Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's allies in the Supreme Court lifted a ban on reelection last week, raising fears that Nicaragua might return to the kind of entrenched power that Ortega took up arms to defeat in 1979. He led the 1979 Sandinista uprising that ousted the regime of US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza, after 45 years of oppressive rule.
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On 19th Oct. the nation's Supreme Court said a ban on presidents and
vice presidents’ seeking a second term was "unenforceable." Nicaragua's constitution, amended since 1995, allows only one presidential term at a time and a maximum of two non-consecutive terms. Ortega, who served as president from 1985-1990, recently returned to power in 2006 after a 16 year hiatus.
vice presidents’ seeking a second term was "unenforceable." Nicaragua's constitution, amended since 1995, allows only one presidential term at a time and a maximum of two non-consecutive terms. Ortega, who served as president from 1985-1990, recently returned to power in 2006 after a 16 year hiatus. .
Many are terming the unfolding events as a constitutional coup. Unable to get the 56 legislative votes needed to reverse the reelection ban – and believed to be too unpopular to muster enough support for a popular referendum as leftist ally Hugo Chavez has done in Venezuela, Ortega Instead took his petition to lift a ban on consecutive terms to six pro-Sandinista judges who make up the constitutional branch of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court. They agreed with his argument that the prohibition on a second term violated his rights.
Internationally the United States has strongly condemned the development in Nicaragua. The US Sen. John Kerry (D) Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Ortega's "manipulation" of the Supreme Court "reeks of the authoritarianism of the past." He accused the Sandinista leader of "following the cues of the coup-plotters in Honduras."
According to the Nicaraguan M&R Consultores poll maker, 68.3 % of the Nicaraguans think that the presidential reelection "tends to weaken democracy and to restore a dictatorship," only 23.6 % think that the reelection "contributes to strengthening democracy," and 8.1 % said they do not know about the issue.
Also 71.3 % of the respondents think Ortega does not "deserve" to continue another presidential term, while 24.6 % think the contrary, and 4.1 % said they do not know.
Lately there hav
e been guerrilla-style protests from a growing underground movement against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. It’s a new trend of civil disobedience that has largely been driven underground by what Human Rights activists’ term as Sandinista repression on the streets. Even non-violent human rights leaders such as Gonzalo Carrión, of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, are defending the peoples' "legitimate right to use all resources available to defend their liberty and country."
e been guerrilla-style protests from a growing underground movement against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. It’s a new trend of civil disobedience that has largely been driven underground by what Human Rights activists’ term as Sandinista repression on the streets. Even non-violent human rights leaders such as Gonzalo Carrión, of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, are defending the peoples' "legitimate right to use all resources available to defend their liberty and country." "We are now living under a strong and very original dictatorship," said constitutional analyst and retired Judge Sergio Garcia Quintero. "And we are quickly approaching a tyranny, where Ortega is no longer interested in even projecting the image of a democracy with a separation of powers."
One analyst notes that The Bolivarian block comprising Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela has made reelection its leaders’ priority. They range from “some like Hugo Chávez, who call popular referendums—and repeat them until the desired result is achieved—to Daniel Ortega, who has benefited from court decisions. Colombia’s Álvaro Uribe, for his part, is doing everything possible to extend his term, and others, like the Kirchners in Argentina, keep it all within their marriage.”
The broad consensus among analysts remains that in the Latin American region leaders who circumvent term limits are undermining the region's democratic progress.
Discussion Questions:· Given the observed trend of power grabbing through presidential term limit extensions, do you think Latin America is adopting a new dictatorial trend in Democratic garb?
· Is the US sending out mixed signals—where it supported Zelaya against the Honduran preemptive Coup at his bid to seek reelection, while strongly condemning Ortega’s ‘Constitutional Coup’ for the same end?
Sources/ Related links-
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h-AFgS8LitQDCTBhuIlCWLuSCNDw
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1027/p90s01-woam.html
http://www.impre.com/laopinion/opinion/2009/10/27/victory-for-democracy-155897-1.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-termlimits26-2009oct26,0,6790603.story?track=rss
http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2009/october/24/centam-091024-03.htm
http://www.americasquarterly.org/node/1026
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/oct/130875.htm
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/nu.html _______________________________________________________
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U.S. intervention in Latin countries politics is the main cause of political issues just as is the case in Pakistan. If political leaders make their decisions independently even in their own interests but without foreign involvment then democracy eventually comes out victorous because of the maturing experience of the people. People in Nicaragua are also supportive of democracy and they will get democracy settled in their country provided that foreign interevention ends.
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