Nicaragua Says ‘Enough’

Former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman was found guilty of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering and other crimes this week. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, fined about $20 million and forbidden to serve in Congress for two decades.

While independent doctors determine whether Aleman is too sick to go to jail, he’ll serve his sentence at his ranch on the outskirts of Managua, a luxury property allegedly built with public funds. It’s galling that he is being allowed to stay there temporarily, but at least justice appears to be finally coming his way.

Now Nicaragua must respect the ruling and not bend to public pressure; Aleman’s followers have already rioted. Judicial and legislative leaders there must resist negotiating a deal with Aleman and his Liberal Party, which still holds a majority in Congress.

The case against Aleman is solid. The evidence presented by the current president, Enrique Bolanos, against him in early August was overwhelming.

For example, Aleman used public money to buy a helicopter that he later rented out for his personal profit. He took money from the public treasury and diverted it into a foundation he created. During the five years of his tenure, he and members of his family created a series of ghost businesses to transfer money from the treasury under false pretenses.

In spite of these flagrant acts of corruption, many in Nicaragua were surprised by the strong sentence by the judge in the case. Such judicial forthrightness must be encouraged so that Nicaragua’s national coffers are not so easily pilfered in the future.

Nicaragua, Guatemala, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Haiti and Paraguay are consistently rated by international watchdogs as having the highest levels of governmental corruption in the Western Hemisphere. With the sentencing of Aleman, Nicaragua may be able to take itself off the list.