THERE IS a nice symmetry to the landslide re-election for the third time of Daniel Ortega to the Nicaraguan presidency the very week our own Michael D Higgins will be inaugurated. Though the latter might be less keen these days to advertise the relationship of the two compañeros, back in May 1989 they were bosom pals when Higgins organised El Presidente's visit to Ireland for Nicaragua's London embassy. Indeed, The Irish Timesrecorded the "Homely Galway welcome for the Ortegas" when their two old limousines arrived at Casa Higgins for tea. They were on their way to dinner with Bishop Eamon Casey.
How times change. Ortega, who led the Sandinista movement that in 1979 overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza, has shed the green fatigues that were standard dress for a business suit, and his Marxist/Catholic ideology for a business-friendly pragmatism (still dressed in socialist rhetoric) that sits all too comfortably with the not-entirely-above-board enrichment of those around him and the successful courting of foreign capital.
And, many say, he has shed his more democratic instincts – opposition parties blocked from ballots, critical journalists threatened – to concentrate power in presidential hands and play footsie with regional pariah Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. The latter’s “friendship” has benefited impoverished Nicaragua – the poorest country on the American continent – to the tune of some $2 billion over the last four years.
Ortega’s success in persuading a pliable supreme court to override a constitutional prohibition on his third presidential term has also alarmed many. And there have been more than a few reports of electoral malpractice. In truth, however, the doubling of foreign trade and direct investment in Nicaragua over the last five years, and impressive growth are to Ortega’s credit and have undoubtedly boosted his popularity. Poverty has fallen and the share of homes with power risen from 55 to 70 per cent. The country more or less escaped the ravages of the world economic crisis. And courtesy of firm control of both police and army Ortega also seems to have spared it from the organised crime wave that has overwhelmed many Central American neighbours.
Nicaragua’s contradictory leader has managed to straddle Latin America’s populist socialist currents, represented variously by Brazil and Venezuela, while maintaining an uneasy but still largely positive relationship with the US. Well enough, however, to merit an invitation to the Áras from his old comrade?