Nicaragua Network Hotlines for November 8, 2006
News topics covered in this Hotline include:
- Daniel Ortega is President-Elect of Nicaragua
- National Assembly Results and "the Pact."
- First Death from Therapeutic Abortion Ban
- Civil Coordinator Urges Renegotiation with IMF
Topic 1: Daniel Ortega is President-Elect of Nicaragua
On Tuesday evening, Nov. 7, the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) declared FSLN candidate Daniel Ortega as President-Elect of Nicaragua. Jubilant Sandinista supporters filled the streets of Managua waving thousands of red and black Sandinista flags and celebrating the return to government power after 16 years of US-supported right-wing neoliberal governments.
With over 91% of the votes counted, the results were: FSLN (Daniel Ortega): 38.07%; National Liberal Alliance (Eduardo Montealegre): 29%; Constitutional Liberal Party (José Rizo): 26.21%; Sandinista Renovation Movement (Edmundo Jarquín): 6.44%; Alternative for Change (Eden Pastora): 0.27%. CSE president Roberto Rivas added that the numbers now made it impossible for any of his rivals to catch up to Ortega, and declared the FSLN leader president-elect. ALN candidate, Eduardo Montealegre, immediately went in person to FSLN headquarters to congratulate his opponent, promising his party would form a “constructive, intelligent, honest and democratic opposition.”
Ortega thanked his rival, calling his action “both dignified and valiant.” And he continued to stress his campaign themes of reconciliation and peace, emphasizing that Montealegre’s action and words would send a sign of stability to the world. “We have all of us to work together for our one Nicaragua,” he said. “The great task is to lift our people out of poverty. The transparency of the elections and our standing here together should reassure all those who have invested and seek to invest in Nicaragua. We thank God and the Nicaraguan people for having given us this chance to govern Nicaragua once again, this time in peace and tranquility. We believe that the conditions in Nicaragua are right for the practice of a new political culture. By that I mean a way of working together, with all our diversity and whatever our differences, with a constructive spirit, always putting Nicaragua, the people, the poor, in first place.”
Apparently bowing to the inevitable, the US White House finally said it would work with Ortega provided he stuck to his promise of a “democratic future” for Nicaragua. In making the announcement, Gordon Johndroe, government spokesperson for national security, said, “The United States is committed to the Nicaraguan people. We will work with their leaders on the basis of their commitment to, and their actions to promote, Nicaragua’s democratic future.” Meanwhile, US Ambassador Paul Trivelli, whose ham handed efforts to unite the right and prevent Ortega's election backfired amid universal condemnation, groused about trivial "anomalies" such as late poll openings and long lines – complaints similar to news reports of anomalies in Tuesday's US elections. Trivelli's failure and the crude way he threatened the Nicaraguan people probably helped Ortega with the voters and likely will not help Trivelli's career in the US foreign service.
The Nicaragua Network did not endorse a candidate in the election but condemned US interference throughout the electoral period, sending two delegations to Nicaragua and buying two sets of ads in Nicaraguan newspapers in coalition with US-based Quest for Peace and Nicaragua-based Casa Ben Linder. The delegations in June and October also held press conferences that received wide coverage in Nicaragua. In addition, the first delegation's report was distributed to Congressional and Senatorial offices and supporters were urged to send the report to their own elected officials.
The Nicaragua Network on Tuesday sent a letter of congratulations signed
by the staff and executive committee to President-Elect Ortega which read:
"On behalf of the staff and executive committee of the Nicaragua Network
of the United States and our 200 local committees and all US citizens who
oppose US government intervention in the sovereign affairs of Nicaragua,
we extend to you our heartfelt congratulations on your electoral victory.
"We look forward to continuing to work in solidarity with the people
of Nicaragua for economic justice, sustainable development, fair trade,
and Latin American integration. We pledge our continued solidarity to expose
and oppose US government intervention in your beautiful and proud country."
Return to top.
Topic 2: National Assembly Results and "the Pact."
Nicaragua's National Assembly, their Congress, is selected proportionately with some candidates running on a national slate and others running on departmental, or state, slates. Therefore it is difficult to determine the exact breakdown yet of the legislature. However, best projections at this time are that the FSLN will have 37 seats, down one from the current Assembly, ALN 26, PLC 22, and MRS 6. We are as yet unsure whether the defeated candidates Montealegre, Rizo, and Jarquin are automatically granted seats in the legislature or whether only Montealegre gets that privilege.
Nevertheless, it is clear that the FSLN, or even the FSLN in coalition with the MRS, does not have the majority necessary to pass legislation. This means that there will be a strong incentive for the new government to continue the so-called pact with the PLC and its disgraced leader, former President Arnoldo Aleman. How this plays out will have a strong influence on the issue of Aleman's freedom or incarceration and on a number of constitutional amendments shifting power from the presidency to the legislature that were put on hold until the new government came into power. The main goal of the "pact" between Ortega and Aleman was to turn Nicaragua into a two-party state in which the two major parties, FSLN and PLC, share government institutions regardless of which party holds the presidency. So, the US government, by enabling Montealegre to split the Liberal party in two, may have actually strengthened the FSLN/PLC pact rather than destroyed it.
The rift between Montealegre’s ALN and Rizo’s PLC seems vicious and unbridgeable, at least within the foreseeable future. At the same time, what is now called the FSLN is itself an alliance of unlikely bedfellows, including former sworn enemies. Ortega's vice-president was the chief civilian negotiator for the contras and a handful of FSLN legislators were contra leaders. How fragile or enduring that alliance may be only time and political storms will tell. At least, as one commentator remarked, “Given that so many of the present electorate weren’t even alive during the revolutionary years, reference to ‘the long night of the Sandinistas’ can finally give way to ‘the 16-year nightmare of the Neo-Liberals. That in itself gives us the possibility of a new start.”
Regardless of what may come over the next five years, it is enough today
to celebrate another blow to US imperialism in Latin America and another
brick in the wall toward an integrated Latin America as a counterweight
to US power.
Topic 3: First Death from Therapeutic Abortion Ban
The most troubling event of the closing days of the presidential campaign was that all the presidential candidates except Edmundo Jarquin supported a new law removing an over 100 year old exception that made an abortion to save the life and/or health of the mother legal. Jazmina Bojorge, 18 years old and five months pregnant, became the first recorded case of death under the new law. The child in her womb also died. She leaves a three year old. The tragic story of her vain search for appropriate medical care highlighted the appalling situation into which the clergy, National Assembly members, most presidential candidates and President Bolaños have pitchforked the women of Nicaragua. Following a march called by the Catholic hierarchy and prominent evangelical church leaders, the National Assembly rushed the new law through in less time than it usually takes for one to even get onto the Assembly’s agenda.
The Special Ombudsperson for Women, Deborah Grandison, announced that her office will open an investigation into Bojorge’s case, “since it seems apparent that doctors who attended her were unwilling to apply the therapeutic procedure for fear of being penalized under the new law. As a consequence, not only did Jazmina die, but also the child she was carrying.”
Grandison recounted how she followed Bojorge’s sad trail from hospital to hospital, discussing her situation with various members of the medical staff in each. “There is already in existence a committee of doctors who are analyzing the case,” she said, “but they haven’t reached a conclusion as yet. The doctors are saying that fear of prosecution was not in fact uppermost in their minds. My investigation will help establish that. In any case one thing that is clear is that our hospitals are seriously under-resourced. For a woman in danger of death to have to trek all over the city looking for one with the necessary equipment to take a sounding of her condition is terrible.”
Grandison warned that if it did appear that medical staff were indeed refusing
to intervene appropriately for fear of receiving the four to eight years
jail time now specified by law, her office would hold the Nicaraguan government
responsible. In this she was supported by the Autonomous Women’s Movement
and other groups who are preparing to challenge the constitutionality of
the new law.
Topic 4: Civil Coordinator Urges Renegotiation with IMF
The Civil Coordinator (CC), Nicaragua’s umbrella body that represents several hundred non-governmental organizations, called on the new government to institute urgent measures to relieve poverty in accordance with their “The Nicaragua We Want” manifesto. This manifesto was signed by all presidential candidates, including Daniel Ortega. According to the CC vision, it is vital to re-establish institutional democracy; to begin at once a process of national dialogue to hammer out a national agreement; and to renegotiate the economic program of the International Monetary Fund.
Georgina Muñoz, CC national spokesperson, listed as further priorities the necessity to resolve the current energy crisis, the rapid passage of a law to restructure Nicaragua’s internal debt and the suspension of the criminalization of therapeutic abortion. On behalf of the CC, Muñoz congratulated her fellow Nicaraguans on their comportment during the elections, which showed, “a high sense of civic pride, together with a mature and responsible political involvement.”
While noting some few problems in the electoral process, the CC concurred
with virtually all participants and observers that the elections had been
essentially fair and free, and that there was no reason for the overall
result to be challenged. Muñoz concluded her statement by urging
all Nicaraguans to continue to observe and participate in the development
of the political process within the country, “supporting those policies
that benefit the great majority and challenging firmly any violation of
our citizens’ rights.”
This hotline is prepared from the Nicaragua News Service and other sources. To receive a more extensive weekly summary of the news from Nicaragua by e-mail or postal service, send a check for $60.00 to Nicaragua Network, 1247 E St., SE, Washington, DC 20003. We can be reached by phone at 202-544-9355.