Today marks two memorable occasions for me in reference to Nicaragua. First, 12 years ago today. I contracted Dengue Fever which is one of the worst experiences I have had in my life. 12 years ago there was also no cure for Dengue, which meant that people literally just had to 'sweat it out'. For those that don't know what Dengue Fever is, it's a viral infection much like malaria (which is a disease, but hey ho) in that it is caused through mosquito bites and drinking / washing in contaminated water (where mosquito eggs are laid). The mosquitos that carry Dengue though are active during the day, so even mosquito nets cannot save you. It's just horrible. I lost 7lbs in a week (that is 1lb a day) because I literally could not eat. And everything was coming out of me in any way it could. At one point someone took blood from me and put a saline drip on me (I still can't fully discern if that was a dream or reality - I'm told the latter but it felt like the former). A few days later when I could actually concentrate I was told I had Dengue Fever and that I would carry the virus for the rest of my life. It would lay dormant but may become active again with another bite (and potentially fatally depending on what strain I'm bitten with the second time).
I've always compared this to my feelings and love for Nicaragua. It's in my blood and comes out any time I re-visit that beautiful land. But, that brings me to the second memorable occassion on this day... which is today. And that is the re-'election' of Daniel Ortega as the President of Nicaragua. With, apparently, almost 75% of the electoral vote.
To set the scene - I lived in Nicaragua for almost 3 years (2008-2011) and I returned to visit in 2018, and left days before the student protests. During my return in 2018, it was clear there had been a dramatic shift in perception about Daniel Ortega and his 'history' as a Sandinista revolutionary. In those days before the protests, people who had previously supported him candidly discussed his 'descent' into authoritarianism, how his family was becoming the new oligarchy / dynasty (along with his wife becoming the Vice President), and how he was ensuring deals (such as the Pan American Canal) to secure foreign 'allies' which actually shafted his home allies, including the campesinos (peasants / farmers) who had given him the majority vote twice before.
Then there were the demonstrations, the live footage that I was sent from friends' mobile phones, watching the 'peace talks' which ended in students having to flee Nicaragua for their lives (and I met three of them in the UK afterwards who told me their experiences first-hand). My confused friends, some of whom left Nicaragua and emigrated to Costa Rica, the US, UK and Spain, and genuinely feared for their own and their family's lives. Others stayed, and had strong reasons to stay, but all reported feeling fear at varying levels. Protestors were being re-branded as terrorists (which soon found its way into 'democratic' Nicaraguan law) and were afraid to speak out or potentially lose their jobs (which some of them lost anyway). The land - and the people - that I had loved so feverishly was crumpling before my very eyes and the narratives were becoming so skewed. Most of the people I keep in contact with in Nicaragua are Nicaraguans, but I did become aquainted with quite a few ex-pats who had set up some kind of business/home/charity in Nicaragua in some online forums, and the debate was fierce as to whether Ortega was actually becoming an authoritarian dictator or the protests were being orchestrated by the US in yet another attempt to decredit the Ortega administration (see the Iran-Contra controversy under US President Ronald Reagan). In all honesty, all the evidence I received first-hand suggests the former. Yet, Ortega held on to his presidency, despite both his people and international bodies decrying him and/or boycotting Nicaragua and/or asking for intervention beyond diplomacy.
But, we forget. Unless you have an emotional connection to Nicaragua and are still connected to the people there, there are many other distractions (including the 'paltry' Covid-19) that have taken precedence, and Ortega has managed to jail or extradite nine of his political opponents to 'win' his fourth consecutive term as President of Nicaragua... today.
I've written about both populism and populism in Nicaragua, and the implications both have for the wider understanding of 'democracy', before. But tonight is not the night to get the books and journal articles out to back up everything I say with evidence. Tonight is a time to reflect on something that is broken, and something that has been broken for a long time, and fully lament about the implications that this has for not just the lives of Nicaraguans in Nicaragua (and the ones who have fleed and are waiting to come back home). but about the implications of this on politics and democracy as a whole. Something is rotten, and we are catching its stench - in different forms - across the globe. This isn't a problem specific to Nicaragua. It isn't even a problem specific to Latin America. It is about corruption, greed, patriarchy and entitlement. It is about the people who are elected to represent us deliberately misleading us and seeing it as a game where there are winners and losers, and that this 'justifies' the heartbreak and agony of people's worlds falling down. Thus, it is the fault of the individual for not 'understanding' unwritten rules of the game that, if they were actually written down, would implicate the 'winners' as not playing 'fair' through cheating the law and others. We KNOW this happens. We know these 'rules'. We know that they are unfair. But, yet, they persist. And people's lives are being destroyed because of it.
I am deeply saddened, but not surprised, by today's result. Still, I am horrified. Horrified how people like Daniel Ortega (and countless others) can sleep at night. The last time I deliberately lied I cried myself to sleep for two nights and then confessed my sins for absolution. The guilt and the shame got the better of me, and I'm glad it did. It reminded me who I was and what I stood for. And I haven't done anything like that again (which was 7 years ago now... how I still remember it... it involved a leather sofa and shoe polish and I will leave it at that). Some people don't have that filter / check and I really think we have the right to question if those who CAN sleep at night in such circumstances are the right people to represent others.
As I'm writing this I am being messaged by people in Nicaragua who are deeply saddened, shocked and at a loss as to what the next four years could possibly bring except more pain, lies and deceit. I just wanted to get this down and share it. Now, I'm going to speak to the people whose lives are being ripped apart as we speak...
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