Nicaragua in Disarray
In November, the Nicaraguan municipal elections were held and the Sandinista Party claimed the majority of victories as ballots were found in the trash. Since Ortega re-wrote the constitution to retake the presidency in 2006, the county has become increasingly destabilized in every aspect – political and economic. Ortega doesn’t seem to care and any protest against his regime is silenced by Sandinista mobs, a tactic once used by Somoza.
Senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Kevin Casas-Zamora has written a plea to he international community to pay attention to the worsening situation in Nicaragua. The following are excerpts from Casas-Zamora’s article:
“As the second-poorest nation in Latin America, Nicaragua can’t afford to descend into violence as it did during the cold-war days of the 1980s…
“A prosperous and democratic Nicaragua is crucial to stability in the region…
“If the current institutional arrangements prove to be – as they increasingly appear – impregnable to change, it is very likely that future political disputes will turn bloody. It has happened in Nicaragua before. The international community must not allow it to happen again…
“Ortega’s recent actions and statements are slightly more reminiscent of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. The latter, another former guerrilla leader who doesn’t seem to understand democratic ways, was allowed to wreck a small nation under the complacent gaze of its neighbors. Ortega is not yet another Mugabe.
“By using leverage now, the Western Hemisphere can help keep him from morphing into one.”