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Political Freedoms & Minority Parties In Nicaragua

By John Lindquist

We hear a lot of Ronald Reagan talk about totalitarian Nicaragua where all political freedoms are dead. Well, our experience on the VVAW trip to Nicaragua showed the exact opposite of the picture usually portrayed in the U.S. press. We had a number of unique experiences; two of these were a meeting at the National Assembly for an explanation of the process of writing a new Constitution, and a meeting with the popular Social Christian Party (PPSC). It all happened on out last full day in Nicaragua.

The Sandinista's started working on parts of the constitution before getting rid of Somoza. After Parliament was elected in 1984, a resolution was passed to start discussion on a Constitution.

The 1984 elections created a President, Vice-President, and 96 representatives—one for every 30,000 people. Sixty-one seats went to the Sandinistas, 14 to the Conservatives, 9 to the Liberals, 6 to the PPSC, 2 to the Marist Liberals, 2 to the Socialists, and 2 to the Communist Party. The Legislature creates day-to-day laws; a part of its task is creation of a Constitution.

In August of 1985 they came up with the principles of unity for the first draft of the Constitution. This draft has 221 articles. Seventy-five percent have been approved by consensus; the other 25% are still being discussed. There are differences; the Conservatives say, "Democracy for everyone," while the communist Party says, "only voting rights for workers and peasants." As the Sandinistas told us, most of the Assembly says democratic rights should be for everyone.

The draft will be presented in May of 1987 to the country in a series of meetings—80 around the country.

Three of us were able to make a meeting with the PPSC, an opposition group, and we used the morning's discussion with the Sandinistas concerning the Constitution as background for our questions.

While the PPSC is not being put forward as a model of a great political party, its existence shows something about political freedoms in Nicaragua. They long for democracy, a process denied to them since 1927 when the U.S. Marine Corps invaded for a 3rd time and set up Somoza as dictator.

The PPSC was described by its representative as composed of Christian workers. They told us that out of one million votes, they got 65,000. The party is nine years old and had split over the issue of whether or not to run candidates in the elections. This part of the party chose to run in opposition to the Sandinistas who they called a "military junta." They described themselves as anti-imperialist, anti-Somoza, anti-contra and not pro-Sandinista. Their big fear was that some of the Sandinistas did not believe in God and a few even mere Marxists.

We asked them if they were harassed during the 1984 elections and why they thought the Sandinistas got so many votes. They responded that each of the 7 parties received $500,000 to campaign. They complained that the campaign was too short (only 3 months). They did say, though, that there has been hardly any harassment compared to what U.S. press said had happened. What little did take place was individual, not a Sandinista policy. They felt the Sandinistas did better because they were better organized, having led a nation into armed insurrection against Somoza and having consolidated power for 6 years before the elections. They said their own political support was growing and wanted the Sandinistas to hold municipal level elections in the near future.

We asked them how they viewed the war and if they thought the U.S. would invade? He blamed Reagan for egging on the contra's with money. He was against "false Reagan propaganda" on the contra's and said increased war would only lead to more "death, destruction and loss of civil liberties for the people of Nicaragua, and a further move to the left by the government."

There are the beginnings of democratic debate in Nicaragua, particularly around the new Constitution. Just as important, U.S. Marines no longer count the ballots! If we can force Ronald Reagan to stop aid to the contras, and to de-militarize Central America, democracy can flourish in Nicaragua. If the war continues and worsens, a good relationship between the U.S. and Nicaragua will be lost forever, and the U.S. standing in Central America will be jeopardized. Right now it's not too late, but time is running out for peaceful solutions.

John Lindquist