Caribbean & Central America - July 2008 (ISSN 1741-4458)

While thousands of Nicaraguans turned out on 19 July to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, the celebration nevertheless came just three days after the largest protest march against President Daniel Ortega since he took power in January 2007. As well as the government's failure to address inflation, protesters also expressed discontent at Ortega's recent moves to curtail democracy [RC-08-06], measures which have lost him support in recent weeks among international figures formerly sympathetic to the Sandinista cause.

“Mega marches"
On 16 July more than 30,000 Nicaraguans marched in Nicaragua's capital Managua in what was the second demonstration against Ortega's policies in less than a month. Organised by the Coordinadora Civil, which represents 300 civil society groups, protesters demanded an end to the spiraling cost of living. With inflation in June at 23.09% year-on-year, the highest rate in Central America, Nicaraguans have seen a 25% decline in their purchasing power over the last twelve months according to economist René Vallecillo, cited in national daily La Prensa.

Another source of discontent was Ortega's moves to curtail democracy - reflected in a ban on two political parties and the postponement of regional and municipal elections in the Región Autónoma Atlántico Norte, a region which the opposition was almost certain to dominate [RC-08-06]. The ruling Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) is also moving to strip one of the opposition leaders, Eduardo Montealegre, of his immunity and prosecute him for his alleged part in the financial scandal involving the Certificados Negociables de Inversión (Cenis). These were bonds controversially issued during the government of President Arnoldo Alemán between 2000 and 2002 to stabilise the banking system after five banks had failed [RC-07-11].

These moves have been criticised by former prominent members of the FSLN such as Dora Marí­a Téllez (whose dissident Sandinista party, the Movimiento de Renovación Sandinista, was one of the two parties recently banned). They have also come under fire from Carlos Mejí­a Godoy, a famous revolutionary singer-songwriter but now an opponent, who recently demanded that the government stop using his recordings at its rallies.

• Sandinista sympathisers concerned

At the end of last month, leading international celebrities and intellectuals who backed the Sandinista revolution in the 1980s wrote an open letter accusing President Daniel Ortega's government of stifling dissent. A US academic, Noam Chomsky; a British novelist, Salman Rushdie; and a human rights activist, Bianca Jagger (who is Nicaraguan), were among the signatories.