Radical left divided in response to crisis
* Nicaragua/Ecuador
guarantees against revanchism. Alemán's rising star was foreseen by many observers.? A double dynamic FLN
The struggle continues over the agrarian reform, particularly concerning land titles, which the Sandinistas sorely neglected during their administration. Massive land invasions took place in 1990, and they have continued every year, although on a steady downward trend. Workers' struggles will continue, and the Sandinistas are not about to disappear from the political scene.
There is no easy answer to the dilemmas facing the FSLN in the present international context. Instead of simplistic arguments about supposed electoral fraud, an assessment of the complex causes that led to the second Sandinista electoral defeat may help shed light on Nicaragua's current situation, and the possible course of the FSLN's struggle for national liberation in the future.
Under the Chamorro government, the FSLN was pulled towards struggles, and towards a "realistic" accommodation with imperialism and the Nicaraguan right. Under the Alemán government the weakened FSLN will experience the same tensions, but within a political framework situated further to the right * 1 See, for example, Dianne Feeley, "The 1996 Nicaraguan Elections: How Amoldo Alemán 'Won'," Against the Current, no. 66. (January-February, 1997), pp. 26-30. 2 "Como votaron los nicaraguenses?" Envio (Managua), Nov.-Dec., 1996. (gopher://ns.uca.edu.ni/00/4/1/1). 3 The Principles and Program of the FLN, adopted at the First Congress of the FSLN on July 21, 1991, state that: "in government, the FLN led a far reaching agrarian reform that democratised land ownership and contributed to modernising the entire countryside. Nevertheless, it did not win the support of broad sectors of the peasantry, the pillar of society and national production. As the government and as a party, the FSLN carried out policies that negatively affected their economic interests and which ignored their characteristics. For this reason, this important segment of Nicaraguan society continues
The program is reprinted in Vanessa Castro and Gary Prevost's, The 1990 Elections in Nicaragua and their Aftermath (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1992). 4 Vanessa Castro, "Electoral Results in the Rural Sector," in Vanessa Castro and Gary Prevost, The 1990 Elections in Nicaragua and their Aftermath,. Pp. 130-131.
"Agrarian Reform," in Thomas Walker, ed., Revolution and Counterrevolution in Nicaraga (aulder: Westview Press, 1992), p. 242. 6 Vanessa Castro, "Electoral Results.... 7 Shelley A. McConell, *The Electoral Defeat of the Sandinista Regime: a Postmortem," Latin American Research Review, vo. 31, no. 1 (1996), p. 219. 8 Harry E. Vanden and Gary Prevost, Democracy and Socialism in Sandinista Nicaragua (Boulder: Lynne 9 Gary Prevost, "Nicaragua Surprise: Sandinistas Split; Somoza Party Gains," Commonwealth, May 3, 1996 (v. 10 NACLA Report on the Americas, Nov.-Dec. 1994, vol 11 El País (Madrid) June, 24, 1996, quoted in Maurice Lemoine, "Des Elections Decisives sur Fond de Desastre Social: La Nicaragua tente par un retour au passe," Le Monde Diplomatique, October 1996.
"Des Elections Decisives..." 13 "Nicaragua's $1 Billion Battle: Can the Government make the Sandinistas Give Back their Homes?", U.S. News and World Report, v. 111 (July 29, 1991) pp. 35-6. 14 New York Times, January 19, 1997. 15 D. Dye, J. Butler, D. Abu Lughod, J. Spence and G. Vickers, Contesting Everything, Winning Nothing: the Search for Consensus in Nicaragua, 1990-1995 (Washington Office on Latin America and Hemispheric Initiatives, November 1995), pp. 21, 9, 30, 28. 16 Dye et. al. Contesting Everything.... p. 9. 17 Francois Houtart, "Echec du modele neoliberal..." 18 Puerto Rico/USA Foundation, "Socioeconomic Statistics for Caribbean and Latin American Countries Compared to Puerto Rico."[www.pr-eda.com] 19 J. Jonakin, "The Impact of Structural Adjustment and
Ecuador Jean Dupont
On 18 February the Congress elected Fabian Alarcón as Ecuador's new president, after Abdalá Bucaram was forced from power by an unprecedented social mobilisation (see last month's International Viewpoint). Heinz Moeller, leader of the Social Christian Party (PSC) was elected to preside Congress itself.
This parliamentary solution to mass unrest was supported by the Social Christians, the Christian Democrats, the social democratic Democratic Left, Fabian Alarcón's own Altarista Radical Front, the Liberal Party, and five of the six radical left deputies of the "rainbow"
Rosendo Rojas Reyes, Pachakutik Member of Parliament for Azuay, and a leader of Socialist Democracy, the 4th International group which helped found the rainbow movement, voted against Moeller's appointment.
"The popular will expressed itself very clearly." Rojas explains. "People wanted fundamental changes. The People of Ecuador wanted to get rid of Bucaram, but they didn't just want to change the names of the top people. People rose up against corrupt politicians' games, against manipulation and graft, against the old-style politics, which has always marginalised the majority of people
"People protested against neo-liberalism, and for deep, radical democracy. In short, popular will has rejected the old Ecuador. The Social Christian Party and Dr Moeller were and still are part of the old politics. When the PSC was in government, we saw its true face: repression and disappearances. How can we help them back into power?"
The other left deputies justified their vote as being part of a series of measures around which there was a national or progressive consensus, "in the spirit" of the popular mobilisation. Rojas disag-
"The popular mandate didn't require that we vote for the social Christians. Voting for Moeller means the defeat of the hopes which were liberated in the demonstrations of February. It is a defeat within the victory of the anti-Bucaram movement."
Since coming to power, Moeller and Property-Rights Conflicts on Nicaraguan AgrarianReform Beneficiaries," World Development, July 1996, p. 1179-1191 O Nicaragua's equivalent to a Prime Ministe 21 See Pierre Laramee's interviews with Victor Hugo Tinoco (Izquierda Democratica) and Dora Maria Tellez (MRS) in ÑACLA-Report on the Americas, March/April 1995, and Gary Prevost, "Political Infighting at Sandinista Special Congress," NACLA Report on the Americas, July-August, 1994. 22 Sheldon Rampton, "Contradictory Realities: The Nicaraguan Elections of 1996.* 23 Lemoine, "Des elections Decisives..." 24 Rampton, "Contradictory Realities: The Nicaraguan the Social Christians have themselves undermined the proposed measures, by vetoing the appointment of junior "new deal" team members who were unacceptable to the establishment. These included Teodoro Coello, rector of Azuay University, proposed by that state's Popular Assembly as Contralor General, a kind of fiscal ombudsman, and Manuel Chiriboga, proposed as Agriculture Minister by the country's peasant and indigenous organisations.
Rojas' position does not mean a split. Fourth Internationalists still consider Pachakutik to be a great step forward for the mass movement, for democraticminded citizens, who, at last, were able to speak with their own voice and of their own hopes. We will continue working to strengthen the movement.
"What happened was a political disagreement within the parliamentary block. It has happened before, and may happen again. After all, Pachakutik is a pluralist and democratic movement. It still represents the best of Ecuadorian society, and we will continue to defend it. And the best way to defend and strengthen the movement is to remain
"The bloc is not split, and neither is the movement. The different, contradictory points of view should not be hidden, but they are what they are: differences on the tactics of the moment. All of us in the movement should continue and reinforce the debate about where we go from here. In this way, we will continue to develop the image and profile of our forward looking, independent movement."
The failure of the parliamentary negotiations (from the point of view of the popular movement) has since led Pachakutik to re-state its link to the social movements, stressing that "we must not fall into the trap of parliamentarisation."
The next national conference promises to be particularly animated. Different components of the alliance have interpreted these recent events in different ways. Strategic differences over next year's parliamentary elections, and other matters, are crystallising. 26 Mark Caster, "The Return of Somocismo? The Rise of
Arnoldo Alemán," NACLA Report on the Americas, vol.
XXX, no. 2.(Sept.-Oct. 1996), pp. 6-9. Lemoine, "Le
Nicaragua tente.. " Gary Prevost, "Nicaragua Surprise," Commoweal, v.123 (May 3, 1996), p. 910, Stephanie Rillaerts, "Une Reconstruction qui se fait
Attendre: menaces d'extreme droite sur le Nicaragua," Le Monde Diplomatique, September 1994, discussed the possibility of an Alemán candidacy and victory, after the impressive triumph of Alemán forces on the Atlantic coast in 1994.