por Marvin Ramírez
De Izq-der: Carlos Solórzano, Frank Ayala, Cónsul Denis Galeano, Embajador Francisco Campbell, su esposa Miriam Hooker y el Dr. Guillermo Uriarte. (photo by Marvin Ramírez)
The news that Daniel Ortega’s new number one diplomat, Francisco Campbell, was coming to San Francisco on Oct. 25 was received with mixed feelings in a city where most Nicaraguans tend to oppose left wing ideologies, especially the way President Ortega has monopolized the most powerful institutions in Nicaragua, including a recent electoral fraud and the bribing of members of the Assembly and opposition political parties with money coming from an oil business partnership with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
In Nicaragua, the Supreme Court and the Electoral Supreme Council are viewed as institutions serving to the pleasure of the President, and many have compared Ortega’s ruling style as worse than the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, who ruled the country with iron fist and also controlled Nicaragua’s most powerful institutions, while becoming the riches man in the country, and holding complete control of the police and the army. Thanks to this control of the Supreme Court, Ortega has been able to circumvent the Constitution that prohibits the reelection, and now become a lawful candidate for a second term.
Ambassador Campbell is the first Ambassador of Nicaragua to Washington D.C. to come from the Autonomous Regions on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, which economically speaking, is considered the poorest region of a very poor country.
The Atlantic Coast has a distinctive history of conquest, colonization and resource exploitation that has left it underdeveloped and environmentally depleted, with high levels of unemployment and poverty, and low levels of schooling, health and other social services, and now invaded by drug cartels from Colombia.
In his previous diplomatic career, Campbell served as Nicaragua’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe from 1986-1990 when Zimbabwe held the Presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement.
He was concurrent Ambassador to Tanzania, Angola and Zambia. From 1982- 1986, he served during Ortega’s first administration in Nicaragua’s Embassy in Washington DC, overseeing outreach activities and congressional relations and was concurrent during this period to Nicaragua’s Permanent Mission at the United Nations.
But despite what the feeling toward Ortega was, during his first visit to San Francisco, Ambassador Campbell, who was named Ambassador to the U.S. in June, was greeted and liked by many of those same people who oppose Ortega in the Bay Area. He was viewed as a representative of Nicaragua, the country, and not Ortega’s.
“He captivated the audience, he spoke of the need to work together without distinction of political colors,” said Carlos Solórzano, president of the Nicaraguan- American Chamber of Commerce to El Reportero.
“The Chamber organized this event to promote Nicaraguan businesses … and promote the opportunity to invest in Nicaragua,” Solórzano said, “and the Ambassador showed leadership in what he is doing in representing Nicaragua, leaving a feeling of being knowledgeable, while the audience heard personally that Nicaragua is a safe place with good opportunities for investment.”
The community welcomed Campbell well and had the opportunity to hear his as an expert about how he sees the progress of the country, according to Solórzano.
Those organizations present included, board members of the Nicaraguan- American Chamber of Commerce, Nicaraguan Unity for Friendship (UNA) and FraterNica, including representatives of the consulates of El Salvador and Perú and Nicaraguan people with Sandinista and Liberal tendencies.
During an exclusive interview coordinated by Consul General of Nicaragua in San Francisco Denis Galeano Cornejo, the Ambassador responded to questions of El Reportero newspaper about his position to the right of Nicaraguans to vote abroad, responding that “the government does not have a position on the topic, because it is a question of the Assembly, and not of the President.”
He said that there was nothing in the agenda indicating that Nicaraguans might vote in the near future outside of Nicaragua. His response was similar when he was asked on the status of the National Identification (Cédula) of Nicaraguans living abroad, and avoided a question directed at himself as Nicaraguan, on what was his personal position on whether Nicaraguans had the right to vote abroad.
