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Nicaragua’s Dictatorship Was Not Born From The Revolution

Acknowledging that there is shared responsibility for the emergence of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship does not diminish Ortega’s responsibility.

By Monica Baltodano (Confidencial)

HAVANA TIMES – Every July 19, the same debate returns. The Ortega-Murillo dictatorship insists on presenting itself as the heir to the Sandinista Popular Revolution. At the same time, part of the opposition accepts that narrative and ends up reinforcing it by claiming that the current regime is nothing more than the logical consequence of the 1979 revolution.

Both versions are profoundly mistaken.

The dictatorship that oppresses Nicaragua today was not born from the Revolution. It was born of the progressive concentration of power, the abandonment of democratic principles, and the ethical degradation of a segment of the leadership that ultimately betrayed the ideals it claimed to represent. The Revolution did not give birth to this dictatorship. It was spawned by the seven deadly sins of politics.

Memory, too, can be hijacked.

The insurrection that culminated on July 19, 1979, was not the exclusive work of a vanguard, much less of a small group of leaders. It was a national rebellion against a regime that had exhausted all legitimacy. Peasants, students, workers, businesspeople, religious figures, intellectuals, and citizens with no political affiliation all took part. Thousands of young people even gave their lives to make it possible. As with great historical events, the Revolution became possible only when it became inevitable.

Reducing that historic struggle to the figure of Daniel Ortega constitutes one of the greatest falsifications of Nicaragua’s recent history. One need only look at who actually led the Revolution and where they are today. Many of its historic leaders broke with Ortega long before April 2018. They were persecuted, imprisoned, stripped of their nationality, or forced into exile. Others died in prison under persecution by the very regime that now seeks to appropriate their legacy.

Rosario Murillo understood years ago that memory is also a sphere of power. That is why she systematically pushed aside the historic protagonists and built a political apparatus made up, in many cases, of people who never participated in the struggle against Somoza, and even former collaborators of........

© Havana Times