Talking Trash in Nicaragua

These children were among the poorest of the poor that Daniel Ortega promised to help lift out of poverty if elected. When he made these same promises in November 1989 and lost to Violeta Chamorra, the presidential choice of the U.S., I was living and working in Managua  as a nurse practitioner at the Moravian Health Clinic. I had supported the advances in health and education made by the Sandinistas. 

Now, as I stayed glued to the election returns in Bluefields, it looked like Ortega would win. I should have been elated, but those intervening 16 years had changed Ortega and me. He has been accused of being financially opportunistic, of sexually abusing his step daughter, of making an unholy alliance with the corrupt ex-president Arnoldo Aleman, of supporting World Bank and IMF policies, and of helping to pass a Draconian anti-abortion bill, which even forbids the procedure to save the life of the mother.  

But what were the alternatives? Either of the two Liberal candidates (PLC and ALN-PC) would continue the disastrous policies of the last 12 years—policies that favored a small, rich upper class. The MRS candidate was the only one who opposed the new anti-abortion bill, but he was not well known. Jarquin had recently taken the place of Herty Lewites, a much respected and admired former Sandinista mayor of Managua. He would have had a good chance of being elected, but he died last summer during minor surgery. The other candidate, Pastora, did not receive even 1 percent of the vote.  

The U.S. tried unsuccessfully to unify the two Liberal candidates, one backed by the ex-president, Aleman, the other by the current president, Enrique Bolanos. If they had united, the Liberal party would have beaten Ortega, who was finally declared the winner, with only 38 percent of the vote, and was inaugurated as president on January 9, 2007. 

Many Nicaraguans still consider themselves Sandinistas, but not “Danielistas.” A loyal minority have great faith that Ortega will improve living conditions and be an integral part of the new left coalition in Latin America. Others still hate and fear the Sandinistas for the way they governed during the 1970s and 1980s. Feminists are furious over the new anti-abortion bill. The most common remark I heard after Montealegre conceded was, “Vamos a ver” (“We will see”). 

It seems to me that one way to judge the presidency of Daniel Ortega will be to take a walking tour of the basureros in Managua and Bluefields in 2011 and see whether he has indeed been talking trash. (I have heard that Daniel Ortega has eliminated public school fees and lowered the too high salaries of National Assembly members and other government officials—so far so good.) As for the U.S., a way to judge those who live in a country infamous for its oppression of the Nicaraguan people is to ask, Will we insist the U.S. respect the sovereignty of our neighbor to the south? Did we lobby and march for economic justice so that Nica children are safe in schools and homes instead of working and playing in the trash? Vamos a ver.