Daniel Ortega

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Daniel Ortega Saavedra

President of Nicaragua
In office January 10, 1985 – April 25, 1990
Preceded by	Junta of National Reconstruction
Succeeded by	Violeta Barrios de Chamorro

Born	November 11, 1945 La Libertad, Chontales
Political party	Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional

José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (born 11 November 1945) is the current president-elect of Nicaragua. For much of his life, he has been an important leader in the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional or FSLN).

After a popular rebellion resulted in the overthrow and exile of Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, Ortega became a member of the ruling multipartisan junta and was later elected president, serving from 1985 to 1990. His first period in office was controversial, and was characterized by socialist policies, internal dissent, hostility from the United States, and armed rebellion by U.S.-backed Contras.

Ortega was defeated by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro in the 1990 presidential election, but he remained an important figure in Nicaraguan opposition politics. He was an unsuccessful candidate for president in 1996 and 2001 before winning the 2006 presidential election. [1]

1 Personal Life
- 1.1 Early years
- 1.2 Member of the FSLN
2 The Sandinista Revolution (1979-1990)
- 2.1 Junta of National Reconstruction
3 Interim years
4 Current activities
- 4.1 FSLN - PLC Alliance on Congress
- 4.2 2006 Presidential Election
5 External links
6 Notes

[edit] Personal Life

[edit] Early years

Ortega was born to a middle-class family in La Libertad, department of Chontales, Nicaragua. His parents, Daniel Ortega and Lidia Saavedra, were active in opposition to the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle, and he was arrested for his own political activities at the early age of 15. In 1963 he attended the University of Central America in Managua and quickly joined the then-underground FSLN. He married Rosario Murillo and they have seven children.

[edit] Member of the FSLN

By 1967, he became a leader in the FSLN, in charge of the urban guerrilla campaign, but shortly after that he was arrested for bank robbery. He remained in prison until 1974, when he was released in exchange for hostages held by the FSLN. He immediately visited Cuba, a major source of aid for the Sandinistas, and returned to his role as guerrilla commander.

[edit] The Sandinista Revolution (1979-1990)

[edit] Junta of National Reconstruction

For more details on Ortega’s past presidency, see Sandinista National Liberation Front.

When Somoza was overthrown by the FSLN in July 1979, Ortega became a member of the five-person Junta of National Reconstruction, which also included Sandinista militant Moisés Hassan, novelist Sergio Ramírez Mercado, businessman Alfonso Robelo Callejas, and wife of a journalist Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (associated with the newspaper La Prensa). The FSLN came to dominate the junta, Robelo and Chamorro resigned, and Ortega became the de facto ruler of the country.

In 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan condemned the FSLN for joining with Soviet-backed Cuba in supporting Marxist revolutionary movements in other Latin American countries such as El Salvador. His administration authorised the CIA to begin financing, arming and training rebels, some of whom were the remnants of Somoza's National Guard, as anti-Sandinista guerrillas collectively known as the Contras. This also led to one of the largest political scandals in US history, (Iran-Gate or the Iran Contra Affair), when Oliver North and several members of the Reagan Administration defied the Boland Amendment, and going against the US Congress, helped sell arms to Iran, to use the proceeds to fund the Contras. The resulting civil war claimed an estimated 30,000 Nicaraguan lives.^[1].

In November 1984, Ortega called national elections; he won the presidency with 63% of the vote and took office on January 10, 1985. While most international observers ^[2] declared the election to be free and fair, many opposition parties boycotted it, and it was denounced as being unfair by the Reagan administration.^[3] The Contra insurgency continued.

[edit] Interim years

In the 1990 presidential election, Ortega lost to Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, his former colleague in the junta. Chamorro was supported by a 14-party anti-Sandinista alliance known as the National Opposition Union (Union Nacional Opositora, UNO), an alliance that ranged from conservatives and liberals to communists. Contrary to what most observers expected, Chamorro shocked Ortega and won the election. In Ortega's concession speech the following day he vowed to keep "ruling from below" a reference to the power that the FSLN still wielded in various sectors.

Ortega ran for election again, in October 1996 and November 2001, but lost on both occasions to Arnoldo Aleman and Enrique Bolaños respectively. In these elections, a key issue was the allegation of corruption. In Ortega’s last days as president, through a series of legislative acts known as “The Piñata”, estates that had been seized by the Sandinista government (some valued at millions and even billions US$) became the private property of various FSLN officials, including Ortega himself.

Ortega's policies became more moderate during his time in opposition, and he gradually reduced much of his former Marxist rhetoric in favor of an agenda of more moderate democratic socialism. His Catholic faith has become more intense in recent years as well, leading Ortega to embrace a variety of socially conservative policies; in 2006 the FSLN endorsed a strict law banning all abortions in Nicaragua.

[edit] Current activities

[edit] FSLN - PLC Alliance on Congress

Ortega continues to lead the Sandinista party, which holds 43 seats in the National Assembly, making it the country's second largest party. Daniel Ortega was instrumental in creating the controversial strategic pact between the FSLN and the Constitutional Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Constitucionalista, PLC).

The controversial alliance of Nicaragua's two major parties aimed at distributing the powers between the PLC and FSLN, preventing other parties from rising. "El Pacto," as it is known in Nicaragua, is said to have personally benefited former presidents Ortega and Alemán greatly, while constraining current president Enrique Bolaños. One of the key accords of the pact was to lower the percentage necessary to win a presidential election in a first round from 45% to 35%.

[edit] 2006 Presidential Election

A Presidential election was held on November 5, 2006. FSLN presidential candidate Ortega was the victor in the November elections, having attained 37.99% of the votes cast. The Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) gained 28.30%, the Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC) won 27.11%, the Movement for Sandinista renewal (MRS) 6.29% and the Alternative for Change (AC) 0.29%. The FSLN were the party out in force to celebrate a victory the night after the election took place on November 6. Following his election, Ortega was congratulated by Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, and Fidel Castro, the president of Cuba.^[4].

Herty Lewites— who was also running for president prior to his death in July 2006 —suggested that Ortega's pact with Alemán had given Ortega de facto control of the bodies responsible for administering the election, and thus that Ortega would most likely have been the winner. Under the old law, Ortega would have gone to a second round against Eduardo Montealegre (he would have needed 45% instead of 35%.) International observers, including the Carter Center, judged the election to be free and fair.

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

^ 'Old US foe Ortega heads for Nicaragua vote victory' From Yahoo News. November 6, 2006
^ 'The Sandinistas won't submit to free elections' Article from "Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting" ]. November, 1987
^ Ronald Reagan. Remarks Following Discussions With President Jose Napoleon Duarte of El Salvador. May 16, 1985
^ BBC Article Second chance for Nicaragua's Ortega

Preceded by: Junta of National Reconstruction	President of Nicaragua 1985–1990	Succeeded by: Violeta Barrios de Chamorro

Persondata
NAME	Ortega, Daniel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ortega Saavedra, Jose Daniel (full name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	President of Nicaragua
DATE OF BIRTH	November 11, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH	La Libertad, Chontales, Nicaragua
DATE OF DEATH	living
PLACE OF DEATH

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