Growing political intolerance and polarization have returned to Nicaragua as President Daniel Ortega’s Government of Reconciliation and National Unity proves to be anything but. Pro-government Sandinista gangs have physically attacked opposition groups criticizing last year’s allegedly fraudulent elections.
“Nicaragua has come a long way from the heady days of 1990, when Chamorro’s election win appeared to signal the end of authoritarianism and the beginning of a new era of democratic capitalism,” argues analysts Jaime Daremblum . “The backsliding under Ortega has been unmistakable: Nicaragua is shifting away from democracy and toward a more authoritarian model.”
Carlos Fernando Chamorro may be experiencing a sense of déjà vu. As a leading advocate of media freedom, the former editor of the official Sandinista newspaper is also being attacked by his erstwhile comrades. Tina Rosenberg picks up his story in 1990, the turning point in his career:
In 1990, after six years as president, and as the contra war was coming to a close, Daniel Ortega ran for re-election. The Sandinistas expected to win, perhaps by a landslide. The landslide instead went to the candidate of the momentarily united opposition: Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. ‘I voted for Daniel Ortega,’ Carlos told me, and smiled sheepishly. At Barricada, the staff was in shock at the Sandinista’s loss. For Carlos, the shock was more personal. ‘My mother was president,’ he said. ‘I’m here at Barricada. Do I want to be in opposition to my mother?’ Well, yes, as it turned out, he did. Although Barricada eventually changed its slogan to ‘For the National Interest,’ the paper was merciless with his mother’s government. Then there was another, more pleasant shock: for the first time, Carlos did not have to censor himself. ‘We can be real journalists, not people defending a political project,’ he said he remembers thinking. ‘We began to feel liberated.’ The shift in Barricada was not only a professional imperative; it was a necessity for survival. Barricada had lost its income from government advertising. Now it had to survive by selling papers.
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