opinion

Manipulations and pretenses
by Silvio Sirias
 
 

 
Daniel Ortega's and Rosario Murillo's propaganda machine has kicked into high gear. Traffic in the heart of Managua's most chic commercial sector --- the old Zona Rosa --- has been moving at a snail's for weeks now as vehicles are rerouted along the narrow streets parallel to the heavily-traveled highway to Masaya. The reason for this: La Plaza de las Victorias (The Plaza of the Victories) is under construction --- an enterprise intended to commemorate the Sandinista party's triumphs during the municipal elections of November 2008.

 At the hub of the plaza will be a roundabout that, at its center, will have a monument to Alexis Arguello --- the former Nicaraguan world boxing champion in three weight categories who in his prime was the greatest source of pride for his compatriots. On July 1, 2009, Arguello committed suicide while holding the office of mayor of Nicaragua's capital city.

On the surface, the idea of honoring the democratic process as well as the former boxer sounds nice enough.

But the construction of La Plaza de las Victorias is bringing out the cynics in even the most trusting and good-hearted Nicaraguans I spoke to during a recent visit. And the reason for this outbreak of disbelief and pessimism is that the entire foundation upon which the plaza is being built rests on two lies: the massive fraud that took place during the 2008 elections and Ortega's manipulation --- and blatant at that --- of the image of Alexis Arguello.

Shortly after the 2008 elections, I wrote an article published in the December 5, 2008 issue of The Panama News entitled "The Herald of a Coming Dictatorship: Nicaragua's Municipal Elections." This piece details how Ortega engineered the exclusion of the two parties most likely to draw votes away from the Sandinistas as well as how he prohibited reputable international observers, such as the Carter Center, from validating the results. This fraud, coupled with Ortega's ongoing appointments of electoral judges who are blindly loyal to him, has given the former comandante de facto dictatorial powers.

But it's the unprincipled manipulation of Alexis Arguello's legacy, a ploy to establish him as a symbol of "La Revolución," that is eliciting reactions of abhorrence among many Nicaraguans. In the article "The Death of Alexis Arguello: A Portent of Things to Come in Nicaragua?" --- published on August 22, 2009 in The Panama News—I explore Arguello's precarious relationship with the Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo. To this day, quite a few Nicaraguans, including Alexis's children from previous marriages, claim that the former world champion intended to hold a press conference in which he would denounce Ortega's tampering during the municipal elections. Thus, in order to stop Arguello from doing so, they maintain that the Sandinista leadership ordered his assassination, making it look like a suicide.

Regardless of whether one accepts this belief or not, even Ortega staunchest supporters cannot deny that the decisions that came out of the president's office, severely curtailing Arguello's mayoral powers, led to the boxing hero's death.

This, however, will not prevent the Sandinistas from shamelessly unveiling a monument that portrays Alexis Arguello as a glowing example of revolutionary reconciliation and forgiveness. And such a tribute, any rational person can easily see, is destined to be greeted with an exceedingly high degree of cynicism.

Alexis's daughter, Dora Arguello --- whom the Sandinista propaganda machine has doggedly depict as a bitter, grief-crazed person --- has been openly expressing her outrage regarding Ortega's and Murillo's appropriation of her father's image for the purpose of perpetuating themselves in power. What's more, Dora Arguello has become a thorn in the Edenic image the presidential couple seeks to portray with her vigorous accusations that they ordered the assassination of her father.

The question then becomes, if a plaza devoted to an internationally recognized fraud and with a monument as a centerpiece that's bound to be greeted with disbelief, why did the Sandinista directorship go through with its creation?

The answer, I believe, is both amazingly simple and startling. Ortega's and Murillo's reason for creating La Plaza de la Victoria and placing it at the heart of Managua's most glamorous crossroads is because they want to remind every single person passing through that are prepared to go to any lengths to hold on to power.