Orphans of the Cold War Learn the Limits of Freedom in Nicaragua's Elections

Ben Garside

The returning of the Liberal party to power is not one filled with hope. With the outgoing president Arnoldo Aleman forced to step down due to allegations of gross corruption (it is thought he has stolen more money than even the notorious 1970s dictator Somoza), Nicaragua is now the poorest country on the American continent, with 75% unemployment and health and literacy levels plummeting. Despite links with the USA and an end to the crippling trade embargo in 1990, the Liberal Party has only led to more misery for all but the very rich. Yet the opposition candidate Daniel Ortega, appeared to offer little in the way of positive change and had alienated many of his previous supporters in the Sandinista party as he shed his previous political leanings in a bid to gain popular support and take power for himself under the umbrella group La Convergencia alliance. Ortega, who led the Sandinistas when in power in the 1980s, has now given up on speaking of social justice, instead making vague statements of love and hope in a bid to gain personal power. But this time he has avoided rocking any major political boats that would offend the USA or the property owners of Nicaragua. Ortega also has a major scandal on his hands as accusations of sexual abuse of his stepdaughter blight his populist image. Bolano's Liberal Party campaign was equally lacking in substance, with a blatantly negative focus based upon fear of returning to the war torn years of the 1980s, which killed an estimated 50,000, brought food shortages, conscription, press censorship and neighbours against each other under the Sandinistas.

The Sandinistas came to prominence after their overthrowing of the corrupt and brutal dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979, led by a youthful Daniel Ortega. They set about a process of mild social reforms to improve healthcare and education, resettle land ownership and form a broad based government. Some tangible improvements were to be found, but Ortega's taste for power had grown and before long he was clamping down on the press, promoting his own friends to high positions and claiming more for himself. However the major reason for the unrest in Nicaragua in the 1980s was the interference of other nations. The USA government was becoming increasingly concerned over the amount of Cuban and Soviet advisors present in Nicaragua and at the height of the Cold War, did not want another communist state so close to its doorstep. Thus the USA suspended all aid to Nicaragua and began funding contra military forces based in the border regions of Honduras. As the contra war escalated the Sandinista government began conscription orders and gained extensive Cuban and Soviet aid. The CIA's plans were revealed in 1984 and the International Court of Justice ruled against the USA's actions. But that did not stop them, a crushing trade embargo was initiated in 1985 and the CIA continued illicit funding of the contras (via weapons sales elsewhere, later to appear as the Iran Contra Affair). By the end of the 1980s, the situation was at crisis point for the Sandinistas, whose inefficient centralized economy was almost at a standstill, Ortega needed a popular mandate and confident of victory he called an election in 1990. The people however, were tired and disillusioned and thus voted for the Liberal Party, which had USA backing meaning aid relief and an end to the embargo. Ortega, to his credit accepted the verdict and stepped down.

Nicaragua in the 1990s had improved little. With Soviet collapse and the Cold War at an end the USA lost interest and much of the aid was not delivered. Building peace did not have the same financial interest as building war. The new government waived the $14 billion dollars the International Court ordered the USA to pay in compensation for illegal acts of terror, a concession for US support. Economic recovery was slow in coming, but fear of the renewed conflict meant the Ortega lost the 1996 election. President Aleman's administration was plagued by scandal and gross corruption as he amassed vast amounts of personal wealth. Ortega was also in serious trouble with the abuse allegations he faced. The two struck a pact to guarantee their own immunity from prosecution and aimed at nullifying the effect of opposition. The chances of a third party coming legitimately to power in the future were greatly reduced, but electoral changes did mean the Sandinistas (via Ortega) came very close to gaining power. Although much of this was at the expense of what they originally stood for, many diehard Sandinistas lost faith in Ortega and his alliances seemingly formed without principal as a vehicle for personal power.

Today Nicaragua is a country of great poverty and an orphan of the Cold War. The desire of the Sandinsta revolutionaries to let the people have a say in their own nation's destiny did bring about free elections. But the interference in that self-determination was rapid and considerable as Nicaragua got used as a battleground for the Soviet and American superpowers. The price of freedom rose too high, yet the poor of Nicaragua have been suffering for it ever since. With the Cold War over it could be expected that the USA would no longer show concern for Nicaragua, as there is no longer a communist threat, however the events leading up to the recent election have shown that the USA still won't allow a free vote, even with their eyes focused on Afghanistan.

Former US president Jimmy Carter, in Nicaragua to oversee a fair election, stated "I personally disapprove of statement or actions by another country that might tend to influence the votes of people of another sovereign nation." He was speaking of the wheels in motion to ensure Daniel Ortega didn't reach power from various US sources once it appeared the election would run close. Three congressman put forward a resolution calling on the president to re-evaluate his policy towards Nicaragua if the Sandinistas were to win. Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida wrote an article in the Miami Herald attacking Ortega because he "neither understands nor embraces the basic concepts of freedom, democracy and free enterprise… (he) is an enemy of everything the United States represents." Both were duly promoted in the Liberal Party election campaign. The state department despatched an official to inform the Nicaraguan chamber of commerce just how damaging an Ortega victory would be to the country. All this is despite the fact that Daniel Ortega has concluded that the only way for him to gain power is to ally with the USA and much of the Liberal Party's policies in Nicaragua.

Another suspicious act of US influence came as a possibility for genuine choice in Nicaraguan politics, as third party Conservative candidate Noel Vidaurre suddenly dropped out of the election race after a meeting with the USA ambassador, a man who has been seen adopting a baseball cap sporting the Liberal Party logo. Old habits die hard, even at a time when the USA needs to be convincing the world that they don't impose their will on states to protect commercial interests, despite Nicaragua's threat to those interests being miniscule, they could not resist.

The Nicaraguan people have learnt a harsh lesson in an election high on disillusionment and abstentions, that to "choose freedom" in the way that George W. Bush means it, involves no choice at all.