Saturday 16 August
2008, San José, Costa Rica
NICARAGUA
Fallen Leader's Aim:
Topple Ortega
By Tim Rogers, Special
to The Miami Herald
EL CRUCERO, Nicaragua --
Sitting comfortably at
the head of a banquet
table flanked by party
loyalists, former
President Arnoldo Alemán
remarks on the rising
cost of food as his
right-hand man, a
Supreme Electoral
Council magistrate,
serves him a generous
scoop of scrambled eggs.
Outside the window, a
light morning mist rolls
across the lush and
hilly grounds of
Alemán's private
hacienda, El Chile,
which has doubled as his
tropical prison and
unofficial party
headquarters since his
house arrest began in
2003.
''Gallo pinto is
expensive now,'' Alemán
says, speaking of the
rice-and-bean dish
that's a staple of the
Nicaraguan diet.
"Nicaragua is in a
crisis that is
political, social and
economic.''
The corpulent former
president,
affectionately known as
el gordo, was suspected
of looting government
coffers of us$100
million and coming up
with a complicated
scheme to cover it up.
But his 20-year prison
sentence for fraud and
money laundering was
downgraded to a loosely
defined house arrest,
and so one of the most
powerful politicians in
Nicaragua -- behind bars
or not -- is staging a
political comeback of
sorts.
He was briefly
imprisoned and fell from
grace, but Alemán never
stopped being one of the
nation's top power
brokers. Prohibited from
running for public
office, he regularly
holds court with Liberal
Party magistrates,
lawmakers and
strategists who drive 12
miles from Managua for
working breakfasts at
his manicured ranch.
Those who surround him
still call Alemán
presidente and ''maximum
leader,'' though he
shrugs off those titles
when asked about his
role as party boss.
''Here, there is no
maximum or minimum
leader; here we're a
team,'' Alemán told The
Miami Herald in a rare
interview this week.
FRACTURED ALLIANCE
Alemán and his team are
trying to rebuild their
political alliance in
time to defeat the
ruling Sandinista
National Liberation
Front (FSLN) in the
upcoming municipal
elections in November.
After splitting up and
then losing to Daniel
Ortega in the 2006
presidential elections,
the Liberals are now
trying to repeat the
example of the 1990 UNO
alliance that coalesced
14 political movements
onto the winning ticket
that removed Ortega from
office the first time
around.
Alemán insists that only
by reuniting all
''democratic forces''
under the banner of his
Liberal Constitutional
Party (PLC) can the
Nicaraguan opposition
again stop Ortega's
''totalitarian program''
in the 21st century.
''Everyone needs to
support the true
opposition, the PLC,''
Alemán said, adding that
the same goes for the
U.S. government and
other foreign influences
he blames for meddling
and dividing the
opposition vote in 2006.
''All these other
countries should support
and consolidate this
democratic force,'' he
said.
ONCE A U.S. ALLY
Backed by the U.S.
government during his
original bid against
Ortega in 1996, Alemán
was subsequently lumped
into the same category
of undesirable after his
five-year presidency
left a legacy of
corruption and
embezzlement. In 2004,
he made the ''World's
Ten Most Corrupt
Leaders'' list put out
by Transparency
International, a global
civil society
organization
headquartered in Berlin.
The United States and
Panama also froze his
bank assets and opened
judicial procedures
against him in those
countries.
Alemán, who has always
insisted he is innocent,
was partially vindicated
earlier this month when
the 11th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in
Atlanta ruled that the
U.S. government had
improperly seized
us$450,000 in
certificates of deposit
at a Coral Gables bank.
Now the party boss seeks
political vindication as
well -- something that
can only happen with
international support
for the upcoming
municipal elections, he
said.
''Nicaragua needs the
help -- without
interference -- of
international
observers,'' Alemán
said. The former
president said he is
concerned that Ortega
and the Sandinista Front
are preparing to steal
the elections to remain
in power.
''Unlike 1990, when they
thought they were going
to win and they invited
everyone to come see,
today they feel the
opposite,'' Alemán said.
Under Nicaraguan law,
the central government
has to invite
international observers
to participate in the
elections. But 90 days
before the vote, the
government allegedly has
invited only one South
American electoral
observation firm, which
the Liberals think is
ideologically aligned
with Ortega's brand of
``21st century
socialism.''
OBSERVERS SHUT OUT?
The Organization of
American States and
other traditional
electoral watchdogs have
not been invited, and
even local electoral
observer Ethics and
Transparency has not yet
been able to accredit
itself despite several
attempts.
Ortega, in the past, has
called the OAS'
observation role
''humiliating'' and has
criticized local
electoral observation
groups as financed by
the United States.
Alemán, however, feels
the OAS and other
international observers
are crucial to ensuring
fair play in what is
expected to be a heated
election.
In 1990, Alemán said, it
was international
observers who prevented
the Sandinistas from
playing any dirty tricks
to stay in power during
"the heat of defeat.''
''The eyes of the world
were here and avoided
that,'' Alemán said.
"Today we feel that
Nicaragua has been
totally forgotten.''
Others, however, feel it
is the war on corruption
that has been forgotten
in Nicaragua, resulting
in a worsening situation
for this fragile
institutional democracy.
Former Attorney General
Alberto Novoa, who
spearheaded the
corruption case against
Alemán in 2002, shakes
his head at the court
arrangement that allows
Alemán to move freely
about the country in
campaign mode -- a
generous interpretation
of house arrest extended
only to the former
president.
Novoa laments that
anti-corruption efforts
in Nicaragua have never
been systematic, but
instead have been
politically motivated
campaigns to put the
squeeze on opponents of
the government. Even
today, Novoa said,
Alemán's fate depends
more on Ortega's
political convenience
than on justice, making
his opposition role
timid at best.
Still, Novoa said, the
efforts to bring Alemán
to justice were
important at least in
historical terms.
''History has already
condemned him,'' Novoa
told The Herald.
AIMING HIGH
For Alemán, however,
history is still being
written, and he believes
a comeback is in the
cards.
Of the 154
municipalities that will
vote for mayor in
November, the prize
contest is for the
capital city of Managua.
In that political arena,
Sandinista candidate and
three-time former boxing
champ Alexis Argüello,
the former vice mayor,
is challenging the PLC's
Eduardo Montealegre, a
former Alemán rival who
was recently tapped by
the party for the
mayoral race after
finishing second up in
the 2006 presidential
elections.
''I am sure Montealegre
will win,'' Alemán said
of his candidate, who
until recently he
referred to as "the
rat.''
A win for Montealegre
would also be a victory
for Alemán, whose
political buoyancy and
eternal optimism seem
unfazed by years of
scandal and embarrassing
electoral losses.
''We're like Johnnie
Walker -- we keep
walking,'' Alemán said
with a toothy smile. |
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