re: [Marxism] Ortega's Comeback Schemes Roil Nicaragua (WSJ)

[Mike Friedman <mikedf@xxxxxxxx>]

Your first remark is irrelevant. Perhaps I can shed a little light, since I
was just down there. The FSLN is no longer a revolutionary party. It no
longer has the social base it had, having demoralized and disenfranchised
the popular forces that it once led and responded to. The FSLN's method of
operation throughout the past two decades has been "pactismo," signing
agreements with the parties in power (primarily Aleman's PLC) to
redstribute posts and positions. Parliamentary cretinism, I guess we'd call
it. The leadership consists of new business elites. Ortega is a
businessman. He owns properties and businesses throughout Nicaragua:
everything from gymnasiums to hotels. He has also held on to his position
ruthlessly, purging those who have challenged him. Many in the party
criticize him for this, stating that it is time for new blood to run the
party and run for elections. From our first world perspective (heh,
Nestor?), we would characterize the FSLN as Social Democratic. FSLN.

I should point out that what people still most resent the FSLN for is the
"Pinata," largely because that violated the mystique that the FSLN had
procaimed for all those years prior to and through the revolution. "Vivir
como los santos," became sheer hypocrisy in a deeply Catholic country. The
"pactismo" of the FSLN is seen as a continuation of this fall from grace.

My brother-in-law, who was an FSLN militant and one of the EPS officers who
led the successful attack on the El Lodoso contra camp in Honduras that
blew Reagan's cover, was royally screwed in one of the FSLN corruption
scandals, so while he quit the FSLN and really despises its leadership, he
stated that he would still vote for them, as the only alternative, in the
coming election.

On the other hand, Lewites, too, is a businessman. His politics are also
"social democratic." He is backed by Catholic Action, a group led by former
FSLN militant and Juventud Sandinista leader Orlando Tardencillas. When I
left, the Movimiento de Renovacion Sandinista, led by Dora Maria Tellez,
another former historic leader of the FSLN, was debating whether or not to
quit their electoral alliance with the FSLN and join the forces backing
Lewites.

Thus, both groupings are Sandinista to the core. I could see Washington
fanning the flames of the split, pushing both groupings to run, but not
favoring either group.

Mike



> Of course Washington would back
> anyone to defeat Ortega and the FSLN. I haven't seen indications
> in greater detail of what Lewites stands for, like a formal
> election platform, and I have no idea what kind of a political
> organization or apparatus exists behind his campaign.


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