Central America's Nicaragua has had a long history of corruption and war. It seems that in ever election of a new president they're never the right person to represent the people best therefore the votes are always split, and half the country rebels. Due to a never-ending cycle that started in Nicaragua's history, Balanos is destined to fail his country just like the leaders that preceded him. They all have entered office with one intention but their meaning was thwarted by outside influences. The ones who have successfully ran the country were driven out.
In 1963 Anastasio Somoza Debayle became the unofficial president of Nicaragua. His father and older brother had held office off and on since 1937. He had seen the shambles that his older brother Luis had left the country in and entered with new and opposing intentions. While Luis had not totally ruined the already broken country he had only bettered the rich and done nothing with the poor.
Anastasio Somoza García and his sons Luis Somoza ...
Somoza family mausoleum.
ARDE Frente Sur Commandos take a smoke break after...Somoza entered office after stepping down for two years with the intention of equalizing the country, but when the pressures fell into place it collapsed and did what the presidents before him had done and bettered himself. He replaced government officials with opponents with the understanding that they would not exploit him anymore. After the earthquake when the people of Managua were expecting new roads, markets and buildings he did nothing. In 1974 when the Sandanistas began to grow and speak openly about his terrible ruling along with La Prensa, Somoza objected and terrorized innocent people with his national guardsmen.
The Sandanistas were the next to take power in Nicaragua. They established an anti- Somoza regime that helped through him out of office. The United States had used Somoza as a puppet for them to manipulate and although nothing went well during his reign for the Nicaraguans, nothing also went wrong for the US. When the Sandanistas came to power they had the same intentions that the beloved Zelaya had, they saw what was going on and wanted to put a stop to better their country. They were patriotic socialists and were not necessarily searching for the power but if that was the step that they needed to take then they took it. They objected to the way that Somoza had run the country through the exploitation of the US and stood up to that influence. That is where their intentions were flipped. Because the US wanted to have control over the country along with the Sandanistas there was not enough room for both of them. So the US added more confusion to the Sandanistas plans and created the Contras, which took the attention away from the Sandanistas original motives and directed it at the contras.
The last president to rule the country before newly elected Balanos was Alman. He reigned as the mayor of Managua in 1990, still not repaired after the devastating earthquake in 1972. As the mayor he repaved and rebuild streets, added street signs and lights. He made new parks and public facilities and got international aid to help pay of the renovation. After six years of bettering the quality of life for the people of Managua he was elected president with the same intentions of fighting poverty, unemployment, and obtaining economic growth for his country. While he did better much of the country he also left many still hungry and unemployed despite when he had promised. People waited for food and began to gather in soccer fields to live as jobless hungry communities. They began to hate Alman and claimed that even when the contras and the Sandanistas were at war there was enough food dispersed. They called him the "fat man" because while they were sick and dieing her was using his position to better himself. He increased his income by nearly 300% and gained noticeable weight, which proved to the people that he was just another puppet for the United States.
The polls in Nicaragua offer few options for the voters of Nicaragua to chose from which ends in a split deciding vote between the lesser of two evils. Ortega and Balanos were the two main candidates in this year's election and the people voted Balanos only because he was not as bad as Ortega. Now Balanos is going to take office and crumble under the same pressures that all of the presidents before him seemed to do.
Sec. Solis Norwalk C.C._7
SBB on Balano 1969
Kaiser Permanente La Mesa 18570