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Nicaragua - Politics

Nicaragua is undergoing a transition from a traditional oligarchic society to a democratic one, in which is observed a heterogeneous panorama of values and conceptions. Nicaragua is a multiparty constitutional republic, but in recent years political power has become concentrated in a single party, with an increasingly authoritarian executive branch exercising significant control over the legislative, judicial, and electoral branches. Despite being a poor country it has one of the highest rates of people owning mobile phones and ever increasing levels of participation in Internet social media. Progress toward democratic consolidation has slowed in recent years. Recently, power has been increasingly concentrated in the Presidency, and the environment for political parties, media, and civil society groups working on governance issues has become increasingly difficult. Political parties remain weak, disorganized, and highly centralized.

The FSLN used state resources for political activities to enhance its electoral advantage in recent elections. Independent media, human rights groups, and opposition parties reported President Ortega’s administration used public funds to provide subsidized food, housing, vaccinations, access to clinics, and other benefits directly through either the FSLN-led “family cabinets” (community-based bodies that administer social government programs) or the party-controlled Sandinista leadership committee (CLS) system, which reportedly often coerced citizens into FSLN membership and denied services to opposition members. The FSLN also made party membership mandatory for an increasing number of public sector employees. Observers noted government employees continued to be pressured into affiliating with the FSLN and to participate in party activities.

The FSLN also used its authority to decide who could obtain national identity cards (cedulas). Persons seeking to obtain or retain public sector employment, national identity documents, or voter registration were obliged to obtain recommendation letters from CLS block captains. Persons without identity cards had difficulty participating in the legal economy, conducting bank transactions, or voting. Such persons also were subject to restrictions in employment, access to courts, and land ownership. Civil society organizations continued to express concern about the politicized distribution of identity cards, alleging this was how the FSLN attempted to manipulate past elections and that the CSE failed to provide identity cards to opposition members while widely distributing them to party loyalists.

After the Sandinistas lost the 1990 election, splits emerged and ultimately Sergio Ramirez formed the Movimiento Renovador Sandinista (MRS). The more affluent members plus intellectuals, writers and musicians gravitated toward it. But though they were well connected to Western solidarity activists, they had no popular platform nor base. They did poorly in elections and moved toward neoliberal policies and the NGO world.

Since taking power in 2007, Daniel Ortega and Sandinistas have improved living conditions for the poor with free healthcare, free education and better economic policies. Nicaragua now supplies 80 to 90 percent of its own food. Up until April 2018, Nicaragua was vastly safer than neighboring countries. Their 'community policing' is considered a model.

Support for Ortega and the Frente Sandinista has steadily increased. In 2006, they won 38 percent of the vote; in 2011, it increased to 62 percent; in 2016 support increased to 72 percent, with 68 percent turnout.

Daniel Ortega was sworn in for a third consecutive term as Nicaragua's president 11 January 2017, with his wife Rosario Murillo as the new vice president, giving a married couple the reins of power for the first time in the Central American country's history. Ortega, a 71-year-old former rebel fighter, took the oath in Managua with the presidents of Venezuela, Bolivia and Taiwan in attendance. Ortega and Murillo were elected in November with 72.5 percent of the vote, but with a high rate of abstentions. Their party won 71 of the 92 seats in parliament.

More than 100 people died in Nicaragua since unrest began in April 2018. Protesters had taken to the streets, demanding President Daniel Ortega stand down. Authorities have been accused of using "lethal force" to crack down on the protests. Demonstrations began on April 16, led by university students in Managua after the government failed to handle forest fires in one of the most protected areas of the Indio Maiz Biological Reserve.

On 18 April 2018, the government introduced plans to cut pensions and social security, including decreasing pension payments by five percent and increasing worker social contributions by 0.75 percent. The change also increased employer contributions by 3.5 percent. To stabilize the social security funding, the IMF wanted to implement an austerity plan which would have doubled the work requirements and raised the qualification age from 60 to 65. The Sandinista proposal was much more progressive, requiring wealthy individuals and businesses to pay much more with minor changes for others.

Sandinista Youth, a group aligned with Daniel Ortega's Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), launched counterprotests in support of the reforms. Ortega, the last of the Latin American revolutionaries still in office, called for renewed dialogue with the private sector over the social security reform and welcomed modifications to implement the reforms "in a better way". But in a televised meeting, aired on April 22, President Ortega scraped the controversial reforms. In the meeting, Ortega denounced protesters for acting like "gangs killing each other".

Many wondered if the United States was involved in the student protests of the past month in Nicaragua which attempted to destabilize the country. Western media writes nothing about the issue, while at the same time similar scenarios had played out in Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba, Honduras, Bolivia and other countries in which the left has made progress. The student protests in Nicaragua are described in the Western media as legitimate protests by young Nicaraguans who have spontaneously united to fight the dictatorship.

The Movimiento Civico de Juventudes (MCJ) was financed, created by and an integral part of the National Democratic Institute. The NDI is an organization that works to change society in other countries. The president of the NDI is Madeleine Albright, former US secretary of state. MCJ has been part of an NDI project that began in 2015 with the aim of expanding youth leadership and political commitment by providing hands-on training in organizational techniques.

According to the NDI website: "To ensure that the next generation of leaders will be equipped to govern in a democratic and transparent manner, since 2010 the NDI has partnered with Nicaraguan universities and civic organizations to lead a youth leadership program that has helped prepare more than 2,000 youth leaders, current and future, throughout the country."

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is another organization that, according to its own version of events, since the 1990s has been dedicated to doing the work that the CIA used to do in secret. The NED works with a number of other organizations, media, websites and NGOs in Nicaragua. Officially, its support for Nicaragua amounted to US$4.2 million between 2014 and 2017. On 29 May 2018, Amnesty International released a report accusing the government of working with pro-government armed groups to suppress the protests. It also said authorities "adopted a strategy of repression, characterised by excessive use of force and extrajudicial executions". On 30 May 2018, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on Nicaragua's Mother's Day to honour the mothers of the students killed in earlier demonstrations. According to a rights group, 16 people were killed in one of the worst days of violence since protests against Ortega started.

On 13 June 2018 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) [a principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS)] expressed alarm and deep concerned about the continuing and increased violence in Nicaragua, which had already claimed the lives of 143 people and remained a serious human rights crisis that the Nicaraguan State urgently needs to deal with. Further, the IACHR strongly condemned the increased use of force by the State and the persisting attacks by parapolice actors and other armed third parties, which the State has an obligation to dismantle.

“The number of people killed and injured continues to increase in an alarming way. It is deeply concerning that, based on the information that is available to date, a total of 143 human lives have been lost in the context of the repression of protests, and the situation continues to get worse,” said Commissioner Antonia Urrejola, the IACHR’s Rapporteur for Nicaragua. “The Nicaraguan State must take urgent measures to immediately end arbitrary attacks on the lives and personal integrity of all Nicaraguans, with no distinctions whatsoever, including their political views,” she stressed. “The State has an obligation to seek a peaceful solution for the country’s situation and to investigate and punish the people responsible for all acts of violence.”

Considerable opinion in Nicaragua is critical of the Catholic Church bishops mediating the national dialogue for their clear bias in favor of the political opposition. Evangelical churches in particular have complained that they are not represented in the national dialogue despite serving over half the population professing religious belief.

Opposition representatives in the national dialogue dropped their demand for President Ortega to resign and now aspire most urgently to bring forward the presidential elections currently scheduled for 2021. The OAS had already been working with the Nicaraguan authorities for almost two years now on reforms to the country’s electoral system for which a schedule has also already been agreed.

The Organization of American States put the death toll at 317 from more than three months of anti-government protests in Nicaragua. The OAS's human rights branch said 02 August 2018 that 23 minors and 21 policemen were among the dead. The government put the death toll at just under 200. The year since President Daniel Ortega's crackdown on demonstrations sparked a political and economic crisis left more than 300 dead, 700 in jail and sent 62,000 into exile.

The Nicaraguan government accepted talks with the opposition figures in a process mediated by the Papal Nuncio and a delegate from the Organization of American States. The discussions continued formally since March 2019 with some progress on issues like the conditional release of prisoners convicted of crimes during the 2018 failed coup attempt, the return of opposition supporters who fled the country in 2018, electoral reforms and reinforcing existing constitutional guarantees. All of these are important concessions by the government.

For their part, the opposition refused to commit either to renouncing future violence or to a joint call with the government for an end to sanctions damaging the Nicaraguan economy. Nor do they seem open to agreeing on a mechanism guaranteeing the implementation of any final agreement that may be reached.

A report submitted to the UN human rights council in July 2019 accused Nicaragua of continuing to repress, threaten and harass human rights defenders and other opponents one year after the government’s violent crackdown on nationwide demonstrations. More than 300 people were killed, 2000 injured, and hundreds arbitrarily arrested during last year’s violent repression of peaceful nationwide protests. More than 70,000 people also fled into exile to escape the heavy-hand of the Nicaraguan government. U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, said peaceful protests and dissent continue to be repressed in Nicaragua. She said more than 440 imprisoned protestors have been released, but more than 80 remain in custody under severe conditions.