Letter from the Executive Director, Spring 2007
WCCN’s latest study tour coincided with Daniel Ortega’s inauguration in January. It was an interesting opportunity to see and hear first hand about the hopes, expectations and fears that Nicaraguans have regarding the new administration.
I believe that the return of Daniel Ortega as the president of Nicaragua in many ways represents the end of one political and economic era, and the beginning of another. However, it is still unclear in what direction the new era will be heading. Ortega’s return to power is the end of a political and economic era that started with the electoral defeat of the Sandinista political project in 1990. Despite profound differences in styles and levels of honesty, the preceding governments of Violeta Barrios Chamorro, Arnoldo Alemán and Enrique Bolaños also had commonalities. All actively supported and implemented market reforms and neo-liberal economic and social policies.
However, the interesting thing is that this new era in Nicaragua is not necessarily the result of Ortega’s return, but it is the consequence of the dramatic changes that the Latin American region has seen during the last five years, with the elections of leftist or center-left governments in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. Ironically, Ortega had dedicated his last ten years to projecting an image of himself and his party, the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) as something totally different from the times of the Nicaraguan Revolution in the 1980s. Symbolically, this change was illustrated by the shift of the traditional colors of the FSLN’s flag, from red and black to pink! Most importantly, Ortega moved the party from the tradition of being the Robin Hood-like ‘guerrilleros,’ and replaced it with one where a small group of nouveaux riches and pragmatic entrepreneurs are the new political bosses. While Ortega moved in one direction, Latin America was surprisingly moving in the opposite direction. As a result, at the time of the presidential campaign, Ortega was trapped in this unique situation where he used a conciliatory discourse when he addressed his new conservative political allies, and had to pretend to be a radical revolutionary when he addressed the poor or interacted with Latin American leftist leaders. It is still unclear yet what face he will use as president.
Despite closely following the presidential elections in Nicaragua, we weren’t distracted from our own work. In fact, as I anticipated in a previous edition of Nicaraguan Developments, in many senses 2006 has been one of the most successful years for WCCN, in terms of progress of our projects, and the historically high growth of the NICA Fund. The Fund had a net growth of $1.46 million during 2006. We also have very high expectations for this year, and your support will help us move all our projects forward even more.
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In this edition of Nicaraguan Developments we have included articles on three main topics. We have several pieces on the Cooperative April 20th from the town of Quilalí, in the department of Nueva Segovia. WCCN’s January study tour visited the Cooperative for the second time. Brenda Pfahnl, one of the participants in the tour, wrote an interesting testimony of our group’s visit to this remarkable cooperative. During our tour we interviewed Rosa Rodriguez, a credit promoter of Cooperative April 20th, who accompanied our group to visit several borrowers in Quilalí. We also have an article that focuses on the beginning of Daniel Ortega’s presidency, written by Susan Frisbie. Finally, I wrote an article measuring Nicaragua’s housing deficit, one of the areas where the need for improvement is overwhelming.
Currently, WCCN is preparing its June study tour, which focuses on the Nicaraguan women’s movement and the struggles of organized women for better social and economic conditions. I hope you consider joining us.
In solidarity,
Carlos Arenas
WCCN Executive Director