short story of Nica Politics....

Week two done. And time to talk some politics!!! You knew this was coming!
Although the past two weeks haven’t exactly been loads of fun and parties, they have managed to fly by just the same. I can honestly say that I have easily adopted this laid-back, easy paced lifestyle. Each person that I have talked to and met with has a different story to tell, and quite often, as I am quickly learning, these stories don’t necessarily agree with one another. Usually the stories depend on which political party the person belongs to. This is what I have learned about the political past of this area, in the simplest terms I can explain:
From the 50’s to the late 70’s Nicaragua was ruled by Somoza, he was a dictator. At that time the country was relatively prosperous. Education was a high priority in Bluefields, and there were some of the best schools (all affiliated through the churches, and the Moravian was top ) in the entire Central America. The people of Bluefields remember Spinoza’s dictatorship as a time that the streets were clean, and it was safe to walk around the city at any hour, day or night. However, the people of Nicaragua didn’t want a dictator anymore, some wanted a democracy and others (the Sandistas) wanted a more socialist government. (one of the main reason that people rejected Somoza was because when the terrible earthquake hit Managua (Nicaragua capital) in the 70’s he kept most of the aid for himself and has party members rather than distributing it to the earthquake victims). So then came the Revolution. The Revolution happened in 1979 and it was terrible. Basically I think it was a mini world war fought here in Nicaragua, the Nicaraguan people got caught in the crossfire of some of the world’s most powerful countries fighting against each other. But first they had to throw out Somoza, the Sandista party did this by kidnapping several members of the Somoza party. Then the Somoza party retaliated by going on a killing spree for the next several years against the Sandista party and eventually killed their leader. So the country was up for grabs as to which political party should be in power, they only knew that they wanted Somoza out, so the other 2 parties joined forces as Sandistas to make sure he was gone. And since every other country is so nosey and eager to take a side, of course the rest of the world had to get involved. At that time the US (pres. Carter) supported the Sandistas to get rid of Somoza. The Russians and Cubans supported the Sandistas, because it was socialist/communist. Then the United States had an election in 81 and Ronald Regan saw Sandistas as threat. It was thought that if communism succeeded in spreading to Nicaragua, that surely the U.S. would be overtaken by the communist rule as well. So the United States government did what is does best (or worst) of course, it went to war! But it did not go to war directly with Nicaragua (Nicaragua was not yet controlled by communist, communism was only supported by one Nicaraguan party) so it when to war with Russia and Cuba on Nicaraguan soil, through the surrounding counties of Honduras and Gaugamela. Ronald Regan sold military weapons to Iraq (yep we supplied that enemy too) and used the money to support anyone in Central America that would fight agents the Sandistas. So soon there were huge armies in Honduras and Costa Rica, basically any bordering country of Nicaragua. The Sandistas had a lot of support within the country and from Cuba and Russia. So yes, this is quite confusing, but needless to say the war turned into an indirect war between the US vs. Russia and Cuba, which was fought by Nicaraguans that just wanted their government to change for the better! Ok, so eventually there was sort of peace after nearly a decade of war and hundreds of thousands of people dying. But the US wasn’t really happy about the peace, because then the Sandista government won. So then there was communism government in Nicaragua. And this didn’t work either because the money lost value so quickly, the already poor people had even less. One man I met with explained to me how he was a starving millionaire after the Sandista government took over, he had is weekly salary which was around 100,000 Cordoba’s, and couldn’t even get a few meals from it. I don’t really get how the money system changed, but basically it was hyperinflation. So after all that, the people were still not happy with their government because now there was more unemployment and the US was mad at them, and everything else. So this brings us to 1990 when all of the political parties that were not Sandista joined up as one and were given lots of money by the US of course, and won back the power through elections. So by this point I am trying to get the feel of what government the people think is good and what is bad. Basically the people liked the Sandista until they actually came to power, and then wanted something else, then when they got that they wanted something else and so on. So now the old Sandista leader is back in power, but he is not really ruling the country under the communist regime as before, but not as a democracy either. They say that this government is Ortegenista (after pres. Daniele Ortega) and is all together different yet!
So what has this all meant? Well you can see the immense confusion of the political state of the country (and this all didn’t happen to long ago!)) so now with Ortega people are still very upset and are talking of another revolution. Keep in mind that even thought the people are often fed up with the government, everyone is up-to-date on what is happening here and in other countries (it is not like US where many people don’t give a rip about voting or politics, they just care about themselves). The people understand that every leader or political party that has had power over the past century as been incredibly corrupts! Talk about the lesser of two evils, here that is not just a statement, it is the absolute truth! All of the political parties have been know not kill, kidnap, steal, lie, rape and pillage to get what they want! And that is no joke! One man told me a story of how he was a politician a few years ago and his opposition tried to kill him in a van with others from his party. Two people actually did die in the intentional car accident. This is an extremely corrupt place and being involved in politics here is dangerous business, for real!!!
This makes me realize that, yes the US has plenty that I disagree with, but relatively speaking it has a successful democracy and is fair! Here, it doesn’t matter who the people vote in or overthrow, or what, they keep getting f*ed over, time after time. But they don’t give up either, they continue to look to the future, and say “soon enough we will have a government that cares about the people”.
I hope this “History of Nicaragua, the way I see it” makes a little since, and hope that you have learned something. And I hope that the next time you think our political system is completely broken and without hope, think of the Nicaraguan people and the recent political history they have experienced and how even after all this, they are optimistic about their political future.