Nicaragua’s Unfinished Revolution
Its newest autocrat is reminded of what happened to its last one.
If Sandino could see them now.
Photographer: AFP Contributor/AFPWhether brandishing a Kalashnikov or a stacked court, Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega has proven especially resilient. The onetime guerrilla insurgent turned autocrat has endured turmoil, outsmarted opponents, and co-opted rivals to lock down four presidential mandates spread out across 38 years, marshal economic growth and outlast authoritarian peers.
So when protests exploded in the streets of Managua and other cities earlier this month, leaving at least 38 dead and provoking calls for Ortega’s ouster, that idyll was shattered. The breadth and speed of unrest are new in Nicaragua and may prove to be an inflection point, if not a terminus, for one of Latin American autocracy’s most successful brands.