Caribbean & Central America - April 2012 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The recent confiscation of property by the government of President Daniel Ortega in order to gift it to a former Sandinista guerrilla, Edén Pastora [RC-12-03], served as a catalyst, triggering protests by thousands of former soldiers of the (now-defunct) Sandinista army, the Ejército Popular Sandinista (EPS). As well as highlighting the plight of the veterans, who have long complained that they have been neglected by the State, the show of unrest from former Sandinistas in March also attracted media attention as indicative of tensions within the ruling Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN). 

Despite legislation such as the 1991 law of attention to war victims and Ortega’s creation of the truth, justice, reconciliation and peace commission in 2007, headed up by Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo [RC-07-05], former soldiers complain that their longstanding social and economic demands continue to be ignored by the State. At its height in 1986, the EPS was made up of some 134,000 officials, although this was reduced in 1990 to 87,000. Following the 1995 reform, which depoliticised the army and transformed it into a national institution, the military has been cut to some 12,000 members.

Prompted by the government’s handover of land to Pastora, who, former combatants complained, had not just served with the FSLN but also fought for the Contras, veterans from the northern provinces of Jinotega, Matagalpa and Estelí blocked roads providing access to Managua. The protest action lasted nearly two weeks (until 15 March), when a deal was struck with the government. Following negotiations between Carlos Ramírez, the president of the Consejo Nacional de Defensores de la Patria (CNDP), which represents some 12,000 veterans, and a government delegation which featured Edwin Castro, the head of the FSLN bench in congress, Yara Pérez, the property superintendent, and Roberto López, the head of the social security system (INSS), the agreements reached include: 1) the purchase of land by the government to be redistributed among the veterans (who are calling for between five and 15 manzanas [between 8.4 and 25.2 acres] each); 2) specialised medical attention in line with the 1991 law of attention to war victims; and 3) a pensions law for retired officials, among other benefits. The latter is significant as the Nicaraguan army did not begin a formal pension plan for its officers until 1994, with the ratification of the Military Code and establishment of the Military’s Social Welfare Institute (IPSM). However, since it is not retroactive those who retired before 1994 were not covered. The CNDP has given the government until 17 April to begin making good on its commitments.

Internal tensions

While the FSLN remains one of the most disciplined political parties in the region, former Sandinista leader Moisés Hassan Morales, who split with the FSLN in the late 1980s, was quick to discern further significance in the protests. He said they revealed tensions between factions within the party, mainly triggered by opposition to Rosario Murillo, the powerful First Lady and official government spokesperson. Hassan Morales suggested to a leading daily, La Prensa, that former colonel Lenín Cerna, the head of the state security apparatus (DGSE) under the first Ortega government (1979-1990), could have had a hand in the recent unrest. A representative of the historic old guard and cellmate of Ortega’s for years under the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza (1974-1979), Cerna had served as FSLN organisational secretary - one of the most important party posts - until May last year when he was sacked. His ouster was widely attributed to a clash with Murillo, whom many believe to have been behind the ejection of other leading Sandinistas from Ortega’s inner circle, such as a popular former mayor of Managua, Dionisio Marenco (2005-2009). Murillo has been able to accumulate such power through heading up the controversial citizen power councils (CPCs) which, initially billed as strengthening citizen participation, became an extension of the executive by presidential decree in November 2007 [RC-07-12]. They have since spawned other state/party organisations such as the citizens’ power cabinets (GPC) and Sandinista Leadership Committees (CLS) — as well as other new structures that exist in conjunction with the old and weakened FSLN ones.

• More signs of dissent

The veterans’ demonstrations came just weeks after protests by FSLN supporters in late January against the presidential couple’s imposition of candidates for the 4 November 2012 municipal vote, which culminated in the submission of a letter to the party headquarters, signed by some 7,000 people on 7 February. The unrest had been triggered by visits by Nelson Artola, the executive president of the government’s emergency social investment fund (Fise) and a close Ortega ally, to municipalities to ‘anoint’ candidates. According to local press reports, members of the FSLN (which controls 105 of the country’s 153 municipalities) staged demos in some 20 municipalities in seven provinces. Ortega failed to comment on the unrest.

• Ambassadors confirmed

On 29 March the US Senate confirmed the appointments of Phyllis Powers and Jonathan Farrar as ambassadors to Nicaragua and Panama respectively. US President Barack Obama had initially tapped Farrar for the Managua post, a position which has been vacant since July 2011, when Robert Callahan ended his three-year stint. However, his ratification was held up in the US Senate amid complaints from two Cuban-American senators, Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio, that Farrar, a former head of the US Interests Section (USINT) in Cuba, was too soft on the Cuban government and that a stronger character was needed in Nicaragua. Powers, a career diplomat, was ambassador to Panama at the time of her appointment.