Nicaragua Government and Politics
President Daniel Jose Ortega Saavedra congratulating
Violeta Barrios de Chamorro on her electoral victory, February 25,
1990
ON FEBRUARY 25, 1990, Nicaragua's voters elected
Violeta
Barrios de Chamorro as president, ending ten years of
government
by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente
Sandinista de
Liberación Nacional--FSLN). The choice was a dramatic one
because
voters hoped that the new government of the newly formed
National
Opposition Union (Unión Nacional Opositora--UNO) would
bring an
end to more than a decade of civil conflict and the harsh
sectarianism of the
Sandinista (see Glossary)
years and
improve
the rapidly deteriorating economy. In her predawn
acceptance
speech the morning after her election, President-elect
Chamorro
tried to establish a climate of reconciliation, stating
that
there were neither victors nor vanquished in the election.
Soon
after, recognizing the FSLN "as the second political force
of the
nation," she stated her commitment to respect the will of
the 40
percent of the people who had voted for the FSLN. The
losing
candidate, President Daniel José Ortega Saavedra, about
two hours
later foreswore the FSLN's self-image as a "vanguard
party" and
delineated the FSLN's future role as a strong, but loyal,
opposition party. Rhetorically, at least, the stage seemed
set
for the cooperation between the two camps needed to bring
about
economic recovery.
Almost three years later, however, efforts to move the
country toward peace and prosperity seemed stalled.
Although the
Chamorro government continued to stress that it intended
to
achieve reconciliation, President Chamorro has had the
full
cooperation of neither the Sandinistas nor her own
coalition.
Instead, in early 1993 the government faced the dilemma of
dealing with a Sandinista opposition that viewed
reconciliation
as a means of protecting its rights to confiscated
property and a
powerful element of the UNO coalition that viewed those
property
rights as ill-gotten gains and urged strong action against
the
Sandinistas to recover that property.
Whether the new government is consolidating democracy
or
reverting to the traditional authoritarian and elitist
style of
Nicaraguan politics is a central issue. President
Chamorro's
cooperation with the Sandinistas, particularly her
decision to
retain Humberto Ortega Saavedra as head of the army, has
led her
supporters to accuse her of capitulating and establishing
a "cogovernment " with the defeated Sandinistas, rather than
reforming
the political system in cooperation with her electoral
partners.
Her government also has been accused by members of the UNO
coalition of excessively concentrating power in the hands
of a
small group of members of her extended family, promoting
the same
brand of government practiced under the Somoza family
dynasty:
centralizing power in a small group instead of expanding
it in a
democratic fashion. Finally, the UNO has been criticized
for
failing to promote the concept of democracy at a
grassroots
level. Nevertheless, the distribution of power for the
first time
to the municipal level through the 1990 elections has
created a
new class of political officials who are struggling to
assert
power at a grassroots level. The Sandinistas also have
continued
the grassroots organizing efforts that originally brought
them to
power. Both phenomena hold promise, as well as dangers,
for the
future democratic of democracy in Nicaragua.
Data as of December 1993
|