PERSPECTIVE ON NICARAGUA : Masquerade of a ‘Royal Matron’ : Chamorro’s government mocks the promise of national unity; its cronyism follows the Somoza pattern.

With the attention of the world focused on the Middle East and the end of the Cold War, the geopolitical importance of Central America has all but disappeared. Those who assassinated Enrique Bermudez, the former anti-Sandinista resistance leader, in Nicaragua in February counted on going unnoticed by the world community. However, this assassination should be of great concern, especially to the United States, for it is one more indication of the moral and political disintegration of President Violeta Chamorro’s government.

Nicaraguan history has been marked by similar crimes. Guerrilla leader Augusto Cesar Sandino was captured in 1934 a few blocks away from where Bermudez fell and subsequently was executed. Another assassination, that of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro in 1978, tolled the death knell for the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza and led to the rise of the Sandinistas.

The 40-year reign of the Somozas ended in moral and political disintegration. After one year in power, Violeta Chamorro’s government is equaling that tragic record. In 1978, the corruption and nepotism of the Somoza regime engendered the violence that led to her husband’s assassination. Today, corruption and nepotism in her government have created the conditions that led to the murder of Bermudez and other former resistance members--and to the cloud of complicity that has attempted to keep these crimes from justice. Only after public pressure and protests did the government agree to form a commission to investigate Bermudez’s assassination.

The failures of the Chamorro government have steadily deepened Nicaragua’s distrust of the fledgling democratic process. Before Chamorro’s election, UNO, the 14-party alliance that brought her to power, drew up a program calling for a government of national unity. After her election, Chamorro lost no time in abandoning UNO and forming a government based on a power pact between her clan and the losers, the Sandinista Front.

Chamorro now occupies the role of Royal Matron, while her son-in-law, Antonio Lacayo, exercises executive power as minister of the presidency. Relatives and close family friends occupy many key government positions--chairman of the central bank, home minister, ambassadors to France, Venezuela and the United States, to name a few. Thus, the worst in Nicaraguan political tradition--power as a familial right--continues.

Like that of Somoza, Chamorro’s power nucleus is formed by her clan. Her government is more neo- Somocismo than authentically democratic. Unlike the Somozas and the Sandinistas, she is a figurehead, having no real control over the state’s apparatus, a party or the army. In the Legislative Assembly, her cronies joined with their old nemesis, the Sandinistas, to defeat UNO’s candidate for assembly leader and elect Lacayo’s brother-in-law, Alfredo Cesar. With no social base to sustain itself in power, and with its electoral ally, UNO, now its adversary, the political survival of the Chamorro clan depends on the benevolence of Sandinista power.

Another political casualty of Chamorro’s clan is Virgilio Godoy, who is the first Nicaraguan vice president to be denied a post in the Cabinet. Godoy’s access to the presidential offices is regularly impeded, and, contrary to the constitution, when Chamorro leaves the country, the presidential duties are performed by Lacayo or a trusted relative.

Nicaragua’s need of a stable, democratic government is critical. The economy is in shambles with no sign of recovery. Inflation has been running at 4,000% per year; the foreign debt is approximately 30 years’ worth of the current export level; the cordoba is constantly being devalued, and necessary human resources--skilled, educated Nicaraguans driven out by years of war--remain abroad. Political divisions perpetuate the climate of unease; the Chamorro/Sandinista alliance is pitted against striking trade unions, a skeptical business sector, the alienated UNO parties, the resistance, and distrustful Nicaraguans abroad.

These ingredients are the recipe for social explosion. If Nicaragua is to achieve stability, the tolerance of violence must end and a government of national unity must be formed, one that ensures the participation of all political sectors, similar to the government established in Chile during that country’s transition to democracy. Violeta Chamorro can best lead the country to reconciliation and reconstruction by forming such a government. Otherwise, she faces the disintegration of her mandate, just as a similar crisis obliged Daniel Ortega to call for the very elections that ended the Sandinista presidency.

During her visit to the United States this week, President Chamorro hopes for a triumphal welcome from the U.S. Congress. A hero’s welcome would be premature and would send the wrong signal to Nicaragua. The Bush Administration, which played a crucial role in Chamorro’s election, now has an opportunity to positively influence Nicaragua’s future and to enhance stability in the region. Nicaragua desperately needs economic aid from the United States and other countries, but it will serve no useful purpose if it is not tied to specific political and economic reforms, including respect for human rights and respect for the democratic process.

Justice for the murder of Enrique Bermudez and others and a real government of national unity are essential for bringing the country together to overcome its crisis. Violeta Chamorro and her government must be held accountable.