Sandinista hero lost citizen support
It should be clear to Daniel Ortega that change is urgently needed now the Nicaraguan people have turned against him, writes The Observer.
THERE was a time, in the 1980s, when Nicaragua s Daniel Ortega, leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, was hailed as a hero in the insurrectionary tradition of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. The Reagan administration s covert (and illegal) efforts to vanquish Ortega by force, after the Sandinistas helped topple the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, provoked an international campaign in support of the revolution. The fight against the USbacked Contra rebels was part of a wider, cold war struggle to defeat US hegemony in Central America. Many on the British left campaigned passionately on the subject.
Not so much is heard from them about Nicaragua these days. And that s a pity. The country appears to be in the throes of another revolution, but this time it is Ortega who is experiencing the people s wrath. After failing to convert socialist enthusiasm into economic progress, Ortega was defeated by a USbacked candidate in elections in 1990. But he made a comeback in 2006 and has held the Hopes that the crisis may be defused presidency ever since. This is largely now centre on talks mediated by because, in the manner of another leftCatholic church leaders. Last Friday, wing icon, Venezuela s Hugo Chavez, all parties agreed to halt the clashes he eviscerated opposition parties, and Ortega reportedly accepted a abolished constitutional term limits proposal to allow an international task and extended controls on the judiciary, force to investigate the killings. the electoral authority and the media. Within hours, that truce was broken
Life for many in Nicaragua remains when eight people died in a an uphill battle. It is ranked the confrontation with police in Managua. poorest country in Central America The civic groups opposing Ortega and the second poorest in the western have received no reply to their call for hemisphere after Haiti. So when, in early elections. The Organisation of April, the Government increased social American States and the Intersecurity payments and cut pensions, a American Commission on Human popular explosion occurred. Rights have a responsibility to help Spontaneous, unorganised street chart a path forward. protests involving unemployed youths, Despite his political failings and students, pensioners, trades unionists alleged personal misdeeds, it would be and religious leaders erupted across unfair to stereotype Ortega as a the country. heedless caudillo or crass dictator of
Ortega s response has been brutal. At the old Central American school. Proleast 170 people have been killed and business reforms have brought hundreds more injured in violence economic growth of up to 5% a year involving police firing live since 2011. Tourism has been growing. ammunition, backed by shock groups The proSandinista, Londonbased of armed paramilitaries. The Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign offers Government says Sandinista alternative explanations for the unrest, supporters have been targeted by including the alleged bias of Western demonstrators, too. One report media and Washington s enduring described the country as being in full hostility. cardiac arrest . But still the protests Nicaragua cannot afford the current continue, focused on twin demands chaos and Ortega and Murillo have that Ortega and his wife, the vicebecome a big part of the problem. They president, Rosario Murillo, step down, have had their moment. Nicaragua and that early elections be held. would benefit from a fresh start.