Alemán under arrest

Ex-President Arnoldo Alemán is no longer able to avoid justice. A narrow majority of the Parliament yesterday left his fate in the hands of the legal system. “History will acquit me”, says Alemán.

By Christian Korsgaard

13. December 2002

After months of what in the end came to look like a political ceasefire between President Enrique Bolaños and ex-President Arnoldo Alemán (1996-2001), a narrow majority of the Nicaraguan Parliament yesterday voted in favor of stripping the latter of his parliamentary immunity. The decision apparently makes it impossible for Alemán to avoid facing trial on two multimillion-dollar charges of fraud.

Following the historic decision, formal charges were immediately presented against the ex-President (1996-2001), and police and antiriot troops were posted on the grounds of El Chile, the Alemán family’s farm South of Managua. According to Nicaraguan legal law, Alemán is now forbidden to leave El Chile, unless requested or permitted to do so by a judge. Leaving the country is naturally also out of the question. The ex-President is expected to make declarations twice today before a judge.

Battle for vote number 47

The Parliamentary session yesterday was marked by equal parts of joy, anger and frustration, depending on the political standpoint of each Member of Parliament. 47 votes were need to make the historic move against corruption, and a mixed group of Sandinistas (opposition), Christian–Democrats and defected liberals of the Blue–and–White Group took advantage of the presence of Christian–Democrat substitute Mariano Suárez, who made majority possible.

Since the so–called ‘guaca’–case blew up a couple of months ago, the fight for the 47^th vote has moved back and forth in the Parliament, making further progress in the battle against corruption virtually impossible. At a certain point, it even seemed possible that Alemán was to succeed in his alleged plan to make Bolaños seem incapable of producing the promised progress in the central American country, as public support to the Bolaños–administration started dropping.

National relief

However, with yesterday’s events in mind, a general feeling of relief that things might finally move on, flushes though Nicaragua. Alemán–supporters have threatened to use all possible means to protest against yesterday’s decision, which they consider invalid on the argument that Aleman’s membership of the central American Parliament (PARLACEN) still gives him parliamentary immunity. Legal experts find the argument ridiculous, as that would in fact mean that the PARLACEN is more powerful than the individual, national parliaments of the central American countries.

Alemán himself maintains his innocence in the entire case, claiming it to be a political setup. “History will acquit me”, said the neo–liberal Arnoldo Alemán yesterday, thus quoting one of his political adversaries, Fidel Castro of Cuba.