Arnoldo Alemán
|
José Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo (born January 23, 1946) is a Nicaraguan politician who served as the 81st President of Nicaragua from 10 January 1997 to 10 January 2002. In 2003, he was convicted of corruption and sentenced to a 20-year prison term, and Transparency International named him the ninth most corrupt leader in recent history. In 2009, those convictions were overturned, though these decisions remain controversial.
Biography edit
In the early 1990s he became mayor of Managua after serving for two months as a councillor in Managua. He was popular due to his urban renewal projects which helped spruce up the city, severely damaged and never rebuilt after a 1972 earthquake. He became known as "El Gordo" ("The Fat Man").
Alemán became president of the Liberal Alliance and helped to resurrect it. Besides the PLC, other members of this alliance were the Partidos Neoliberal (PALI), Liberal Independiente de Unidad Nacional (PLIUN) and the Liberal Nacionalista (PLN). On 1 September 1995 he resigned as mayor in order to be able, under Nicaraguan law, to stand as a candidate in the forthcoming presidential election.
In 1996 he campaigned for president as the Liberal Alliance's candidate under a strong anti-Sandinistas platform. It is reported that unidentified individuals attempted to shoot Alemán, killing one of his bodyguards in the process. He defeated Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista leader, by 48% of the vote to Ortega's 40%. Many claimed widespread election fraud and Ortega refused to concede.
Alemán was successful in promoting economic recovery with reduced inflation and growth of GDP. Foreign investment grew during his administration, which helped to improve Nicaragua's infrastructure.[citation needed] Under his slogan of "Obras, no palabras! (Actions, not words)", Alemán directed a comprehensive reconstruction of the roadway system throughout Nicaragua. In the 1980s roads had deteriorated to the point that many were little more than sparsely paved dirt trails. Alemán also created a program to build schools throughout Nicaragua in some of the poorest regions.
A few months after his inauguration, the "Los Tarjetazos" scandal broke out, when it was discovered that the Central Bank issued credit cards paid for by taxpayers in favor of President Alemán. Also, some time later, the existence of some checks issued by the DGI in favor of the defunct BANIC to pay debts of the Genisa company, owned by Alemán, for an amount of 111 thousand dollars, a transaction that involved Petronic and private exchange houses, was discovered. . Another scandal was the issuance by the DGI of “credit notes” in favor of automotive distributors to deduct future taxes, in exchange for luxurious vehicles that ended up in the hands of those close to Alemán, costing Nicaraguans almost 11 million córdobas. In addition, President Alemán issued a check for $500,000 for the alleged purchase of equipment for Channel 6. The EAAI and Intur contributed an additional $350,000. The equipment was never purchased. In addition to the mega-salaries that Alemán received (who received 285 thousand dollars a year) and 400 high-level officials (who, in total, cost 40 million a month), the Alemán government was involved in a series of controversial developmentalisms , among which La Chinampa stands out — a 615-block farm, developed by drilling wells by INAA, electrified with resources from ENEL, using materials from the Mayco company, and decorated with cattle belonging to the IDR —, the presidential house — which was originally would cost 4 million dollars (donated by Taiwan) and would end up costing 14 million dollars without any change to the original plan, resorting to loans — and the Palacete de Pochimil — luxurious residence, owned by Bayron Jerez, built on the beaches of Pochomil Viejo with MTI funds intended to deal with the damage caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
He has participated in international conferences and awards given to him include the Orden Nacional al Mérito of the Colombian Government and the Orden de Isabel la Católica of the Spanish government. His first wife, Maria Dolores Cardenal Vargas died of cancer in 1989. Alemán has two sons and two daughters by his first wife. On 23 October 1999, ten years after the death of his first wife, he married Maria Fernanda Flores Lanzas, with whom he has two daughters and a son.
In April 1999, discontent with the Alemán administration manifested itself strongly in a wave of labor riots and protests, especially in the transportation sector. The president ordered the Army to intervene. Alemán saw his popularity plummet and, in addition, he found that the Comptroller of the Nation demanded explanations for the increase in his private equity by 900%, coinciding with his presidential term. Given the nature of the protest, Alemán opted to freeze the liberalization of public transport and maintain fuel subsidies.5 The final stretch of his mandate coincided with a fracture of the alliance that brought him to the government, his former allies began to criticize him, among them the former Vice President of the Republic with Chamorro, Virgilio Godoy, who declared that Alemán and his men had " stolen faster than during the Anastasio Somoza dictatorship". Conservative deputy Leonel Teller calculated that Alemán had amassed some 250 million dollars in the exercise of his position. Particular irritation caused public opinion to learn of the president's sumptuary expenses.6 He ended his presidency in January 2002.
Post-presidency edit
At the end of his term, he was accused by his opponents of having accumulated a fortune close to 250 million dollars in foreign assets and banks. Being the maximum leader of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC, right), he was accused in December 2002 by the Attorney General's Office of having used public funds to launder money and commit fraud to the detriment of the State. Finally, in 2003 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for money laundering and corruption, charges that led to his removal from office as a deputy and subsequent arrest. He was imprisoned with a controversial family cohabitation permit, granted by a judge that allowed him free movement through the city of Managua.
Alemán also faces other accusations of corruption in Panama and the United States for money laundering. Reports from the embassy to the United States Department of State say that while Alemán was president, he and his family stole approximately one hundred million dollars from the people of Nicaragua through the looting of the national treasury and the accounts of the different ministries and agencies, controlled by their corrupt associates, "Alemán, his family, and his associates, used various schemes to steal and launder government money, but most of the funds were laundered through shell companies in Panama, the United States, and the Dominican Republic. ". His wife María Fernanda Flores de Alemán, his brother Álvaro Alemán, his late sister Amelia Alemán, his daughter María Dolores Alemán, among others, created some of the companies conceived by the accomplices of the former president. Some of his closest collaborators during his government were also accused of corruption; one of the main ones, Byron Jerez. On January 15, 2009, Arnoldo Alemán was acquitted of corruption charges by the Nicaraguan Supreme Court, which at that time was presided over by Manuel Martínez Sevilla, a close associate of Alemán. Alemán decided to run for the presidential elections on November 6, 2011 for the PLC-PC Alliance, allying himself with the Conservative Party, the former rival of the Liberals. His main opponent was President Ortega, despite the fact that he was prohibited by the Constitution from running for re-election, according to article 147 of the Political Constitution of Nicaragua, rescinded in favor of Ortega.