Nicaragua’s Bolanos Dismisses Impeachment Bid as Dirty Politics

The opposition-led congress initiated impeachment proceedings this week against President Enrique Bolanos, intensifying a political crisis in this impoverished country.

An alliance of two former rivals -- the Sandinista National Liberation Front and the Constitutionalist Liberal Party, or PLC -- is demanding that Bolanos appear before a congressional committee as part of an effort to strip him of presidential immunity and prosecute him for “electoral crimes.”

Bolanos sent his attorney to the hearing while he addressed the nation to say that the proposed impeachment was merely dirty politics, an assertion several political analysts supported.

The president accused Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega of pushing for his impeachment to repay a debt to former President Arnoldo Aleman, who was convicted on corruption charges in 2003 and whose pardon is being sought by the alliance.

Bolanos has refused to consider pardoning Aleman, who is the PLC leader and his former patron. Sandinista leaders were not available for comment but have said Bolanos was implicated in the misuse of $100 million for which Aleman was convicted.

The impeachment controversy is the latest in a political impasse gripping the nation. Although the Nicaraguan army and the National Police have so far not become involved, investors are said to be increasingly nervous.

During four days here last month, Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza was unsuccessful in what one observer called “pingpong mediation.” Insulza went back and forth to the opposing parties, who refused to sit at the same table.

In Insulza’s final attempt, Ortega, Roman Catholic Cardinal Miguel Obando and Christian Liberal Party leader Noel Ramirez were prepared to sit down with Bolanos, but the president refused to meet with those who, in the words of his secretary, Ariel Montoya, had “stabbed him in the back.”

The crisis was sparked mainly by laws passed late last year and early this year that stripped Bolanos of various powers, including naming ministerial officials and responsibility for destroying the army’s 1,150 surface-to-air missiles as requested by the United States.

Bolanos refuses to recognize the laws, saying they were political maneuvers and should be put to a national referendum. He has also ignored rulings by the Supreme Court and other judges, most of whom were appointed by the Sandinistas.

Analysts trace the dispute to Bolanos’ decision in 2002 to prosecute Aleman, who is serving a 20-year sentence under house arrest. That move led 43 of 49 PLC deputies to drop their support for the president.

Bolanos then formed an alliance with the Sandinistas to get enough votes in congress to strip Aleman of his immunity and prosecute him. But in 2003, the president broke with the Sandinistas, reportedly at the urging of the U.S. State Department, which was worried that Ortega was gaining too much power through his relationship with Bolanos, said Elvira Cuadra, a sociologist at Communication Research Center, a local think tank.

Bolanos still counts on strong support from the United States, the OAS and other Central American leaders, but he enjoys little backing at home.

Although he portrays himself as an anti-corruption crusader, he has also been criticized by some analysts as an inept politician.

There are signs that Nicaraguans are increasingly disenchanted with their politicians. The Sandinistas, for example, have lost support for entering into the alliance with the PLC.