 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
In Nicaragua, democracy put to the testBy DAVID ADAMS
© St. Petersburg Times, MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- I had a real sense of deja vu as I sat under a hot sun waiting for a political rally to begin here last week. I was listening to two women in their 40s describe their lifetime devotion to the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN), the former guerrilla group that took power after the 1979 revolution. It was the sort of revolutionary socialist talk about poverty and social justice I remember having over and over again when I lived here in the 1980s. Both women wore T-shirts supporting Daniel Ortega, the former guerrilla commander who led the FSLN and is a presidential candidate again in elections today. Both bitterly described the 11 years since the Sandinistas were ousted in elections in 1990. "There's no work or free education or health services," said Socorro Leyton, 49. "We need another revolution for social justice." In numerous conversations over five days, I heard working-class Nicaraguans describe how their lives had gone backwards during a decade of democratic rule and a free market. Many said living conditions were better during the war years, when a U.S. embargo and support for anti-Sandinista Contra army reduced the country to economic ruin. "Despite the embargo, the government provided for everyone," said Leyton, echoing a common refrain. "The shops were empty but we all had something to eat. Now the shops are full but no one has any money." It's astonishing how little has changed in Nicaragua over the last decade. Sure, Managua now is dotted with a few sparkling new shopping malls, hotels and casinos. There's even a Hard Rock Cafe, built by a company with ties to the Seminole Tribe of Florida. It's also true that road surfaces have improved. There are even a few pleasantly landscaped roundabouts, or traffic circles. But, frankly, that's about it. Official statistics show modest economic growth in the last decade. The World Bank says the national poverty index dropped from 50 percent to 49 percent between 1993 and 1998. In rural areas, poverty has gone down, from 76 percent to 69 percent. Despite that, living conditions have worsened in many rural areas. For the first time, hunger is being reported in areas of the north hard hit by the slump in world coffee prices. Hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans have abandoned the countryside in the last decade, moving to the cities or neighboring Costa Rica. In the slum named United Nations on the outskirts of Managua, residents complained that after 11 years they still had no paved roads, running water or electricity. "There's no work in the countryside," said Norma Espinosa, 32, who moved to the city with her six children 18 months ago from the province of Rivas. Her husband is a security guard -- the only growth industry these days -- earning $130 a month. I found Espinosa at the local rubbish dump chopping up firewood from branches left from the garden trimmings of mansions in the plush neighborhood of Las Colinas next door. She lamented that she couldn't afford the $30 monthly fee to send her four school-age children to public school this year. It's not all the government's fault. Nicaragua has had its share of bad luck. In 1998, there was Hurricane Mitch and now the coffee crisis. Even so, with about $5-billion in foreign aid over the last decade (more than $1-billion from the United States), some economists estimate Nicaragua has received more donor assistance per capita than any country in the world. Many people ask where it went. But Nicaraguans haven't given up hope. I asked Sergio Ramirez, a former Sandinista leader and widely respected author and intellectual if the struggle for democracy in Nicaragua had any lasting positive results. He reminded me that Nicaraguans can be grateful for some things we might take for granted. Among them: a stable currency, free speech and a vigorous civil society, as well as a disciplined and professional army. These, of course, were things severely lacking during the Somoza dictatorship and under Marxist Sandinista rule. "It's a paradox," Ramirez said. "The revolution helped bring about liberties that it never espoused, and yet was unable to achieve the goals of social justice it really cared about."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
