Why Sandinistas lost elections in Nicaragua
1990Alan Benjamin 1990-03Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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President Ortega campaigning in DOp pals town of The Nicaraguan Revolution was dealt a mortal blow on Feb. 25, when Violeta Chamorro, candidate of the U.S.-financed National Opposition Union (UNO), soundly defeated incumbent President Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
A Sandinista victory had been expected by most observers of the Nicaraguan elections. They pointed to opinion polls and to a Sandinista election rally of 800,000 in Managua on Feb. 21, the largest in Nicaraguan history, to back their prediction that the Sandinistas would win.
Even the New York Times, one of the major mouthpieces of the U.S. ruling class, warned President Bush to respect an imminent Sandinista victory and to "condition an end to [U.S.] sanctions on continued acceptance [by the Sandinistas] of genuine political pluralism" (Feb. 17).
But to the shock of the Sandinistas and their supporters, the Nicaraguan people moved by their desire to see an end to economic deprivation and deepening hardshipsvoted for a candidate who they believed would best deliver U.S. economic aid and hasten an end to the U.S.-contra war. "They voted with their stomachs," is the way most observers described the vote.
"It is clear that at least half of the 800,000 people at the [reb. Z1] closing election rally of the FSLN, and a good number of those interviewed by the pollsters, actually voted for Chamorro," Fernando Lopez, a Nicaraguan election observer, told Socialist Action.
"A large proportion of them," Lopez continued, "were government employees. They were scared to publicly reveal their support for Chamorro for fear of losing their jobs if the Sandinistas won. Others were simply too embarrassed to tell. They probably consid-