Central America 2000 - Ometepe
From Worldtraveller
Before I left, whenever I told people I would be going through Nicaragua, a look somewhere between pity and horror would cross their face. People seem to have the idea that it is a war-torn smoking wreck of a country, where everyone carries guns, and foreigners are used for target practice. But the civil war ended ten years ago, there is less crime here than most Latin American countries, and the people are delighted to see tourists.
What everyone remembers, of course, is the Contra war. Nicaragua had been run autocratically by various members of the Somoza family for more than 40 years, from 1937 to 1979. In that year, after many years of struggle, the people finally succeeded in toppling the regime. A junta was formed to run the country while new institutions were formed, and at first it had both hardline and moderate members. Soon, though, the hardliners, the famous Sandinistas, moved to take total control. As the Sandinistas promoted communist ideals, and were receiving aid from Cuba and the Soviet Union, the US president, Ronald Reagan, decided to intervene in the region. He began funding counter-revolutionary insurgents, known as the Contras, who attacked Nicaraguan territory from bases in Honduras.
Some would say this was disgraceful in itself, but when in 1984 the US Congress passed a law banning further funding of the Contras, the Reagan administration carried on covertly. They began selling arms at vastly inflated prices to Iran, using the proceeds to keep the Contra war going. The affair was discovered, and much controversy ensued, but the war in Nicaragua continued.
The Sandinistas had resoundingly won the general elections held in 1984, and under the new constitution elections were required every 6 years. So in 1990 the country went to the polls again, and the Sandinistas were confident of victory. But the people were sick of war, and knew that peace was only likely if the Sandinistas weren't in power. Violeta Chamorro, one of the moderates on the post-revolution Junta, was elected president.
Since then, peace has prevailed, although in remote mountain areas, factions who won't put down their weapons still fight sporadically. The Sandinistas are still a major political force, but have not recaptured the presidency. However, a Sandinista has just been elected Mayor of Managua, the capital, and expectations are high for the elections due in 2001.
We spent our first morning on Ometepe exploring around Altagracia. The contrast between the peaceful, stable and relatively prosperous Costa Rica and Nicaragua is sharp. Nicaragua is very visibly poorer than Costa Rica - most of the houses are very tumbledown shacks, and while every third house seems to be a shop of some sort, they usually have very limited stock, and are often very dark inside. The shopkeeper will turn the light on when a customer comes in, to save electricity.
I could have passed through Costa Rica entirely ignorant of the politics of that country, but it would be impossible to do the same in Nicaragua. Walls everywhere are covered in political graffiti, supporting one or other of the Sandinistas, the PLC (Partido Liberal Constitucional) or the PC (Partido Conservador, and people wear t-shirts and caps proclaiming their allegiances. According to my guidebook, Ometepe was relatively untouched by the revolution, so I wondered what the mainland would be like.
