November 7th, 2006

Somewhere in Nicaragua

OK, so it looks like Ortega pulled it off and will be the next president of Nicaragua. We’ve been receiving tons of emails from people asking what this means for Nicaragua’s future, travel safety, investments, etc. While we don’t pretend to have the answers, there are several important things to consider. The first is that Nicaragua’s president was “voted” in, democratically. It looks like he’ll end up with around 40% of the total votes. Even if he’s not the candidate of choice for you, lot’s of people here picked him. Don’t worry, we won’t be returning to communism (a question asked in one email). As President of a democracy, he’ll have to work with the National Assembly to make things happen – a group made up primarily of his opponents. There are checks and balances here. I think the biggest issue we’ll be facing is his negative image and the fear of the unknown – especially as painted by the US government, who is in the habit of overstepping their bounds and exaggerating such issues. Personally, I don’t think these election results should cause everybody to freak out, at least not yet. The Sandinistas are capitalists like everybody else and have a lot to gain from tourism and foreign investment. I’m not expecting that they do anything to disrupt the progress Nicaragua is making along these fronts. So, rather than worry about the unknown, let’s all take some time to see what is going to happen. We should all know a lot more in the next month or two. In the meantime, the waves will be super fun and we have a contest coming up at Maderas. Check out the flyer above and come out to support the local surfers!