Introduction
Political leaders, especially presidents or prime ministers, shape nearly every dimension of human life at the local, state, national, or global level. From socioeconomic to health to environmental aspects, politicians drive employment and wealth distribution, determine cross-border relations and the movement of people and goods, and social cohesion within a country. Some leaders have risen to power through a democratic process, while others have forced themselves through coups. Democratic leaders respect the Constitution and tend to rule by law, including holding free and fair elections, allowing multipartyism, respecting human rights and freedoms, and respecting the separation of powers. However, some tinpot autocratic leaders circumvent these established national laws by wielding “absolute power.” Daniel Ortega is one of the few leaders that have been recently accused of dictatorship, despite gaining notoriety and rising into power as a left-wing rebel and leader of the Sandinista revolution in mid-20th century (BBC, 2022, par. 5). This paper summarizes the background information (family and early life, education, professional background, and influences), rise to power, source/extent of power, leadership style, and significant actions of Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua’s long-serving president.
Background Information
Family and Early Life
Joseph Daniel Saavedra Ortega, the current president of Nicaragua (since 2007), was born on November 11, 1945, in La Libertad, Nicaragua, to Daniel Ortega, a veteran soldier of the Cesar Augusto Sandino, and Lidia Saavedra (Crandall, 2023, p. 512). His parents strongly criticized Anastasio Somoza Debayle’s regime, leading to his mother being jailed for being caught with “love letters,” which the guards believed were coded political notes. Daniel Ortega has four siblings (three brothers and one sister). His youngest brother, Camilo Ortega, died in 1978 defending the Somoza regime. The other brother, Humberto Ortega, is a renowned writer and a former army general.
Education
During the early days, Ortega’s family migrated to Juigalpa from Libertad and afterward to a middle-class community in Managua in search of stable employment and better living standards (Crandall, 2023, p. 512). While in Managua, Ortega and his brother were enrolled in LaSalle Institute, an upper-middle-class high school. He later attended the Central American University briefly before going underground and joining the Sandinista National Liberation Front (SNLF).
Professional Background
Ortega has been in active politics from an early age, vehemently opposing then-president Anastasio Somoza’s regime. Somoza’s guards arrested Ortega at age 15 in 1960 for his involvement in political activities (Cockcroft & Stockwell, 1991, p. 41). Three years later, he joined the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSNL) to oppose Somoza’s government. Ortega and other Sandinista members were rearrested in 1967 for their role in a bank heist and spent seven years in prison. They were released in 1974 as part of an exchange involving Somocista hostages before being exiled to Cuba, where they underwent guerilla training for several months. Upon secretly reentering Nicaragua, Ortega and his brother were central in forming the Insurrectionist or the Tercerista faction in 1975, which later culminated in the Nicaraguan Revolution.
Influences
During his early days in politics, Ortega was primarily influenced by powerful South American leftwingers and revolutionists, such as communist Fidel Castro and Augusto Cesar, who symbolized resistance and insurgencies across Latin America and beyond. Ortega has publicly admitted that former Cuban president Fidel Castro supported and inspired the Sandinista Revolution (Prensa Latina, 2016, par. 1). Additionally, the name Sandinista was coined by Nicaragua’s legendary leader Agusto Cesar Sandino (1895-1934), who led a resistance against the US occupation of Nicaragua.
Rise to Power
The Sandinistas overthrew Somoza’s regime in 1979 during the Nicaraguan Revolution to end Somoza’s dynasty and establish a revolutionary government. As a critical player of the Sandinista Junta, Ortega became FSNL’s coordinator in 1981 and Nicaragua’s first-ever democratically elected president three years later with a 60% vote. Up to his election in 1984, the FSLN ruled the country as a Junta of National Reconstruction. Ortega and FSNL-led Nicaraguan Revolution and their subsequent presidential candidature were anchored on ending Somoza’s dictatorship, instituting literacy programs, achieving land and healthcare reforms, and nationalizing resources (Reed, 2020, p. 103). Ortega lost in the 1990 vote to Violeta Chamorro following decade-long anti-government campaigns, embargos, and pressures from the US administration for alleged human rights violations, bias against indigenous people, and mismanagement of the economy. Ortega recaptured his seat in 2007 and has ruled since then.
Source and Extent of Power
The first source of leadership for Ortega is “legitimate power.” Also called positional power, legitimate power is the influence a leader derives from a country’s formal documents, such as the Constitution, due to their leadership positions (Dirik & Eryılmaz, 2018, p. 532). President Ortega derives his authority from the “Constitution of Nicaragua” (1987), which distributes power among the three arms of government (executive, legislature, and judiciary). However, unlike the US and other Western democracies, Nicaragua’s Constitution disproportionately grants the executive (president) broader powers than the judicial and legislative branches. In most instances, the judicial and legislative have not been able to perform the “checks and balances” on the president. As such, Ortega’s other power source has been “coercion,” a type of authority primarily rooted in imposing punishments, fear, threats, and negative ramifications on critics and rebels. This was evident in 2018 when President Ortega unleashed a dangerous wave of threats, suppression, and repression of Nicaraguans protesting against the Social Security Reform, triggering widespread civic insurrection (Belli, 2018, par. 1).
Leadership Style
Ortega’s leadership style has evolved over the years from being transformational and democratic to autocratic and transactional. Before their accent to power, Ortega and the FSLN gained popularity in the 1970s for their drive to end Somoza’s dictatorship and capture state resources. Their motif spearheading the Nicaraguan Revolution was nationalizing these resources, ensuring equal distribution. As a transformational leader, Ortega sold the idea of nationalism to Nicaraguans. This idealized influence rocketed him to power in 1984. According to Khan et al. (2016, p. 4), idealized influence is a feature whereby leaders inspire their followers to model their behaviors and ideas. During these early days, Ortega highly valued his relationship with his followers, with his ideas resonating with all citizens. However, after capturing power (both during the first and second spells), Ortega has metamorphosed into the world’s greatest dictator, often intertwining transactional with autocratic leadership styles. Transactional leadership relies on “trades” between followers and the leader; followers are rewarded for meeting specific performance criteria or goals (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014, p.15). Ortega transacts disloyalty and rebellion with arrests, repression, and torture. Ortega’s transactional leadership has precipitated tyranny and violent suppression of non-followers or non-conformists, such as the recent political prisoners expelled to the US. Most critics are warning that Somoza’s reign has returned to Managua. His viciousness and tinpot autocratic decisions led to the death of more than 317 citizens in 2018, with 2000 wounded and jailed (Belli, 2018, para. 1-2).
Major Actions/Decisions
The two actions that define Ortega’s transactional leadership style are (1) the torture and imprisonment of protestors in 2018 and (2) the banishment of 222 former political prisoners to the US in 2023 (Abi-Habib, 2023, par. 1). In 2018, Ortega’s government used weapons of war to injure and kill unarmed anti-government protestors disproportionately. The protests were directed against social security reforms. This targeted killing and prosecution led to forced immigration and displacement of over 20,000 citizens, primarily to neighboring Costa Rica (Lakhani, 2018, par. 15). Ortega’s actions illustrate transactional leadership because the tortures and killings are ‘transactions’ for disloyalty and disdain. The second action, handing over 222 political prisoners to the US, demonstrates transactional leadership because Ortega uses it to trade for ‘new diplomatic relations with the US,’ his longstanding nemesis. He exchanges prisoners for diplomatic relations.
Overall Assessment of Ortega as a Leader
Truthfully, Ortega’s reign is the worst in Nicaragua’s history, worse than even Somoza’s. He has become a vicious, deadly, and power-hungry dictator willing to sacrifice his people for personal gains. He neither respects the Constitution not court orders.
Summary/Conclusion
Nicaragua’s case is a typical example of how lousy leadership can detail socioeconomic growth and strangle democracy, social cohesion, and international relations. President Daniel Ortega is to blame for all these misfortunes that have bedeviled one of Latin America’s promising economies. His transactional leadership and disobedience of the Constitution have led to autocracy, subsequently precipitating oppression, harassment, imprisonment, and murder of innocent civilians. There is no question that most Nicaraguans share in this view of a “New Liberation” from a modern-day dictatorship.
References
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BBC. (2022, Jan 10). Daniel Ortega: From revolutionary leader to opposition hate figure. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-15544315
Belli, G. (2018, Aug 24). How Daniel Ortega became a tyrant: From revolutionary to strongman. Foreign Affairs. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/nicaragua/2018-08-24/how-daniel-ortega-became-tyrant
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Lakhani, N. (2018, Oct 18). Nicaragua used ‘weapons of war’ to kill protestors, says Amnesty International. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/18/nicaragua-amnesty-international-police-killings-daniel-ortega
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