Nicaragua: The crisis deepens

by B Prasant

Seqora Eva Irma Dominguez wakes to a lovely August
morning in her sprawling 12-acre estate on gently rolling
hills and gullies. Looking out the window of her faux
colonial style bedroom, she can view part of Managua
in the foreground, and then the placid blue expanse of
Lake Managua. On a clear day she can see the 
tallest of Nicaragua's volcanoes about 90 kilometres
away.

She rises late, has a leisurely bath, dresses in her fineries, 
eats a hearty breakfast of fresh fruits, juice, eggs, bacon, 
bread and coffee, and goes shopping in one of her four 
chauffeured limousines. Her two Rottweilers accompany her. Two 
"houseboys" follow in the "spare" car. At the bank, she makes a 
substantial withdrawal in US dollars, changes a few into gold 
cordobas, and descends on the glass-fronted shopping mall to 
splurge to her heart's content.

While coming out, bulging shopping bags on the shoulders of her 
"houseboys", she is accosted by a gaunt-cheeked woman and her 
children. The men-folk, aware of the tradition of machismo, hang 
back. She carelessly hands out the cordobas, mutters under her 
breath about the "dirty vagabonds from the villages", and waves 
her chauffeur on. She will relax for the rest of the day, before 
the party she throws every evening for the elites of Hispanic 
descent of the capital city.

Hollow-cheeked

One of the undernourished women upon whom Senora Dominguez chose 
to shower her largesse for the day is Isabel Alonzo. With her two 
boys in tow, Isabel makes a beeline for the shopping mall on the 
other side of Managua. As she half-runs, half-walks, cursing her 
children for slowing her up, the frontage of the mall is crowded 
with dozens of hollow-cheeked men, women, and children.

Lacking the energy even to hunt for food, she falls asleep. Her 
two children wander away. They know when not to bother the madre 
by hanging uselessly around. There is a good chance that the two 
Dominguez boys will become members of the street gangs who roam 
the city after evening descends. They also have a fair chance of 
being brutalised in the process. Had they a sister, her fate 
would be sealed: the bordellos beckon.

Welcome to post-neoliberalism Nicaragua

The return of the "two Nicaraguas" does not surprise me. Having 
been a steady visitor to the country between the 1970s and the 
1990s, I am quite prepared for the tense co-existence of hunger 
and opulence, of the idle rich and the uprooted in this very poor 
Central American nation.

This had been the picture in Managua and Matagalpas when the 
military-backed ruler, Luis Somoza was in office from 1956 to 
1967.

The US administration was quite enamoured of "their men" in 
Managua. The most endearing epithet was reserved for Luis 
Somoza's father, General Anastasia Somoza, fondly referred to by 
one US president as "our son-of-a-bitch".

Winds of change

The winds of change started to blow when the Sandinista National 
Liberation Front (FSLN or Front for short), led by, among others, 
Josi Daniel Ortega and Tomas Borge, started to organise 
guerrilla-style military offensives against the dictatorship and 
commenced redistribution of land in the countryside in the late 
1970s.

Popular support for the Front grew rapidly. Trembling in fear of 
what the Pentagon described as a "Cuba-style takeover", the US 
imperialists poured men and money into the country. Direct 
intervention was repeatedly attempted as the CIA went into 
"secret war" mode.

In July 1979, a Front-led government was set up in Nicaragua. The 
US then sponsored hordes of rebels, based mostly in Honduras and 
led by CIA operatives and regular US army commanders, to try to 
topple the new government. But the new government of President 
Daniel Ortega soldiered on.

The real disaster took place when the Front, having won the 
battle against authoritarianism and imperialism, lost the 1990 
elections to the US-backed centre-right National Opposition 
Union.

Achievements

Before its defeat the government had redistributed nine million 
hectares of arable land among the rural poor, to benefit 720,000 
families. Rural credit was given to the campesinos. The system of 
co-operative farming took root.

Agricultural production increased. Lacking substantial mineral 
resources, Nicaragua was able to sustain its economy by large 
quantities of agricultural exports. The fishing and mining 
industries were strengthened. Highways were built with full 
consideration for ecological imperatives. Small townships grew up 
in a planned manner across the country.

Youth brigades were mobilised to ensure that literacy was 
increased from a miserable 9.8 percent to 52 percent. The 
education budget was raised from 5.5 percent under the Somoza 
regime to 15 percent of `GDP. A large number of schools, colleges 
and universities were set up.

UNESCO declared that Nicaragua had mobilised the largest number 
of young men and women for educational tasks in the present 
century. The government launched programmes to educate street 
children.

Healthcare was made free. Five new hospitals and 300-odd health 
centres were set up. Diseases like poliomyelitis and measles were 
eradicated. Child care centres were set up across the country. 
The average life span increased from 50 to 67 years.

The greatest qualitative change was in the political sphere. 
Democratic functioning was nurtured. Political parties of every 
ideology, or lack thereof, were encouraged to take part in the 
democratic process. Elections become free and fair. Left-wing 
mass organisations flourished, including a strong trade union 
movement. The rights of the indigenous people were protected and 
allowed to develop. Women's rights were established and expanded.

Yet the Front and its allies were defeated in three successive 
presidential elections — 1990, 1996, and 2001.

The country, now in the clutches of neo-liberalism, is in the 
doldrums and things are getting worse everyday.

Roaming the streets

Bereft of food, habitat, social recognition and courage, the 
young of the nation have taken to roaming the streets after 
darkness falls, looking for victims. Unemployment has grown to 
nearly 60 percent. The infrastructure is in complete ruin. 
Hospitals work only partially. Nursing homes and clinics flourish 
only for those who can afford them. Schools and colleges are 
falling into disuse while "centres of excellence" are encouraged 
for the rich.

The vast majority of the populace (5.4 million and growing 
rapidly) face hunger, disease, social conflict, and early death. 
The life span is down to 54 or less. The contribution of AIDS to 
the state of affairs is considerable. Polio and measles have come 
back. Infant mortality is spiralling upwards.

The transport system appears beyond redemption. Environmental 
degradation is everywhere. Corruption in high places is common.

During my stay, I learned how the coffee industry (the chief 
foreign currency earner of Nicaragua) has suffered a great 
setback. The oversupply of cheap, low-grade coffee from 
neighbouring countries and from Asian, Latin American and African 
nations has seen coffee prices touch rock bottom. With no 
subsidies in sight, the farmers have started to starve and die.

On August 27, more than a thousand coffee cultivators trooped to 
Managua. The contingent that I saw were beaten mercilessly by the 
City police.

The indigenous people are also in great jeopardy. I shall cite 
one example. A 500 kilometre-long pipeline has been designed to 
carry oil across Nicaragua. This World Bank-funded project will 
cross the land of indigenous communities, causing environmental 
degradation. Massive deforestation has added to the miseries of 
the indigenous communities. The FSLN has been organising the 
affected people, but construction of the pipeline has started.

The most important popular movement now taking place is 
spearheaded by Centro Sandinista Trabajadores (CST) against the 
US-backed Central America Free Trade Agreement or CAFTA. Big 
anti-CAFTA demonstrations were held in Managua and other cities 
in September when the CAFTA session was in progress in the 
Nicaraguan capital. The Front is also campaigning for the 
cancellation of Nicaragua's foreign debt, which now stands at 
US$6.5 billion.

Sadly, however, the sharp edge of the movement that inspired me 
during earlier visits is not present this time around. The rural 
base of the Front appears to be slowly disintegrating. Many 
campesinos I spoke to say that the Front is not able to take 
along the rural poor in its effort to resist the return of the 
great estates and the drive to reverse the land reforms.

Another regrettable reason was the accusation that a small 
section of Front activists were seen to be entrenched in the 
countryside as the newly rich, each having a substantial estate. 
There is no denying, however, the strong support for the Front, 
especially in the cities and townships.

Catholic Church

As in other Central American countries, the Catholic Church plays 
a big role in the political realm. Thus, Padre Miguel d'Escoto 
served as Foreign Minister in the Front government with the poet 
Ernesto Cardenal as its Minister for Cultural Affairs.

Recently, the Front has rebuilt bridges with the Church, boosting 
its prospects in the municipal polls for Managua in 2004. The 
Front is in control of 54 municipal bodies, either alone or in 
coalition with other progressive parties. This includes Managua.

Of late, the Front has formed an alliance with the Renovation 
Movement, the Christian Socialists, and the National Project 
parties. Jacinto Juarez of the Front told the left-leaning La 
Prensa newspaper that this move represents a "unity in diversity" 
approach.

Front leaders like Managua's mayor, Jose Osorno Lopez, are 
confronted by a tough challenge. More than 70 percent of the 
city's populace live in extreme poverty. The abandonment of rural 
areas around the capital is a big problem for the Front-led 
mayoral council.

The Mayor's problems are compounded by the national government's 
unwillingness to release its share of assistance to a city in the 
hands of the opposition. The situation was summed up recently, 
when the mayor said he would not bother setting up new health 
centres and schools since the government was not willing to hire 
teachers and doctors for the capital city.

Elections to the National Assembly are slated for 2006. Until 
then, will Seqora Dominguez continue to enjoy her siesta, and 
will the children of Isabel Alonzo continue to rummage in the sun 
for food at the city dump? I leave Nicaragua with a heavy heart.

* * *

People's Voice, Canada's communist fortnightly