What Decorations Does Nicaragua Put Up In Christmas

TIM ROGERS
Sandinistas jubilant in front of a Christmas tree in downtown Managua, Nicaragua.

In most parts of the world, including the Due north Pole, Christmas comes but once a year. But in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua, the Christmas copse along the downtown streets are lit festively every night of the year — fifty-fifty in July. The nightly ritual of lighting the trees (in this case, metal poles busy with strings of lights and diverse other ornaments) serves equally an eternal celebration of the Sandinista government'southward victory over the energy deficit inherited from the previous administration, at least according to Omar Cabezas, the ombudsman for the administration of President Daniel Ortega.

To make that point even clearer, each tree is at present topped with an illuminated "xxx" to mark the 30th anniversary of the victory of The Sandinista National Liberation Front end over the repressive U.S.-backed Somoza dynasty. Nicaragua's continual Christmas theme is besides advisable considering President Ortega governs Nicaragua a bit like Santa Claus. Not because he is jolly or has a tummy similar a bowl full of jelly (Ortega is very serious and has kept in remarkably adept shape for a 63-twelvemonth-quondam), but because the Sandinista boss uses gifts to go on people in line, and ever double checks his listing of who's naughty and who'due south overnice.

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The role of Mrs. Claus is played by Starting time Lady Rosario Murillo, who doesn't waste much time knitting stocking caps, merely is terribly efficient at keeping the elves in line while Santa naps. Almost Sandinistas know the best style to avoid the proverbial lump of coal in their stockings is to stay on Murillo's "nice listing," which is more exclusive than her husband's. As the head of government propaganda, Murillo is too the one in charge of the Christmas decorations.

For some, it's a chip also much. Gonzalo Carrion, of the Nicaraguan Center for Human being Rights, is a bit of a Grinch when information technology comes to the Christmas copse. He says the thousands of light bulbs burning brightly each dark are an criminal offence to the thousands of impoverished Nicaraguans — Sandinistas included — who can't afford to light their own homes. "There is a lack of ethics in all this," he said. "The Christmas copse don't project the image of a humble political party of the poor." The continual Christmas celebration is also symptomatic of a country "full of poets and surrealism," Feces says.

Sandinista lawmaker and union boss Gustavo Porras has no patience for such naysayers. "We are in the second phase of the revolution," he says, "and we are fighting the same enemies as ever — the oligarchy and the gringos." Porras, an Ortega loyalist, is a main architect in the government's constant mobilization and celebration. He insists the streets of Nicaragua belong to the Sandinistas, and must be claimed and occupied in whatever grade — through protests, celebrations or tree-decorating parties.

Critics claim the Sandinistas' continued fake holiday cheer — whether it exist waving flags around the Christmas trees in traffic circles, or throwing rocks at the opposition — epitomizes the ruling political party's intolerance and fear. Sandinistas, however, claim it's democracy in activeness. "In Paris, if you get a one thousand thousand people in the streets information technology'south called French democracy; but here if we put 10,000 Sandinistas in the streets it's viewed as violence or aggression," lamented presidential counselor Orlando Nunez.The Sandinistas insist the trees — and everything else they do — is a celebration of a historic moment in time, the Sandinista victory that represents the birth of eternal hope, merely like Christmas. Except every day.