2006 Election Overview/ U.S. Intervention
By Robert Terenzi, Jr.
Never mind the hundred plus years of U.S. intervention in Nicaragua’s politics. Forget about William Walker, the Tennessee born soldier, who briefly declared himself president of Nicaragua and burned Grenada to the ground after escaping execution in 1885. And let us not even mention Ronald Reagan financing an army of mercenaries to overthrow a legitimate government by selling arms to America’s enemy, Iran in the 1980’s. No, let us turn our thoughts to the future. The hope for progress and social justice is possible through action in the present, not by looking sourly on the past. And so Nicaragua braces itself for a rough and tumble, knock-out drag-out campaign season in anticipation of its November 4th presidential election.
Surely, American politicians have learned their lesson and will stay away from meddling in democratic, fair, and sovereign elections. With the passage of CAFTA, and Nicaragua officially becoming an accommodating country to the agreement as of April 1, 2006, the US should undoubtedly be content with establishing their presence in this Central American nation and allow the election to pass fairly. And yet, in a recent press conference Paul Trivelli, US Ambassador to Nicaragua proclaimed that the US will reconsider sending aid to Nicaragua depending on who wins, and potentially cut-off all aid if FSLN candidate, Daniel Ortega wins.
Ortega was leading in the polls until Trivelli threatened to cut off aid should he be elected to the office. Now Ortega has slipped behind Eduardo Montealegre after repeated threats by the U.S. government. Washington’s distaste for Ortega seems arbitrary and biased, considering the fact that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick has come out in support of the former-Sandinista party member Herty Lewites, and has even met with him several times.
There are now four main candidates vying for presidential honors. Herty Lewites and Daniel Ortega on the left, and José Rizo and Eduardo Montealegre on the right. On April 4, 2006, José Rizo Castellón was selected by the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) as their candidate. Alberto Alemán, the former president, now in jail serving out a twenty year sentence for fraud, openly advocated his candidacy and voiced strong support for the candidate. In a recent interview with the magazine Confidential, Trivelli proclaimed proudly, “"We will never give our approval, never will look well upon a candidate of Aleman's, his family, his leaders or someone designated by him." Having ruled out two of the candidates, the U.S. government has two left to pick from, and are uncertain about the validity of Montealgre and wary of Lewite’s leftist tendencies.
A major reason America has decided to press its advantage in Nicaragua, a country that has a long history of dealing with the wrath of its northern neighbour, might be to stem the “leftist tide” that seems to be sweeping through Latin America. These are not the revolutionary, guerrilla leftists of the seventies and eighties, but the new leftist governments and leaders in Latin America nonetheless present a threat to America’s economic and political stranglehold in the Western Hemisphere. The ‘new left’ is a movement that supports private enterprise, while discouraging international interference (namely the U.S.). Labelled socialist, populist, nationalist, and communist, the left leaning leaders in Latin America are coming to power, and standing up to U.S. interference has become an easy way to pander to the masses and increase popular support.
The political air of Latin America has been electrified recently with rumors, whispers, and outright declarations of an inevitable leftist revolution. With Chavez in Venezuela, Morales in Bolivia, and Bachelet in Chile, it is apparent that the left is gaining more power in Latin America. There are six presidential election scheduled for the next twelve months in Latin America, the most important of which, for the U.S., is in Mexico, where front-runner and outspoken advocate of socialism, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, could end a twenty-four year run of conservative leadership and vastly alter Mexican-American relations.
The storm of controversy surrounding the upcoming Nicaraguan presidential election (slated for November 4), is about more than U.S. interference. It is about a clash of cultures, nationalism, and power. On one side, there is the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and neoliberalism, embodied by the recent passing of President Bush’s CAFTA initiative, and on the other, a fierce and patriotic call for nationalism. The U.S. is interested in preserving CAFTA, and maintaining their realm of power beyond their own borders.