REALITY CHECK

A time to step aside

by Silvio Sirias

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.

George Orwell

We grew up in a situation where we didn't know the meaning of freedom or justice, and therefore we didn't know a thing about democracy.

Daniel Ortega

I believe that all of us ought to retire relatively young.

Fidel Castro, Playboy Interview - January 1967

I was living in Nicaragua during the elections of 2001. One afternoon, Daniel Ortega, the perennial presidential candidate of the Sandinista party, stopped by San Marcos, Carazo, the town where I was residing, as part of his campaign stump. By then I had been in Nicaragua for two and a half years and I had listened to countless stories, from people in all walks of life, about la Revolución Sandinista and how it had fallen far short of everyone’s expectations.

Don’t get me wrong --- I’m not a right-winger. Far from it. Throughout the 1980s, when the Sandinistas governed Nicaragua, I was an ardent supporter of la Revolución and the ideals I believed it stood for. The problem was, however, that, to borrow a Spanish expression, I was watching the bulls from a distance, as I had not lived a single day under Sandinista rule.

When I returned to Nicaragua, after a nearly 20-year absence, I heard numerous heartrending, as well as shocking, testimonies about life under the Sandinistas. These made me feel naïve, and betrayed. It was the loss of my political innocence.

There is one thing, nevertheless, for which Daniel Ortega and the rest of the Sandinista leadership deserve credit: when they lost the 1990 election to Violeta Chamorro, they became the first political party in Nicaraguan history to peacefully hand over the presidency.

But they didn’t give up power.

“We shall govern from below,” they announced upon leaving office.

In the years since, Daniel Ortega has become a master at making behind-the-scenes deals. And, although he lost another two elections --- in 1995 to Arnoldo Alemán, and in 2001 to Enrique Bolaños --- he remains a formidable powerbroker. He also has demonstrated remarkable adeptness to forging alliances with those who were once his mortal enemies, such as Arnoldo Alemán, if he deems that such a union will increase his clout.

But he is also responsible for the decline of the Sandinista party.

The once gallant young comandantes, who in the 1980s made dashing, romantic revolutionary figures, are now veteran statesmen who became wealthy during what Nicaraguans have termed “La Piñata” --- the frantic repartition of government funds and confiscated property that the Sandinista leaders shared among themselves after losing the 1990 election. In fact, Ortega’s current alliance with Alemán and his cronies is, in large part, a ploy by the old Sandinista guard to protect themselves from being held accountable for the money and property they made their own only days before handing over the presidency.

At present, the Sandinista party is the refuge of a small cadre of outdated and increasingly irrelevant revolutionaries. If the party is to survive, the old guard needs to stop being enamored with power and step aside to allow a new generation to emerge as leaders. But that is not likely to happen. Many once notable Sandinistas, such as Sergio Ramírez, Gioconda Belli, Ernesto Cardenal, Dora María Tellez, the Mejía Godoy brothers, and even Humberto Ortega, Daniel’s brother, disavowed Ortega and his associates long ago because of the dictatorial control they exercise over the party. Because of this, in the eyes of the vast majority of Nicaraguans, the Sandinista leadership, which is fiercely loyal to Ortega, has lost all credibility. The polls clearly prove this.

During the 2001 presidential campaign, as I stood in the plaza of San Marcos listening to Daniel Ortega’s speech, I was struck by the poverty of his language and by his lack of imagination. He bored the small crowd of five hundred that showed up to listen to him --- out of a population of twenty-five thousand --- with rhetoric full of old, worn-out clichés from the days of La Revolución. Moreover, his delivery absolutely lacked charisma.

At the end, his presentation received lukewarm applause. A handful of ardent Sandinistas shouted slogans to which those present responded half-heartedly. Personally, I was disappointed. I expected that after three decades of public speaking Ortega would’ve become a great orator. But from the podium he is light years behind his mentor, Fidel Castro.

Today, bolstered by the prominence of Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan maverick, Daniel believes that by climbing aboard the Latin American populist bandwagon he has a chance of making a comeback. High-ranking US officials --- who once more are showing their ignorance regarding the sentiments of the Nicaraguan people --- have crossed the line: interfering, yet again, in the affairs of this Central American nation by openly expressing their opposition to this.

What Washington doesn’t seem to get is that Daniel Ortega doesn’t stand a chance of regaining the presidency.

Everyone in Nicaragua knows that the former Comandante de la Revolución has run out of things to say.

Silvio Sirias is the author of Bernardo and the Virgin (Northwestern University Press-Latino Voices Series). He resides in Panama. For more information visit www.silviosirias.com