Nicaragua’s Second Flag; The FSLN

Nicaragua is a truly diverse country.  One moment you may be in the middle of an over crowded city and the next moment on top of an active volcano.  You can go to the biggest lake in central America or look over a ridge to see a parched landscape.  There are people of many different ethnic groups and family backgrounds.  There are some of the wealthiest and most humble places you will ever see.  In Nicaragua there many different sights to see and people to meet but there is one thing that is the same in almost every location: the FSLN.    The FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional) or the National Sandinista Liberation Front is the dominant political party in Nicaragua.

You can find its signature red and black flag outside every public building, hospital, national monument, telephone pole and even on rocks if they are flat enough to paint on.  It is almost always flying right next to the actual flag of Nicaragua.  Quite often it is flying at the same height.  To our group of American students this was shocking to see.  Imagine right now if when you went outside everyday the Democrat Donkey or Republican Elephant was flying boldly outside every police station in town.  It is also important to note that buildings with the FSLN flag tended to look nicer that those without.  This is consistent with the fact not being a party member makes it more difficult to access resources.

This says something about the state of politics in Nicaragua.  Here it is extremely difficult to get the word out about your own political movement because the FSLN controls all the advertising space.  It is the only party you will see your entire time in Nicaragua.  There are other parties and movements in the country but seeing as how the leader of the party, President Daniel Ortega, owns most of the TV outlets you will be hard pressed to find them.  We met one representative from the Sandinista Renovation Movement, an opposition party to the FSLN, at the end of our trip but that was it.  And She came to meet us at our hotel!  Even though Nicaragua is officially a democratic country it never really stopped reminding me of what a stereotypical 1960’s communist dictatorship looked like.  Lots of pictures of the Presidents face everywhere and the party’s flag waving proudly outside all the public buildings.  The FSLN dominates not just the government but most of what you see as well.  It is a party that is in control and it will not let you forget that while you are in Nicaragua.

We hope that in the future Nicaragua becomes more democratic but for now it is a very undemocratic country with a long way to go.