Not sure if this is garnering any attention in the USA but we’re one month from Election Day (November 6th)! There will obviously be multiple posts on this topic so let’s consider this a general overview, mmk? In true Peace Corps fashion, I’m going to try stay completely impartial and only share my observations.
Daniel Ortega is the current President of Nicaragua and he has held that position since 2007. He’s a member of the FLSN party—fans of the revolution in the 80s and socialism. Mr. Ortega is running for reelection semi-legally. As of a couple months ago, the Nicaraguan constitution stated that no one can hold back to back terms as president. As luck for Danny would have it, the Supreme Court overturned this law and Ortega got a new law passed allowing him to run for reelection.
More interesting background on Dan, he’s a big advocate of helping the poor. I guess that’s his socialism philosophy in action. What Danny is not a fan of is competition. To vote in Nicaragua you need to be 18 years old and have a celula (national identification card). When applying for a celula, one must state his or her political affiliation. Strangely enough, the applications for members of the opposition party keep getting lost. This not only keeps Ortegas competition away from the polling booth but sometime out of work too (it’s like trying to get a job in the USA without a Social Security card.). Additionally, his administration committed fraud in the 2009 municipal elections. I don’t know the exact details but what I heard was that MANY mayoral elections ended EXACTLY 70/30% on the nose in favor of FLSN. Ortega forbids foreign observation of Nicaraguan elections so I don’t know how the truth came out but many prominent NGOs have withdrawn all aid to Nicaragua.
Now I need to preface my next statement as that it is not rumor mongering. It is a belief of the vast majority of Nicas. The story is that Daniel Ortega had sex with his oldest daughter. When she tried to report it to the authorities, Ortega and his wife denied it and stated that their daughter was crazy. Oh that brings up another fun fact; Mrs. Ortega has been reported to be a witch. I believe the basis is that she has stated that she believes in witchcraft, wears a LOT of jewelry (when I shook hands with her I thought her arm was going to fall off from so many bracelets) and she redesigned Daniel’s reelection posters to be bright and have better energy.
Another interesting tidbit, Danny Ortega is good friends with both Hugo Chavez AND Moammar Gadhaf.
Ok it’s obvious that most of these things are perceived as negative but I’m sure that Ortega has done great things for Nicaragua. How do I know this? Because people LOVE Ortega and his FLSN party. The posters are everywhere and “FLSN” is painted on everything from streets to donkeys (poor burros). Everyone from old people who participated in the revolution to college and highschool students are avid Ortega supporters. Last month there was a support parade and I think 2000 people must have attended (half of my town) and marched in solidarity. Of course not everyone is an aficionado of Daniel and they’re equally passionate about it. So passionate that the US embassy has discouraged traveling to Nicaragua and the Peace Corps is placing all of us on stand-fast. What is ‘stand-fast’ you ask? Well besides making us sound hardcore, it forbids us from leaving our sites for two weeks. I don’t foresee any problems in my part of the country so don’t fret!
More posts about this to come!
So it's a democracy as long as you vote for the incumbent?
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