Nicaragua’s political world is turbulent at best; It is also corrupt, brutal, ridiculous, hypocritical, excitable, and ultimately, like all other governments, a complicated and barbaric dance between the people who want something better and the charismatic men that take advantage of their desperate need for faith and their hopelessness.
The first time I arrived in Nicaragua, it was also election time.
Brief History of Nicaragua’s Politics (go ahead and skip it if you are only here for the pictures, but it helps you to understand the people better if you know how they got here. P.S. I promise not to include politics or history too often)
American Fingers in the Pot
In 1821, Nicaragua’s independence from Spain is won, subsequent interference and “two centuries of U.S. political domination” (Living Abroad in Nicaragua pg 28) begins. In the following years of mess and anarchy, Granada and Léon rise as rivals, operating as warring city-states, there by establishing the basic tenets of the enduring political rivalries; the landed aristocratic Conservatives in Granada, and the Liberalists influenced by the French and American Revolutions in Léon.
In 1894 Liberal President Zelaya sends troops to the Atlantic coast, and annexes it from British control. While in power he also rejects American influence in building a canal across Nicaraguan territory, but encourages Britain’s help in building a railway. The U.S.A, in show of their displeasure, arrange to have him removed by U.S. Marines in 1909 and the Conservatives are put in power, resulting in an economic slowdown (the results of which are still felt today if I understand correctly) In 1912, another Liberal, Benjamin Zeledón leads a rebellion, and the U.S.A. stamps it out with almost 3,000 troops deployed to the west coast. Between 1913 and 1924, there were 10 Liberal uprisings, the U.S. military responding to every one of them. After some shaky power sharing agreements, a Conservative rebellion starts off the Constitutional War.
Here’s the Part you Might Have Heard of
The Pact that is signed to end the Constitutional War in 1933 is opposed by General Augusto C. Sandino (The current Sandinistas take his name in honour of his ideals) who flees to the mountains. There his supporters grow in number, until he has some 1,800 men. His policies and troops were brutal and bloody and his ideals strange. He believed Nicaragua would be the sight of a future Armageddon, where his men would fight alongside righteous angels.
The U.S. is desperate to get rid of him so they try everything to flush him from the mountains, including aerial bombing of some northern cities (very close to Estelí). Seeing as this is unsuccessful, they create the National Guard and put the first Somoza in charge, the first in a family line of brutal and corrupt presidents who do their best to destroy the country for the next 42 years. Sandino is then invited to make some kind of peace, but is assassinated as he leaves the Presidential residence. Sandino’s supporters in the north are hunted down, exiled, and killed.
The 42 Years of the Somoza Era…
… are filled with a few economic advances, which are then undone by cheating leaders that fill their own pockets, local and international assassinations both by and of poets and writers (in Nicaragua poets and writers are held as the social leaders and revolutionaries), cruel control tactics swell again in the North and there are various uprisings and kidnappings.
Guerillas….
… who are influenced by the Cuban revolution begin to train in secret in the mountains in the North in the 1950s. They become the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional. Carlos Fonseca, among other leaders of the FSLN, formed the ideals from a mixture of Marxism (which he learned firsthand in Moscow) and anti-imperialist Sandino beliefs. The first few uprisings are crushed; brutality from both sides grows. When the largely indigenous population (read: the people who mostly really just want to be left alone to take care of their little plot of land and have enough to eat) of Masaya (about ½ hr from here) protests the murder/disguised assassination of the journalist Pedro Joaquín Chamorro (remember that name) the National Guard slaughters hundreds. Others react to this by throwing their weight behind the FSLN. Everything starts tumbling faster until the largest insurrection in May 1979. Battles erupt all at once in Chinandega, Léon, and Chichigalpa (Northwest corner) also the Northeast mining areas and pushing north from the Costa Rican border. On June 8 they march on Managua, the bloody battles taking place in drainage ditches in Managua’s lower and middle class neighbourhoods. People tear of paving stones from the streets to make barricades, while the president’s airplanes attack the city indiscriminately in an effort to stop the rebels. But, they fail to halt the revolution and the FSLN comes to power on July 17 1979.
Now what?
The Sandinista’s leaders and all the youth who fought for them wanted to implement reforms and changes. The world watched to see how this exhausted and newly empowered baby government of guerrillas and communists would rebuild their shattered nation. Under the FSLN literacy rates rise to 90 percent, but the economy collapses due to mismanagement. The extreme Sandinista ideals create opposition from various parties, and others are disappointed by the results of the war; and so the Contras (Contra-Revolucionarios) come to life. In response, the Sandinista’s create the compulsory draft, even further embittering many Nicaraguans (who have already lost so much and are quickly losing faith in the revolutionary government). The U.S. supported the Contras, the FSLN was backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba… At some point there was even the “Iran-Contra Scandal” where arms were sold in the Middle East to fund the Contras.
President Doña Violeta de Chamorro and other elections
The widow of the journalist (Pedro Joaquín Chamorro) assassinated by then president ‘Tachito’ Somozo (also the president in power when the FSLN took over in 1979), is elected as the first female president in the west in 1990 and the FSLN is legitimately voted out of office. She goes down in history as a sort of miracle worker, at the very least she had the ability to reunite and reconcile Nicaragua. In 1996 Arnoldo Alemán, a capitalist, pretty much the sworn enemy of the Sandinista’s wins the election over Daniel Ortega. He fills his pockets, corruption ensues, and in 2003 he is found guilty of all kinds of dirty things and goes into house arrest. The next president, Bolaños
All the Banners say: ¡Daniel!
In 2006 Daniel Ortega (leader of the FSLN) comes back, with ideals very opposite from before. No longer a blend of Marxism and whatever else it was the Sandinista Guerrillas stood for, he is now backed by and embraces the Catholic Church. Attention is drawn away from what the Sandinista’s did, and focused on the charisma of the man running for office. He also tended to rant against the U.S. but worked to strengthen his ties to Libya’s Ghadafi, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Ahmenijad from Iran, and Fidel Castro (all very scary men).
So at this point, my history book ends…
I arrived in 2008, right before Daniel Ortega won another election. After his victory, organized riots were held in Managua because of belief the election was rigged (a common occurrence in years past). Others rioted to protest the riots. We were in the middle of it (stupid, stupid) just as it was beginning, crowds of men with clubs and guns, flags as bandanas over their faces, screaming and roaring tumbled into the streets. I found out later 9 people were shot and killed, but almost nothing appeared on the local news. However, these riots are very localized (Managua only), and as long as we avoid travelling on that day, we are as safe as we are any other day.
Now we are back, its election time again, and it’s peaceful… so far… But people are definitely involved in their politics. Banners, parades and so on are everywhere. To me though, more interesting is the graffiti, it’s a reflection of the changing attitudes of the people… and their view of world events
And look what they have written:
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| Ghadafi is gone, Ortega will follow |
