(TODAY NICARAGUA) Nicaraguan economist Enrique Sáenz analyzed in his blog the management of dictator Daniel Ortega in the face of the health crisis in Nicaragua due to the COVID-19 pandemic and questioned: What is Ortega’s bet with this criminal management of the pandemic?
According to the opinion article by Sáenz, one can “speculate” that the dictatorship intends to eliminate the elderly to save on pension payments.
“The Nicaraguan popular imagination uses various explanations, ranging from those who consider that it is a scheme to eliminate the elderly Nicaraguans so that the INSS saves on pension payments,” he says.
In addition, he stressed that a reality full of tragedy is lived according to the explanations of writer Gabriel García Márquez, “in one of his chronicles he maintains that in our latitudes the realities are so wild that they overflow all imagination, and every word is insufficient to describe it. We are facing one of those situations. Only this reality is impregnated with tragedy,” said the Nicaraguan.
Does Ortega care about the thousands of Nicaraguans who are dying or who may die? Do you mind that your followers also go among the deceased?
Saénz recalls that “the dictator has only one existential purpose: to perpetuate himself in power, whatever the cost. So his macabre calculation is that a situation of chaos will favor conditions for his permanence since he considers that there would not be a political, economic, or social force with the will or with the ability to challenge its power,” says the opinion piece.
What are the “calculation bases” on which Ortega supports this diabolical bet?
The economist explains:
The first concerns the international community. It seems clear that his initial estimate was that the pandemic was sufficient reason for governments to focus their attention on alleviating the economic, political, and social emergencies of their countries.
“On this plane, his calculations so far are proving wrong,” says Saénz.
His next measurement is internal, with the wealthiest local economic groups. He knows them very well and knows where they have their weaknesses. He is taking them to the edge of the abyss in order that sooner or later they end up seeking or encouraging an understanding. According to some people, these arrangements have not yet come to fruition because the price that is being demanded of them is very high.
His third calculation is with the opposition organizations. He has them well calculated. He is duly informed of conflicting interests, crossed ambitions and sharp contradictions.
Saénz writes of Ortega’s ability to talk without saying anything, “muddle things by falsifying figures, with the complicity of the local PAHO representation, coupled with international confusion, the mobilization of his followers and repression.”
But the situation is no turning out as Ortega had hoped to orchestrate.
“These macabre calculations are failing both internationally and domestically. The pandemic has spun out of control, expressions of discontent are generalizing, and pockets of resistance are emerging. The most visible is that of health professionals. Meanwhile, the socioeconomic crisis worsens, deepening social unrest,” says Saénz.
But not all is all lost for the dictator.
“It is a disgrace that this tragic episode represents a political opportunity to confront and defeat Ortega. But life is so.
“It is also part of the disgrace that the pettiness, blindness, and incompetence of opposition organizations and ‘leaders’ leads them to spend more time discussing how they are going to decide on illusory divisions of office, rather than approaching the problems of the people and the country.”
Read the entire Enrique Sáenz opinion piece (in Spanish) at Confidencial.
Article originally appeared on Today Nicaragua and is republished here with permission.
