Nicaragua's Catholic bishops give Ortega an earful in long-awaited encounter.
| Autor | Witte-Lebhar, Benjamin |
After years of unrequited overtures, Nicaragua's Catholic Church leaders finally had a chance last month to sit down with President Daniel Ortega and voice first-hand their concerns about his increasingly authoritarian style of government.
"We do not think that the actual institutional and political structure of the country offers any medium-term or long-term benefits to either the current government, members of the ruling party, or the Nicaraguan people," the Conferencia Episcopal de Nicaragua (CEN), the country's bishops conference, explained in a 14-page letter read out loud to Ortega during the long-awaited meeting, which took place May 21 in the Apostolic Nunciature outside Managua.
The CEN had been requesting such an encounter since 2007, when Ortega returned to power following several failed re-election bids (NotiCen, Jan. 11, 2007). A key player in Nicaragua's 1979 revolution, Ortega previously served as president from 1985 to 1990. Prior to that he headed the country's post-revolutionary junta (1979-1985).
Before squeezing his way back into the presidency, the former comandante recast himself as a devout Catholic. A staunch defender of the country's no-exceptions ban on abortion (NotiCen, Feb. 25, 2010), Ortega also champions a self-styled model of government that is "cristiano, socialista, y solidario" (Christian, socialist, and in solidarity)--in that order. And yet, for seven years he repeatedly declined requests to engage in dialogue with the CEN, which has looked on with growing concern as the increasingly powerful president and his Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN) employed a series of democratically questionable devices to gain nearly complete control over the country's various governing institutions.
In the lead-up to the 2011 election, Ortega used his political influence in the Consejo Supremo Electoral (CSE) and Corte Suprema de Justicia (CSJ) to sidestep the country's constitutionally encoded term limits, which were supposed to have kept him from seeking re-election (NotiCen, March 24, 2011). Ortega went on to win the election--by a landslide (NotiCen, Nov. 17, 2011). He also picked up a "supermajority" in the Asamblea Nacional (AN), the country's unicameral legislature, where FSLN lawmakers have since taken to rubberstamping each and every bill the president sends their way. Earlier this year the Sandinista-dominated AN approved a controversial overhaul of the Constitution (NotiCen, Feb. 27, 2014). Among...
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