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| Essay Archive | July 19, 2003 |
BALLAD OF A REVOLUTIONARY
Nicaragua Celebrates 24 years Since Somoza
 July 19, 2003 celebration in Plaza Juan Pablo II Photo: Richard Leonardi |
 Daniel Ortega greets the plaza crowd. Photo: Richard Leonardi |
 Joyful greeting for Daniel Ortega. Photo: Richard Leonardi |
 Sea of flags and handshakes for the ex-President. Photo: Richard Leonardi |
 Commandante Ortega holds a girl from the crowd. Photo: Richard Leonardi |
A first time visitor to this grand party in the plaza might well imagine that Daniel Ortega really could be the Savior of Nicaragua, for all his fame, the sincere, natural and undeniably electric outpouring of support exhibited by his public, not to mention his clearly reciprocal passion for the Nicaraguan people. If only it was true.
"How do I tell you what that plaza was like?" asks rhetorically former Sandinista rebel organizer and ex-priest Ernesto Cardenal. "It was a sea of delirious people, not another person could fit in the plaza and yet people just kept coming in. A giant crowd squeezed on to the cornices and bell towers of the Cathedral, which had been abandoned since the earthquake, until there wasn't room for one person more and it looked like the church would collapse. And the tops of the park trees were full of people, the Teatro Rubén Darío in front of the lake as well, and the azotes of the Palacio Nacional. There were multitudes hanging, pressing, rising." Ernesto Cardenal, Minister of Culture during the Sandinista government, remembers victory day vividly, in his soon to be published memoir, The Revolution Lost, "All the columns of all the war fronts were entering the plaza, covered in sweat, dirty and radiant, in every type of vehicle taken in victory from all corners of the country, pickups, cars, buses, military trucks, mini-tanks, tanks and walking on foot, with olive-green uniforms or without uniform or dressed in rags, hugging each other when they recognized one another or when they didn't, kissed by the public, with screams, and laughter, and tears, and jumps of joy, hoisting up flags and pennants, fight songs sung in chorus, bursts from rifles and shotguns and machine guns. The party of a people in 500 of years of its history it never had. The delirium of that plaza was like a dream. Was it also that we were dreaming? Ultra-crowded hysteria and euphoria, were there 100,000, 200,000 persons? For them the brutal Managua mid-day sun did not matter. A population gone mad, everyone laughing, yelling viva, clapping; arms raised in the air, weapons raised in the air, banners, placards, hands trying to caress rebels, children waving flags with their fathers."
"There were people everywhere, covering the dome and ruins of the national Cathedral across the street. In the sweltering heat, approximately 100,000 had gathered", remembered another witness to the historical scene in Managua on July 20, 1979. The Nicaraguan people, orchestrated by the FSLN, had overcome the brutal repression at the hands of the military dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle and his cruel National Guard. Somoza fled the country on the 17th and the last of his feared National Guard either ran or put down their arms on July 19th. The following day in the plaza in front of the National Palace and the old Cathedral gathered a jubilant crowd, a microcosm of all the country, which was breathing a collective sigh of relief, sobbing with joy for the victory and sadness for the more than 50,000 who died in the struggle. The "Revolution", or "Insurrection", or "War against Somoza", which has for 24 years been claimed as exclusive property of the Daniel Ortega controlled Sandinista Party, was indeed led by the commanders, strategy, and propaganda skills of the FSLN; the war, however, was won by a wide range of militias from diverse political views, which joined the FSLN and an inspired, valiant, non-political populace (the deciding factor) to achieve the common goal of dislodging Somoza and his army.
US embassy chargé d'affairs in Managua Thomas O'Donnell (quoted in Lawrence and Ralph Pezzullo's, At the Fall of Somoza) remembered the 1979 gathering like "… a meeting of warlords from all different parts of Europe gathering together for the first time after the Crusades. Each had his own phalanx of guards who looked suspiciously at the other guy's guards." Inside the National Palace a ruling "Board for the Reconstruction of Nicaragua" was being sworn in by Managua Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo. The various Commandantes watched in their fatigues as Daniel Ortega was made director of the board, de facto ruler of Nicaragua. After the swearing in process, the different players: Commandantes, new board members and even the Archbishop, took turns on the balcony to salute the massive crowd in the plaza. According to O'Donnell, "On a scale of one to ten, (Commandante Zero, Eden) Pastora received the biggest ovation - say, ten - followed by the archbishop with an eight and a half; Doña Violeta (Barrios de Chamorro) got an eight; (Commandante Tomás) Borge a five; (Commandante Jaime) Wheelock, the Ortegas (Commandantes Humberto and Daniel) and the others just a smattering of applause; they were clearly not well known." This would change quickly.
For the next ten years Daniel Ortega would remain in power. First as the director of the Sandinista Party led Nicaragua Reconstruction Board from July of 1979 until 1984, then as President of Nicaragua from 1984 -1990. His brother Humberto Ortega, mastermind of the revolution's military strategy, became the head of the Sandinista Military. Tomás Borge would become the Minister of Interior and Jaime Wheelock of Minister of Agriculture. Doña Violeta, after resigning from her post on the Reconstruction Committee, less than one year after the July 19, 1979 victory party, would go on to defeat Daniel Ortega in the 1990 presidential elections. The archbishop of Managua, Miguel Obando y Bravo, a long time critique of the Somoza dictatorship would soon turn his pulpit wrath towards the Sandinistas. Pope John Paul II would name Obando y Bravo (Central America's first) Cardinal of Nicaragua, a position he retains today. Commandante Zero, Eden Pastora, the most audacious and flamboyant of the FSLN rebel commanders, and one of many who did not share Daniel Ortega's Marxist plans for Nicaragua, was soon in battle fatigues and fighting against the Nicaragua government once again, this time with the famed "contras".
To succeed in the war against Somoza, the FSLN needed an extensive and prolonged popular uprising. Unity in opposition to the Somoza dictatorship meant filing away party ideologies to achieve a broad base of support. When the war was won on July 19, 1979, the pre-victory promises of an open democratic system presented an obstacle to the realization of Sandinista Party goals. This problem was solved by quickly consolidating a monopoly on police and military power, independent of would be social democrats and other ideologues. This was seen by some as betrayal and disillusioned many who had risked life and limb to overthrow Somoza. The first rebel attack against the new Sandinista Government occurred only four months after the July 20, 1979 victory party and was perpetrated by disillusioned ex-Sandinista rebels. The Sandinistas radical agricultural reform program, iron-fisted state security apparatus and slippery slope of land confiscations would quickly swell the ranks of rebel fighters who took up arms against Sandinista Party rule. The new rebels would soon to be known worldwide as the contras (short for counterrevolutionary in Spanish) and three years later they began to receive US financial and logistical support, who appointed exiled National Guard survivors to direct the insurgency.
Achievements of the Sandinistas during their 10 years of power, despite having to fight the contra war and suffer the US economic embargo, were numerous. Most noticeable were advances in culture and education, but also big strides were made in health care, woman's rights, family planning and in development of essential domestic infrastructure. Perhaps most significantly, the plight of the country's poor majority became a central issue for Nicaragua's government (for the first time in its history) and thankfully has remained so since.
None the less, lack of freedom of the press, mandatory military service, disastrous economic policies worsened by war spending and a US economic embargo, the FSLN's belligerently confrontational treatment of the traditional Catholic Church, forced party indoctrination starting at grade school level and wide-spread human rights violations, made the Sandinista legacy less than positive for the majority of the Nicaraguan population. In many ways the post-war memory of Daniel Ortega and the FSLN is that of another dictatorship, albeit one who handed over power democratically after losing the 1990 elections to Doña Violeta.
Daniel Ortega lost the 1990 presidential elections to Violeta Chamorro by 14% or 350,000 votes. Losing the elections came as a shock to most members of the FSLN. Yet leaders of the Sandinista Party used the short time between the election vote and inauguration of Doña Violeta to divide and distribute amongst loyal Party members confiscated properties, businesses and homes in what is known in Nicaragua famously as "la piñata". A piñata is a birthday party game in which a clay figure representing an animal is hung from a tree. The figure is smashed with a wooden stick by blindfolded children, breaking the piñata drops candy on the floor, which creates a mad scramble of children who grab as much candy as fast as they can. More long time supporters of the FSLN became disillusioned.
Doña Violeta Chamorro's moderate, pro-business government managed to gradually achieve total peace in Nicaragua, demilitarize the country, and slow inflation from its world record rates of the late 1980's. Though her administration was criticized for billion dollar privatizations of state properties that resulted in little money being deposited in already beleaguered state coffers, the country breathed a sigh of relief after years of war. She left office with grace, though without a well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1996 Daniel Ortega ran for office again, this time against the right-wing candidate Arnoldo Alemán. Once again Daniel Ortega lost by 14%, and a higher tally of 650,000 votes thanks to a growing populace. In late 1997 Ortega made what Managua newspaper El Nuevo Diario called "the mother of all secret political pacts" with his supposed political opposite, Arnoldo Alemán. The pact made a mockery of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court, the CSE (election oversight board) and rewarded Alemán and Ortega with an automatic seat in parliament at the end of Alemán's term, assuring both diplomatic immunity from legal prosecution. Long time, staunch allies of Daniel Ortega inside the FSLN who objected publicly to the pact were promptly ex-communicated from the Sandinista Party. In early 1998 Daniel Ortega's stepdaughter, Zoilamérica Narváez, came public with a horrifyingly detailed account of years of abuse by Daniel Ortega. Zoilamérica claimed that since the age of 11 Commandante Ortega had abused her both sexually and emotionally. Ortega weathered the storm with the help of FSLN stalwarts who accused Zoilamérica of political motivation.
Arnold Alemán's charm wore off quickly. Alemán improved foreign investment, road and school infrastructure in Nicaragua and embezzled more than 100 million US dollars from Latin America's most impoverished government and assembled a large group of loyal (purchased) parliamentary members that are paralyzing progress in the Nicaraguan congress today.
Despite the controversial pact with Alemán and the accusations of Zoilamérica, the 2001 elections looked good for Daniel Ortega and the Sandinista Party. Pre-election polls had the Commandante leading by a healthy margin. Ortega's opponent in 2001 was Enrique Bolaños, Vice President under Arnoldo Alemán, an intelligent, smug man of honest character and minimal charisma. On September 11, 2001, less than two months before the Nicaraguan presidential elections, the world political climate changed dramatically. The Bolaños campaign took the opportunity off the silver plate and used print and TV advertisements full of photos of Daniel Ortega embracing leaders of Palestine and Libya. One ad stretched the theme's potential to its ultimate, using a photo of Osama Bin Laden carrying an AK-47, with a voice-over message in Spanish, "If I could vote in Nicaragua I would vote for Commandante Daniel Ortega." Ortega, long an outspoken critic US foreign policy was put on the defensive and his campaign rallies suddenly featured heavily the US national flag and even included a token "Texan" complete with a ten gallon hat and cowboy boots to cheer Ortega on stage.
With the pain of the 1980's US economic embargo still fresh in the Nicaraguan voters' memory and US President Bush's "You are either with us or against us" ringing in their ears, and an impressive (in Nicaragua voting is not mandatory) 94% turnout at the poles, Daniel Ortega lost the presidential vote by 14% yet again, this time by 900,000 votes to Enrique Bolaños. Taking over the presidential office to find state coffers completely cleaned out by his predecessor, Don Enrique has proved marginally effective. He has managed to strip Arnoldo Alemán of diplomatic immunity. Ex-president Alemán now sits in house arrest on corruption charges. Daniel Ortega denounced his diplomatic immunity shortly after the election defeat and a Nicaragua judge promptly decided the charges made by Zoilamérica could not be heard, ruling that the statue of limitations had run out.
Outwardly obedient, reserved dissidents within the Sandinista Party along with the vocal ones who had been tossed out of the FSLN in the wake of the Ortega-Alemán pact saw the possible end of Daniel Ortega's more than 20 year stranglehold the Party candidacy. Baseball is the national sport of Nicaragua and Ortega had three strikes. Speculation was rampant, would Commandante Ortega hand over the reigns to another Sandinista? One year later, in October of 2002, Jose Inacio Lula da Silva, better known simply as Lula, won the presidential elections for the Brazil's leftist Workers Party. Not only did this breath new hope into the Latin American left, it was a shinning star for Daniel Ortega, since Lula had suffered three previous electoral defeats before his 2002 electoral victory.
Daniel Ortega has yet to announce his candidacy for the 2006 electoral race, yet one day before this year's annual triumphant appearance at the July 19 party, he huddled in conference with his old nemesis Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo. What Daniel was asking for was forgiveness for "mistakes" made by the FSLN in the 1980's towards the Catholic Church. The Cardinal was gracious, even saying to the press afterwards that he thought the odds of the Sandinistas winning the next elections were very positive. Considering the last 24 years of horrible relations between the FSLN and the Catholic Church, this turn of events was nothing short of shocking for the Nicaraguan press.
When I arrived on July 19, 2003 to the Plaza Juan Pablo II (named after Pope John Paul II who gave mass from its stage in 1996) it was already full of supporters, many who had begun their day at 4:00 a.m. boarding buses decorated in party colors to arrive travel to Managua from distant villages. The original party locale, dubbed the "Plaza de la Revolución" in 1979, has since been renamed "Plaza de la República". Where the jubilant crowd filled July 20, 1979 now stands a giant new presidential office and a kitschy dancing fountain, both courtesy of the Arnoldo Alemán administration. The party today takes place two blocks away from the original locale, in a broad plaza, marked by a cross-topped tower that sports a portrait of Pope John Paul II and faces a long concrete stage that runs parallel to the muddy south shore of Lake Managua.
The real politics began when founding member of the FSLN, fiery and diminutive Tomás Borge, made his speech to the immense black and red audience. Borge, at least partly responsible for Daniel Ortega's longevity as the party leader, is the only of 10 founding members of the Sandinista Party that actually lived long enough to see the victory celebration on July 20, 1979. As Minister of the Interior during the 1980's he was a greatly feared man, responsible for quelling dissention, real or perceived, with all the means of state security at his disposal. Today he is a member of Nicaragua's 92-seat parliament, one of 36 lawmakers representing the FSLN, where the old Comandante inexplicably chairs the parliamentary commission on tourism. Tomás Borge's attractive Peruvian wife watched the speech with their children, whom, like her and her husband, were all elegantly dressed in impeccable white linen clothing, decorated with carefully draped black and red scarves, looking the part of a Marxist Ralph Lauren commercial. Commandante Borge yelled his entire speech, punctuating ideas with clenched fists and pointed fingers, as he has been doing for years. He warned party members against egoism, selfishness, and ominously, against betrayal. Much of the crowd did not know how to interpret this, or thought it wise not to, but experienced observers took it to mean egoism and selfishness of rivals to Daniel Ortega, and betrayal of the FSLN's eternal presidential candidate. In any case, the young crowd knew well that the old commander is a living legend and cheered appreciatively when he finished.
In between speeches from representatives of Cuba's Communist Party, Brazil's newly victorious Worker's Party and other dignitaries, the rotating members of what amounted to a FSLN house band played a truly eclectic range of music to entertain the huge crowd baking beneath the Nicaragua sun: The Doors, classical chamber music, surf rock, revolutionary folk music and even opera. After the heroic, celebratory entrance of Daniel Ortega and his personal greeting of the crowd, Ortega's eccentric wife, Rosario Murillo took the stage. Dressed in flowered pants and smothered in Navajo jewelry, the former First Lady of Nicaragua looked more like the Ambassador for Santa Fe, New Mexico at Haight-Ashbury. Rosario Murillo proceeded to deliver the most equally relevant and incoherent speech of the day. Most of the July 19 speakers appeared to forget exactly what was being celebrated and were treating the party as a sort of "celebrate the Latin American political left day". Yet Rosario's rambling, emotional and at times touching poem, "Se Fue Somoza" (Somoza's Gone) brought the plaza party back to the real meaning of July 19, a legal, national holiday in Nicaragua. She was the first to even mention Somoza's name since I had arrived. After the enjoyable, if epic, poem she lost the audience and herself in a long aimless speech. It was sort of new age, karma vortex meets the moral majority dissertation that touched on "love, tradition, family values, purity, crime, green earth, drug abuse, rain and sky."
The crowd had been waiting all morning for El Commandante. They began to whistle and chant for the main attraction. Daniel looked on passively from backstage. Finally someone gave the order for the house band to start playing. They came in softly with classical music, like an Oscar award presentation hint of "wrap it up, we have more show to present here". Daniel's wife was mostly unfazed by the music, momentarily losing her place in the massive written script she was reading, then determinedly returning to her lecture. The crowd's restlessness grew as she continued to ramble on over the background music, which was growing louder and louder. She spoke of "violence, rebirth, corruption, flowers in the morning dew of the green, green earth…" until finally the FSLN tenor and symphony broke into a ripping, inspired live version of Andrea Bocelli's "Con Te Partiró". Unable to talk over the tenor's rising scales, she bowed out of the podium. The crowd erupted in applause.
The scene at the Plaza Juan Pablo II was in many ways like a summer country fair. Beyond the stage, away from the TV cameras, further along the shores of Lake Managua, a small Ferris wheel spun counterclockwise revolutions full of laughing children, while pushcart ice cream vendors rested in the shade, next to big families who leaned on bicycles, sat in circles on the grass or with feet dangling from the beds of pick-up trucks. The most faithful Sandinista public, on foot for hours in the sweaty center of the plaza facing the stage, also managed to maintain a carnival attitude throughout the proceedings that only occasionally was interrupted by a drunken, slow motion fistfight.
The stage area itself had seating for special guests, like second most important figure in the Nicaraguan Catholic Church representing his boss Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, the very rotund Monsignor Eddy Montenegro, who sat stage-left, suffering under the infernal sun in his black priest's dress, praying for patience behind dark sunglasses. It was the first time an official from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church had attended a July 19 celebration since Archbishop Obando y Bravo in 1979 at the original victory party. To introduce the new church-friendly Daniel Ortega, the FSLN symphony and tenor rendered a reasonable replica of Pavarotti singing Ave María. A light rain then appeared from nowhere, refreshing the plaza, it was time for Commandante Daniel Ortega to take center stage.
Daniel prefers not to use a podium for speeches; he takes the microphone and wanders the stage, pacing back and forth, like an evangelist preacher. His speech always defines the FSLN's official line. Ortega's public was happy to see him and showed their affection openly. Perhaps half of them were not yet born when the revolution was won, but Daniel is a figure larger than life in Nicaragua. No one wants to actually listen to a politician talk and make promises, but Commandante Ortega refuses to admit that he even is one. "Politicians live with lies and hypocrisy. I am not a politician, but a revolutionary. Revolutionaries live with ideals."
 Girls at plaza party born after historic Sandinista victory. Legal voting age in Nicaragua is 16 years. Photo: Richard Leonardi |
To beat the giant crowd I left a bit early, while Daniel was still speaking. On the outer reaches of the plaza I realized, to my surprise, that many others had chosen to do the same. I felt melancholy. The elation of the crowd I experienced when Daniel Ortega arrived to greet his adoring public was contrasted by this silent procession away from the plaza. The departing fans seemed subdued, walking away quietly, while Ortega's speech emanated from distant speakers, echoing off rows of project housing. Hundreds of people were leaving before the end of Commandante Ortega's speech. Was he not the highlight of the show? Did his speech lack something it had on other days? Do many of the Sandinistas now believe he cannot win another election? About half the people asked think Daniel is the only candidate for the FSLN - he must be there at the top, to lead the Sandinistas to victory. The other half is split amongst those who admit that it may be time for a change at the top and many others simply say it does not matter, they will vote for whomever the party chooses.
I live fairly close to the plaza, so I was able to catch the end of the speech at home on television. Ortega claimed, "Democracy was brought to Nicaragua by the Sandinistas, that without the FSLN, Somoza's grandchildren would be ruling the country today." Most Nicaraguans hold little doubt that without the Sandinistas the uprising against Somoza most likely would have failed or perhaps never even occurred at all. Daniel Ortega looks out on the plaza, assured of his place in history, finishing his speech proudly, "The Somoza dictatorship will never return to power!" One has to ask - will Daniel Ortega?
Copyright © Richard Leonardi