[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21585-21586]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    NICARAGUAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, yesterday our neighbors to the south in 
Nicaragua went to the polls to elect a new President. The liberal party 
candidate, Enrique Bolanos, appears to be the winner. With part of the 
vote counted this afternoon, he has 53 percent of the vote, while 
Sandinista leader, Daniel Ortega, trails with 45 percent. Although 
votes still remain to be counted, Ortega has conceded defeat.
  But right up to yesterday, when people actually went to the polls in 
Nicaragua, the candidates were running neck and neck, we are told, in a 
very heated and very tight race. It is disconcerting that the race was 
even close at all. The very fact that Ortega, a Marxist Communist 
sympathizer, could come close to regaining power tells us that it is 
time for the United States to wake up and start paying attention to our 
neighbor to the south. If we do not, we will see Daniel Ortgega or 
another leftist radical regain power sometime in the future.
  The fact is that unless we pay attention, unless we take notice, 
history may well repeat itself. Sometimes we in the United States have 
a tendency to go from crisis to crisis. We try to deal with the crisis 
and then, once the crisis is over, we forget about that region or that 
part of the world or that country. That is what I think we have done in 
Central America.
  In the 1980s, when I was a member of the House Foreign Affairs 
Committee, the world's spotlight, and this Congress' spotlight, the 
country's spotlight was on Nicaragua; it was on El Salvador; it was on 
many of our neighbors in South and Central America.
  The 1980s and the 1990s brought a very significant increase in 
democracy in this hemisphere. Many of us have come to the Chamber and 
talked about that. We have talked about the fact that this hemisphere 
is so much more democratic today than it has ever been in the past. 
Today, all but one of our region's 33 countries have democratically 
elected heads of state. But we have seen a retrenching of that in the 
last few years.
  While we justifiably are worried about many other parts of the world, 
we should not forget about our neighbors to the south. In fact, a 
recent poll indicates a steep decline in support for democracy among 
Latin American and Central American countries. If we look at Nicaragua, 
that same poll shows that only 43 percent of Nicaraguans support 
democracy. That figure was at 72 percent just 3 years before, nearly a 
30-percent drop.
  In the same poll, Nicaragua registered the largest increase in 
support for authoritarian government, a 16-percent increase over the 
previous year's figure.
  Maybe these startling figures should come as no surprise. History 
does offer us a sober reminder that oppressive regimes often spring 
from misery, despair, and joblessness. Nicaragua has never recovered 
from the war of the 1980s, the earthquake of the early 1970s, the 
droughts, the hurricanes, the political corruption, the economic 
collapse. If we look at the per capita income today, what we find is 
per capita income in Nicaragua in real terms is still less than 25 
percent of the level reached in the 1970s--an absolutely unbelievable 
figure.
  Nicaragua today is still the second poorest country in the hemisphere 
behind Haiti.
  There is something wrong with this picture. Yes, democracy won out in 
Nicaragua in the 1980s, but the economic environment and political 
leadership were not stable enough to allow that democracy to fully take 
hold and thrive. In the recent election, the apparent winner was 
clearly handicapped by the fact that he had been Vice President for 
President Aleman, who has certainly been a disappointment to his 
country and a disappointment to the United States and other people who 
care about democracy.
  We should think about this. Just yesterday that nation, Nicaragua, 
came all too close to sending Daniel Ortega back to the Presidency, the 
very leader under whose direction inflation rose as high as 33,000 
percent.
  Regretfully, the United States has not done as much as we should have 
over the last decade. We have done some things. We have been involved. 
We tried to help but, candidly, not as much as we should have. We tried 
to implement judicial reforms and change in the rule of law, but 
democracy is not a hobby;, it is a lifetime commitment. It is not 
enough to believe in it;, it has to be practiced every day, day in and 
day out.
  Yesterday's elections represent a close call but also a new 
opportunity for democracy in Nicaragua. I believe the United States 
must do what we can to help our friends in Nicaragua.
  With the election of Enrique Bolanos, we have a unique opportunity to 
bring about lasting change for the people of Nicaragua. We need to 
support and work closely with USAID in that effort to create economic 
and social conditions that will produce a greater margin of safety for 
the poor. Hurricane Mitch demonstrated how vulnerable the country is to 
natural disasters. Overall economic losses were estimated at $1.5 
billion.
  While growth rebounded to about 7 percent in 1999, low world coffee 
prices and an internal financial sector crisis caused Nicaragua more 
than 10-percent drop in GDP in the year 2000. There is an urgent need 
for Nicaragua to pay systematic and immediate attention to 
environmental issues and problems, including watershed management, 
natural resource management, reforestation, and land use. We also need 
to expand our food-for-work programs, strengthen our education and 
training initiatives, and encourage alternative crop development.
  Furthermore, we need to foster economic growth by strengthening our 
microenterprise programs and increasing the number of rural credit 
unions. I know my colleague in the Chair has been a great supporter of 
microenterprise programs. They work in Nicaragua as they work around 
the world. I think we have to do more to promote them.
  These are efforts that we have supported in the past, and we need to 
support in the future. We need to provide individual Nicaraguans the 
tools to permanently free themselves from poverty. We should also 
support soon-to-be-President Bolanos in any attempt to scale back some 
of the electoral and judicial reforms brought about in the late 1999 
pact between the Aleman government and the Sandinistas. Specifically, 
we need to work towards: No. 1, restoring the autonomy of the judicial 
branch; No. 2, restoring the autonomy of the comptroller; No. 3, 
reducing barriers for third party participation and increased 
accountability of the Supreme Electoral Council; and finally, we need 
to also develop increased accountability of government officials and 
make aid contingent on a transparent government that proactively works 
to root out corruption.
  Finally, we should take advantage of opportunities for bilateral and 
multilateral counterdrug operations with the Nicaraguan military. 
Operations such as these, closely monitored, not only can produce 
tangible results in the form of interdictions and deterrence but also 
could help increase the skills and professionalism of the indigenous 
forces in Nicaragua.
  Ultimately, we need to keep a very close watch on the entire 
hemisphere

[[Page 21586]]

to see what we can do to help the democratic forces. They need our 
help. It is in the best interests of the United States to see these 
countries remain democratic.
  We also need to understand how very closely economic progress for the 
poor is tied to democracy. If we expect democracy to flourish and to 
grow in our neighbors to the south, it is essential that we do what we 
can to help their economies grow so everyone in those countries, 
whether it be Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, or any of our neighbors 
to the south, anyone who lives in these countries will see they do have 
opportunity under democracy.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The distinguished Senator from Michigan.

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