Nicaragua. As you can imagine, in the middle of the cold
war, America wouldn’t let this country to fall under the
communist side. This is why the back then American president, Ronald Reagan, organized
one of the most
controversial decisions of all times. On one hand, he sold weapons to the Ayatolahs in
IRAN, that were
fighting Saddam Hussein’s IRAQ. Of course, this was a top secret thing because Iran was,
officially, an
enemy of the USA. After that, he took all that money from the sales to finance the so-called
CONTRA in
Nicaragua. The CONTRA was a far right wing terrorist group that fought against the Government
of Daniel
Ortega.
I’m speaking about Nicaragua, a Soviet Ally on the American mainland, only two hours flying
time from our
own borders. For our own security the United States must deny the Soviet Union a beach
head on America. .
As you can imagine, when this story got leaked, all the media was crazy about it… and also
the music
world! This is why you have so many songs and records from those times, from THE CLASH
to KRIST
KRISTOFFERSON. But now you might wonder…. What did Daniel
Ortega did when being in power? Well, in a way, you can say he
was a first precedent of NICOLAS MADURO’s Venezuela.
In summary, the Sandinista government nationalized all the companies that were on the hands of
the local
oligarchs. And how did they paid for all of that? Well, getting more and more loans from
Soviet Union and
of course, printing money as if there was no tomorrow!
And what was the outcome? Well, in the year 1986, after little more than 5 years in power,
Nicaragua was
suffering from one of the worst hyperinflations of all times.
In the bitterest days of the conflict between this country's former Sandinista leaders and
American-
backed rebels, all Nicaraguans shared one crucial piece of common ground: their reliance
on the American
dollar
Just imagine, the prices on the local currency, the CORDOBA, would double every 15 days. This
means if
you buy a beer one day, you pay, say, 10 CORDOBAS… you come back 4 months later and you pay for
the same
beer over 3000 CORDOBAS. We told you millions of times here at VisualPolitik,
the worse that can happen to a country is to have a
hyperinflation. This is why, despite the fact that Daniel Ortega had so much support, the
citizens gave
him their backs. This is why, in the year 1990, Nicaragua had
a new currency, the GOLDEN CORDOBA, and a different
government, this time, a conservative one. During the 90s, Daniel Ortega was the leader
of the opposition
party. Meanwhile, the country was getting rid of that hyperinflation and it was coming
back to that
situation of stable poverty. You know, Nicaraguans kept being poor, but at least they didn’t
have
surprises. Their purchasing power wouldn’t diminish because there was not so much inflation
and there was
no more wars or terrorist attacks. And this is how we get to the year 2006. The
year where Nicaragua holds new elections. Let’s see what
happened!
FROM MARXIST TO ORTEGUIST
Exactly, in the year 2006, Ortega came back to the Government. But this time, it was a
different version
of himself. Or course, he was still a member of the Sandinist front… but so many years
in the opposition
helped to reshape his ideas.
“Daniel Ortega no longers support marxist-leninism and now he supports Ortega-ism. This is the
problem”
–Testimonial from a Sandinista Supporter
Of course, this brand new version of Daniel Ortega keeps the same old socialist rhetoric.
Its government
guarantees universal access to healthcare and education. In fact, both the alphabetization
and the life
expectancy has increased in this country. But that rush for nationalizations has given
way to a way more
moderate discourse. ‘White collar workers, blue collar workers,
farmers, producers, entepreneurs, small businessmen and big
businessmen… all the economic and social Powers of the country… Let’s work together!’
But wait a minute because there is even more! 30 years ago, Nicaragua was the man you love
to hate for
US. But now, they have signed a free trade agreement with America, the so called CAFTA,
and they
collaborate with counter narco operations. Bear in mind that the American agriculture
market is over
protected. But chocolate, coffee and bananas from Nicaragua are the exception to the rule.
They have it
way easier to get into American markets. But this is not the end of the story! Do you
remember those special economic zones? We told you thousands
of times about them. They are an area, inside of a developing country, with lower taxes
and more business
friendly rules. Well, so Nicaragua has one of those! This
images you see on the screen belong to an ad made by the
Government to attract foreign investors. If someone was thinking about investing in
Nicaragua, I would encourage him to come down and… I think
they would find the same advantages that we found close to US. Bilingual population, a
highly educated
workforce…
Surprising as it looks, since Ortega came to power, Nicaragua has been flooded with
brand new call
centres from International companies. Cheal labor, special taxes and, the most important
of all, the only
country with no street violence or guerrillas whatsoever.
So now you might wonder… What happened to Daniel Ortega? Did he have an epiphany? Well…
of course not! He just learnt that, when a country does good,
it is easier to stay in power! This is why, election after
election, Ortega gets more than 60% of the vote. Of course, those elections are rigged.
But only a fool
would say Ortega has no popular support. In fact, there is another reason for this
ideological change. You see, if the finance of your country are
doing all right, and you control the country with an iron fist, your personal finances
are gonna do
great.
The president, Daniel Ortega, has put his wife and sons in important government positions
while his
family has gone rich thanks to Venezuelan oil.
Meanwhile, his government has invested a good share of that Money in avoiding political
rivals.
Virtually, every media in Nicaragua is owned by the government or some businessman connected
to Daniel
Ortega. And the new social media law, that started to be discussed on March 2018, would
allow the ruling
class to censor and chase political activists. Nonetheless, protests have started by a totally
different reason. Let’s have a look at it straight ahead.
WHY DO THEY PROTEST IN NICARAGUA?
Common wisdom say that revolutions happen when a country is on a crisis, right? Big
mistake! In fact,
revolutions happen when a country was going through dire straits and now is starting to
grow. Why? Well…
basically, if nobody around you is driving a Cadillac, then there are no Cadillacs to
be jealous about.
Do you see where I’m going? Out of a sudden, Nicaraguans are witnessing the advent of a
brand new elite:
the friends of Daniel Ortega. Yes, it is true… the whole country is growing… but some are
growing faster
than others. And only a fool would say that this new aristocracy has gone so rich by their
own merit… So this is what we call the POPULIST MOMENT.
A window of opportunity so the government can change. This
is like filling a room with gas. You just need to burn a lighter and BOOM! Everything
explodes!
The controversial INSS law is already passed
In summary, the government has decided to lower the pensions while increasing the contributions.
Businessmen, workers and students have gone to the streets as if they had spent years
waiting for that
moment. Thousands of people are protesting. And the Government does not know how to react.
This is why
they have forced all the Nicaraguan TVs to stop broadcasting the demonstrations. Despite
all of this,
protester are being organized all over the country. Not only in MANAGUA, the capital,
but even on the
smallest villages. In fact, we know about this because we have received thousands of
messages from the
protesters. As you know, VisualPolitik has a Spanish version. And those who watch us
from Nicaragua have
sent us hundreds of videos from Universities. There you can see students that have been
days sitting
there. Some people bring them food and water. But then, the policemen take it away from
them. And we have
plenty of images of police brutality that we will not show. But, trust us when we say
the Nicaraguan
police is doing everything they can to repress this protests.
It is a big time clash off orces in what it used to be the most peaceful country of South
America. And now the question you might as is… Is
this the end of Daniel Ortega rule? As we always say here at VisualPolitik, you
can never make accurate predictions when it comes to politics
and economics. Having a lot of protesters does not mean anything. In fact, we still
don’t know if all
this political activist have a common cause or a common leader. According to the messages
we get, there
are some liberal factions aswell as die hard SANDINISTA people who feel betrayed by Mr.
Ortega’s
ideological shift. As you can imagine, things like special economic zones are not a very
Marxist-leninist
kind of thing. In other words… so far there is not so many
organization and no leader whatsoever that can capitalize all
this popular unrest. Without this, it is hard to offer a real alternative to the official
power. But this is our opinion here at VisualPolitik.
Now we want to hear yours. What do you think its gonna
happen? Do you really thing Daniel Ortega will have to step out of power? Or we will
still see many more
years of Sandinism? Please, leave your answer on the comment section below.
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