The New Oligarchy in Nicaragua: The Sandinista Elite

 

Roberto Rivas Reyes President of the Supreme Electoral Council of Nicaragua

We know the tale of the Nicaraguan leftists as they describe themselves in their own words; revolutionaries, working-class heroes, anti-Somozistas, friends of the poor, and idealists leading their country to a more socially just future.

Please forgive my break with decorum as I must now resort to that frank American colloquial euphemism I regard as the only appropriate commentary on the collective self-image of the Sandinistas--Bullshit!

So what is going on here?  Well, the Nicaraguan government is now in the midst of a very terse diplomatic back-and-forth with Costa Rica because the latter has seized a Porsche belonging to the family of FSLN leader Roberto Rivas Reyes, President of Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council, whose brother Harold is Nicaragua's Ambassador to Costa Rica.  The controversy stems from a violation of user and, what is especially important under Costa Rican law, import tax privileges accorded to the personal vehicles of accredited diplomats, who are permitted to avoid paying excessive licensing fees normally required for private individuals who bring high-priced automobiles into the country to use while they reside there.  The catch is that Costa Rica offers the exemption to diplomats provided that the car is maintained exclusively for their own use, which leads us to the problem.  Apparently the Porsche 911 in question was for the personal use of Maurice and Laureano Ortega, sons of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who are students at a university in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose and who also, evidently, have been driving back and forth to Nicaragua using the official diplomatic vehicle.

News of the car's seizure first broke from Costa Rica and was picked up by Nicaragua's La Prensa newspaper about two weeks ago.  How surprising is it?  I submit, not much.  Those who have followed my blog might recall how I posted Nicaraguan journalist Luciano Cuadra's complaint last November about disciplined schoolchildren waiting in line at stoplights who find themselves forced "to get up on the sidewalk when the Comandante passes by quickly in his Mercedes Benz."  And evidently the frills of power also extend to Ortega's two sons as well.  But hey!  Maurice and Laureano are college students.  They need to get the chicas!  And they required some help to gather the accoutrements of jet-set status about them.  Enter Roberto Rivas, who has such means at his disposal as would make a Las Vegas pimp jealous.

Somehow--we can only imagine--Roberto and Harold Rivas seem to have acquired rather extensive personal wealth as evidenced by property they have in Costa Rica.  In addition to the Porsche 911 in question, the Rivas family has also brought a Mercedes Benz S 500 and a BMW M3 into the country as accredited diplomatic vehicles, the latter of which was registered to Guillermo Matus, third secretary of the Nicaraguan delegation in San Jose.  In late November of last year the Costa Rican newspaper La Nación reported the misuse of these two vehicles, which may have started this investigation by Costa Rica's Ministerio de Hacienda, i.e. Finance Ministry, since Roberto Rivas, who is not a diplomat attached to the Nicaraguan embassy, was reported driving the Mercedes and that his wife had an accident the previous July in the same vehicle.  Moreover; their son Roberto Miguel Rivas, who is also a student in San Jose, was photographed using the BMW.  And where were Roberto Rivas and his family residing while in San Jose, Costa Rica?  Well, in their luxurious private residence in the prestigious Villareal district of the capital city where, according to La Prensa, homes go for between $980,000 to $3 million (U.S.).

There has been some back-and-forth on this controversy which, in the larger scheme of things, may not appear too significant, though the irresponsibility of the excesses of the Rivas and Ortega families and their inattention to Nicaraguan interests cannot be denied.  During December the affair seemed confined largely to a public scandal played out in the news media, but evidently it had an effect, given that the Costa Rican government eventually seized the Porsche.  Daniel Ortega's response was low-level intimidation, he ordered official police protection withdrawn from the Costa Rican embassy, which was reciprocated in kind in San Jose when Costa Rica also drew back its police guard from the Nicaraguan diplomatic compound.  Nicaragua then issued an order forbidding Costa Rican diplomatic vehicles from leaving the country.  Sandinista old-guard Comandante Tomas Borge, who you may remember as one of the facilitators of the Medellin Cartel in the 1980's, blasted Costa Rica and its President Oscar Arias from Lima, Peru, where he serves as Ambassador from Nicaragua.  The Costa Ricans obviously took offense and Nicaragua's Foreign Minister Samuel Santos sought to distance his government from Borge's remarks, after which the controversy seems to have settled down for the moment.

But what does all this say about the FSLN leadership?  That there exists a pervasive personal corruption among them is too easy a conclusion to draw, there is more.  It is the arrogance that follows the corruption that is particularly disgusting and which marks the Sandinistas as something comparable to the old-style Central American oligarchic elites.  Forget the rhetoric, the Sandinistas represent nothing more than a new oligarchy for Nicaragua, a modern elite made rich from public thievery and criminal associations.  We can only hope that their tenure is short-lived and that Nicaragua and its people are once again given a chance for a prosperous and democratic future.

StJacques

 

Recommended Link (in Spanish):  Los hijos de Daniél Ortega y el "diplomático" Roberto Rivas: La corrupción sandinista by Gustavo Coronel at his Las Armas de Coronel blog.

 

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Successful Outcome to Protest March in Managua: Sandinistas Back Down

 

Tens of Thousands March in Opposition to FSLN in Managua Today Source:  La Prensa

In spite of a threatened confrontation with supporters of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (Spanish acronym: FSLN), which many feared could have turned violent, tens of thousands of Nicaraguans from varying political parties and alliances put away their internal divisions and marched in Managua today, voicing their common opposition to President Daniel Ortega and the policies of his regime. The protesters made two complaints more prominently than all others; their allegations of recent electoral fraud in municipal elections around the country a little over a year ago and the recent decision of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court declaring that the prohibition against presidential reelection was invalid.

Sandinista militants fire homemade mortars at protesters leaving the demonstration Source:  La Prensa

The violent retaliation from Sandinista militants many feared would be wrought on the demonstrators during their march did not come to pass and the promised mass counter-demonstration of the FSLN also never materialized, though a few hundred did gather in Managua. It was only after the march ended that Sandinista supporters harassed departing groups using homemade mortars and rocks. But there were instances of FSLN violence apart from the demonstration and especially outside Managua. The worst in the vicinity of the capital city centered upon a Sandinista attack in nearby Empalme de Izapa, where four trucks of FSLN militants ambushed Luis Diaz, a leader of the opposition Liberal Party. Diaz and others accompanying him were beaten, the tires on their vehicles were slashed, and their engines disabled. Other instances of similar attacks occurred elsewhere in the country.

Though the marchers displayed noticeable unity across party lines in opposition to Ortega and the FSLN, it is difficult to tell whether their mobilization represents the development of unified multi-partisan political action. Their shared rejection of the results of the municipal elections last year and the recent Supreme Court decision to permit Ortega to run again in 2011 united them, but there was little expression of proposals for concrete action to be taken by the opposition in unison. But former President Arnoldo Aleman used the occasion to call upon Ortega to begin realistic dialogue with the opposition and a former presidential candidate and ex-Sandinista Edmundo Jarquin declared that the illusion of FSLN support had been dissipated.

I am going to include a translation of a blog entry from La Prensa journalist Luciano Cuadra, who I quoted yesterday, on the meaning of today's march. And a special note, he will refer to Leonor Martinez, an opposition activist who had her left arm broken last October 22 when she was attacked outside her Managua home by three Sandinista militants. She has identified the man who organized the attacks publicly, but the national police have thus far done nothing, which is making her case something of a cause célèbre among the Nicaraguan opposition.

TRANSLATION: Why Are We Marching? By Luciano Cuadra

At this time we are initiating one more event by means of which, the people ask for peace, but they also call for justice. There will be thousands and thousands of citizens who with their steps, sweaty bodies and challenging looks, will tell the tyrant that this farce is about to come to an end. Nicaraguans are marching in support of those whose voices tyranny has sought to silence as if they were a broken muffler. The people are in the streets in support of Leonor Martinez, the activist who was attacked in a cowardly fashion by those who feared the edge that her words carried when telling the truth. For the journalists who have been abused by the Orteguista gangs, simply for reporting. For fulfilling their work, for being faithful to their society. They are also going for the bus driver, for the taxi driver. For the market tenant who shows up in his work stall at such early hours, to ensure the payment of the tuition for his kids, but so they will learn to write, not to shoot homemade mortars. For the shoeshiners and shoemakers. They are marching today for the children who present themselves every day with military discipline at stoplights, and then get up on the sidewalk when the Comandante passes by quickly in his Mercedes Benz. For them and the young girls for sale who go along their way. We are also marching for them. Because we no longer want to see them there, "working." We also express ourselves in solidarity today with Reinaldo Escobar, the husband of the Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez; who was attacked yesterday by a Cuban crowd, because he wanted to debate ideas with the Castrista agent who attacked Yoani some days before. How great is the fear of cowards when someone threatens them with the drawing of words and beating them with those words in an intellectual duel to the death. Incredible! They fear that their brain will die. I do not understand. This struggle for the rule of truth is not limited to Nicaraguans. It is universal. It is a battle of people against a new version of the obtuse nomenklatura of the 60's, 70's and 80's, when those mummies tried to take hold of the people's wills and dreams. Now--the freshly made-up cadaver returns with new impetus once again but with the same intent to force people to submit. We will go on marching. Making inroads...fighting!

The situation in Nicaragua may be worth watching a little more closely over the coming months.

StJacques
 

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Violence and Protests in Nicaragua: Pro and Anti-Government Forces at Odds

  

FSLN militants evacuating a Managua site in advance of tomorrow's demonstrations Source:  La Prensa

It appears that Nicarguan President Daniel Ortega's recent actions to remove presidential term limits and take his country down the path of Chavismo are meeting with ever-stiffening resistance from his countrymen, who are now organizing in a manner that portends for confrontation in the near future. That could happen as soon as tomorrow, when simultaneous mass demonstrations are scheduled to take place in the capital city of Managua that could bring over a hundred thousand protestors and pro-government supporters into the streets and at each other's throats if the pro-Ortega National Police do not keep the two separated from each other. While recent reports of the use of violence on both sides have appeared, it is clearly the attitude of the opponents of the Ortega regime that the Sandinistas are launching a terror campaign and the hitherto divided opposition appears to be uniting--finally--along lines not seen in Nicaragua since the 1980's, including a "re-uniting" of the former Contra rebels who eventually forced the Sandinistas to schedule elections that led to their removal from power.

Lying underneath the present situation is a recent history of Sandinista misrule under Ortega's minority government. An untimely legislative maneuver in the national congress that occurred just before the start of the Nicaraguan presidential campaign in 2006 prevented a runoff election from being held and, as a consequence, Ortega won the presidency in November that year with less than 40% of the national vote. Most opinion polls showed that he could never have beaten his potential challenger in a head-to-head matchup, but from there it has been all downhill. Ortega has used his presidential powers to full effect to pursue an agenda almost exclusively focused upon cementing the political control of his Sandinista Front for National Liberation (Spanish acronym: FSLN) over the national government and has cast aside almost all other considerations of efficient and capable governance, which has led to a significant debilitation of Nicaragua's economy. And according to the opposition, much of the political maneuvering Ortega has pursued, which includes a recent decision by the country's Supreme Court supporting the removal of presidential term limits, has been made possible by the infusion of enormous cash resources provided by--guess who?--Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

In the opinion of many Nicaraguans, a renewal of the violence that marked the FSLN-Contra clash of the 1980's appears imminent. Not least among those concerned is the Catholic Church, a very strong institution in an overwhelmingly-Catholic country. On Tuesday the Bishops Episcopal Conference issued a public statement directed to the national government which almost openly supports the opposition's accusation that Ortega and the FSLN were trampling on constitutional law and basic political freedoms. They directed their warning "to the executive branch and the political forces to reject and condemn all types of violence, above all that which has as its object to terrify and suppress the freedom of expression and mobility of our people." The lines of opposition to the government are being drawn forcefully and within an atmosphere that condemns their intentions.

To continue the point of expressing the fears Nicaraguans have that the present situation is deteriorating dangerously, the following is a translation of a brief comment made in the personal blog of La Prensa journalist Luciano Cuadra, who compares the current threat with that of the violent period of the 1980's:

. . . Now, almost thirty years later, it looms over our country again, the threat of renewed internal conflict. This time it is not foisted by the United States and the former Soviet Union, but it is rather fueled by the iron-willed policy of the Secretary General of the FSLN party. [Ortega] All this is happening within sight and patience of an opposition more preoccupied with assuring shares in power than in presenting a solid block which might contain and halt the reelectionist aspirations of Ortega and his uncompromising circle. . . .

The frank condemnatory tone of a La Prensa journalist should not surprise anyone. The paper, which is known for its opposition to the FSLN, has even reported recent sabotage of its printing presses, a problem they were able to overcome on their own. But they also made clear that they do not consider it a coincidence that the damage comes "at a time when the government (of Daniel Ortega) is pursuing more aggressive discourse against the independent communications media." Additional threats and harassment from the Ortega regime have also been reported elsewhere during the past few weeks.

For a change, U.S. policy with respect to the unraveling of Nicaraguan democracy seems to hold up rather well under scrutiny. Following the decision of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court to overturn the constitutional ban on presidential term limits last month, U.S. Ambassador Robert J. Callahan issued a frank criticism of the ruling, which brought immediate calls from Sandinista leaders for his expulsion from the country. Callahan was chased from a university by pro-Sandinista students who hurled homemade fireworks at him and he left Nicaragua soon afterwards.

Analysis

It is a familiar pattern that began in Venezuela in 1999 and has been repeated in Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, and now Nicaragua. A president elected under a democratic process comes to power and immediately initiates a policy of undermining the strength and enforceability of constitutional restraints upon his authority while in office and limits upon his tenure. This process may have hit a high-water mark recently in Honduras, where Manuel Zelaya was removed from office for attempting to hold what he described as a "non-binding" national referendum on changing the country's constitutional restrictions on term limits. The Chavez-style model of destroying constitutional law is now very well understood in Latin America and there seems to be an emerging appreciation of the need for immediate and forceful action to protect national political institutions among the political center and right in Central America in particular.

But now the scene of conflict is in Nicaragua, where the burden of history looms large. The national divisions which emerged in the violent struggle between the Sandinistas and their opposition during the 1980's have not entirely dissipated after two decades of democratic rule. Add into the mix the influx of cash from petroleum-rich Venezuela and the vulnerability of a poor nation to outside manipulation of its internal political processes becomes evident. This situation could deteriorate significantly, given that the FSLN may expect that they will receive international political support from the Organization of American States, whose record of supporting the preservation of constitutional law and political freedoms elsewhere in Latin America of late has been frankly abysmal.

Apparently the Obama Administration is learning that the rhetorical support for Chavez-style "Socialism for the 21st Century" given by the hard left here in the United States has missed the mark. Ambassador Callahan's open criticism of a very suspicious alteration of constitutional prohibitions on presidential term limits may help to set the tone for international cooperation to preserve Nicaraguan democracy. That concerted action will be a necessity, but if it is to be a part of the solution, it must be made known now, before the situation unravels within Nicaragua. Clearly the OAS and the remainder of the international community in Latin America cannot be counted upon to ameliorate the deterioration of the situation, as recent events in Honduras have proven conclusively.

In the meantime, we will have to watch and simply pray that saner heads prevail.

StJacques
  

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From Nicaragua: Ortega in Free Fall, Opposition is ... ?

   

Thousands of Nicaraguans Demonstrated in Managua Last Friday Source:  BBC

The news out of Nicaragua recently has not been good for President Daniel Ortega, whose popularity continues to decline in the face of a wrecked Nicaraguan economy, personal scandals involving Ortega's finances and possible sexual misconduct with his stepdaughter, general public anger over the political deals made to enable his victory in the 2006 elections, and, well; there is more, but that will do for now.  According to the most recent poll Ortega only has the support of 18% of the population while 56% steadfastly disapprove of him as President.

There was a very successful march in Managua this past Friday in which numerous opposition groups joined together to protest Ortega's misrule of the country.  According to the BBC, there were over 15,000 people in attendance.  And so much of the anger voiced by the demonstrators was aimed at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez -- I'm sensing a theme developing -- who has provided notable political and financial support for Ortega.  The march also followed a smaller gathering of the previous Friday, June 22, that was largely organized by Nicaraguan youths who used the Facebook web spaces approach that proved so effective for young Colombians in February and March in their preparation of several very successful anti-FARC demonstrations.

It is interesting that the fractured Nicaraguan opposition seems to have demonstrated a surprising willingness to act in concert in organizing the protest.  Well; I guess it is better late than never.  The absolutely senseless divisions among Ortega's opposition in the 2006 presidential campaign allowed the former Sandinista Comandante to win by default, whenever he never could have polled above 44% of the total electorate.  Hopefully, the Nicaraguans have learned their lesson but we will just have to wait and see the proof.  Might the Venezuelan opposition learn from this example?  Might the Venezuelan opposition learn from their own mistakes?  We can wish, hope, and pray.

I heartily recommend interested readers examine several posts on this subject at Kate's A Colombo-Americana's Perspective blog.  Kate has devoted a lot of time to observing -- and bemoaning -- Nicaraguan politics over the past couple of years, and she should always be kept in mind as a useful source of information on current events in the country.

StJacques
   

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