It is time for President Ortega to go...

  

I used to be an admirer of Daniel Ortega. I liked his poem, ¨I Never Saw Managua When Miniskirts Were in Fashion¨, when he was a political prisoner at the young age of 23.  While in jail, he received visits from Rosario Murillo, a poet. The prisoner and visitor fell in love; Murillo became Ortega's wife. She has published several books of poems. One of them is called as ¨Amar es combatir ¨- to love is to combat. Ortega and his wife underwent sufferings and sacrificed a lot for Nicaragua. They are part of the noble Sandinista Revolution which became a successor to the legendary Cuban revolution. Both these revolutions liberated the countries from foreign-installed dictatorships and succeeded in surviving the illegal and destructive interventions and invasions of US. 

Ruben Dario, the most famous poet and writer of Nicaragua wrote in the beginning of the twentieth century, 

Eres los Estados Unidos,
eres el futuro invasor

You are the United States
you are the future invader

An American mercenary adventurer William Walker maneuvered to appoint himself as President of Nicaragua in 1856 and ruled for a year and even made English as the official language. Walker recruited about a thousand American and European mercenaries to invade the other four Central American nations: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica. This was supported by the American tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt who had business interests in the region. Fortunately the invasion failed and Walker was later executed.

Ortega was a hero of the Sandinista revolution which liberated Nicaragua from the notorious Somoza dictatorship, which was installed by the US.  When the Somoza dictatorship was overthrown by the Sandinistas, the US waged a ruthless Contra-War against the Sandinista government and made the country bleed.  In the name of the Contra War, the Americans destabilised the region of Central America itself, again. 

After coming to power, the Sandinistas have contributed to democratic stability, economic growth and social peace to the country, while their neighbours Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras suffer on all three counts. You don’t hear of Nicaraguans crossing into US border illegally. When they lost the elections in 1989, the Sandinistas left the government peacefully, quietly and gracefully. They waited for their time and won the elections in 2006 and came back to power.  The Sandinista government has brought about land reforms and have made life better for the masses with their socialistic policies.

Here the good story ends..

When Ortega reached out to Catholic religious establishment and the private sector business, I thought he was becoming pragmatic, growing out of his narrow ideological boundaries. But Ortega has now compromised his ideology and principles with the only aim of hanging on to power by hook or crook. He has made the government as a family business, having given lot of power to his wife who is now the vice president. His son was the chief negotiator on the Nicaragua canal project. Many revolutionaries who were comrades of Ortega have left him disappointed and frustrated by his personal egoistic agenda.

But President Ortega has turned out to be yet another betrayer of a great revolution. He has given a bad name to socialism, by misusing it to perpetuate himself in power. His government is facing protests against his regime. Many protestors have got killed by the Nicaraguan police.

The worst is his blatant sacrifice of ideology for pure money making. He had promised to restore diplomatic relations with China and break Taiwan relations. But he still carries on with relations with Taiwan unashamedly even while centre-right governments in Latin America have recognised China.

Ortega’s announcement of the Nicaragua canal project to be done by an unknown Chinese company was simply and purely a scam.. There is no realistic possibility of building the canal at this time. 

Now Ortega is facing protests especially from students and young people. The Nicaraguans are fed up with the Ortega family dictatorship. But clearly, the protests are being supported by funds and guidance from US which has smelled yet another opportunity to overthrow a democratically elected government in Latin America.  

I wish Ortega leaves power peacefully without betraying the noble Sandinista revolution. He can call for early elections and prove that the majority is with him. Or even better, if he lets other leaders come up. I hope he does not become another Chavez under whom and his successor Venezuela has been destroyed. Chavez and Ortega should be the warning signals for Evo Morales ( I am an admirer of this first elected native Indian president in Latin American history ), who is also toying with the idea of prolonging his rule.