Gioconda Belli

The responses of the presidential couple to the events of the week of April 18th were so contrary to how one might expect you can’t help but wonder if they have already lost all connection with reality.

It’s crucial these days to keep our eyes wide open as regards the government maneuverings to delegitimize the popular rebellion in Nicaragua.

In one blow, amid the sound of shattering glass, the opinion polls, the assurances, the belief that they were governing with the support and approval of the majority, all crashed down.

Every day we read about the marvels that are coming to Managua to alleviate the blockages and traffic jams: overpasses, widening of the Juan Pablo II highway, bicycle lanes, etc. It all sounds lovely, but the Mayor’s office has to turn its eyes towards how to maintain the functionality of these modernized, widened roadways.

The accusation against the remaining independent press from Nicaragua’s Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP), appears to be the product of a paranoia that has been very well aimed towards co-opting them into squelching the small measure of free expression that still exists.

This year has begun with gusts of wind and storm clouds, as if nature were echoing the political events that we’re witnessing. “Thank God” proclaim the signs that have been celebrating the “Times of Victories” since months before the election of Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo.

The hardening noted in the last few weeks is a direct consequence of the problems that Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela is having with an opposition ever more able to call attention to responsibilities and poor management, and with increasing popular support.