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Enrique José Bolaños Geyer (born 13 May 1928) was the President of Nicaragua from 10 January 2002 to 10 January 2007. President Bolaños is of Spanish and German heritage and was born in Masaya (department of Masaya). He received his education in the United States, graduating from Saint Louis University in 1962. He publicly opposed the Sandinista controlled
government of the 1980s, resulting in brief imprisonment. His family
cotton farming operations, SAIMSA, were confiscated during the first
Sandinista administration of the 1980s. Bolaños served as vice president under his predecessor, Arnoldo Alemán. On 4 November 2001 he defeated Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front party in the presidential elections and was sworn in as president on 10 January 2002. He was a member of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) until he broke with it to help form the Alliance for the Republic (APRE). At the beginning of his term he led an anti - Corruption campaign against his predecessor and the head of the PLC Arnoldo Alemán politically
isolating himself from the influential Liberal Party. Institutional
struggles for power between the legislative, executive and judicial
branches resulted in great inefficiency for the Bolaños
government. Enrique Bolaños is an Honorary Member of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. Enrique Bolaños was born in Masaya, Nicaragua, on
13 May 1928 to Nicolás Bolaños Cortés (1890 – 1963)
and wife Amanda del Rosario Geyer Abaunza, and paternal grandson of
Alejandro Bolaños Cuadra (1858 – 1914) and wife and cousin
Cándida Cortés Bolaños (1854 – 1918). His father, a
wealthy businessman, was poisoned by an employee. He was also a maternal relative of Justo Abaunza,
25th and 27th President of Nicaragua. The Bolaños family has
played a minor role in Nicaraguan politics, traditionally associated
with the deep - rooted Liberal Party that brought Somoza dynasty
to power in 1939. Bolaños, however, carefully aligned himself
with the anti - Somoza Liberal Constitutionalist Party founded by Ramiro
Sacasa Guerrero in 1968. The Bolaños family has usually
maintained a hands - off approach to Nicaraguan politics, focusing rather
on business endeavors. Enrique Bolaños received his primary and secondary education in Nicaragua, and graduated from Saint Louis University with a degree in industrial engineering. He married Lila T. Abaúnza in 1949 and
bore five children: Enrique José, Lucía Amanda, Jorge
Alejandro (deceased, 2005), Javier Gregorio (deceased, 2007) and
Alberto (deceased, 1976). In
1952 he began a successful agro - production company, SAIMSA (Industrial
Agricultural Services of Masaya), which grew to become one of the
largest cotton producers
in Central America. Bolaños served as an active member of the
influential COSEP (Supreme Council for Private Enterprise), and served
as president from 1983 - 1988. COSEP was an anti - Sandinista
institution that focused on promoting free enterprise and limiting
governmental
interference in the private sector. Bolaños
publicly opposed Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government during the
1980s. He was arrested on 20 October 1981 for having violated
censorship laws. One month later he was imprisoned again upon returning
from an AIL (Association of Latin American Enterprises) conference in Venezuela.
In July 1982 he was jailed after sponsoring a conference of potential
American investors at his cotton plantation in Masaya. Under the
government's controversial agrarian reform program SAIMSA was confiscated and reappropriated to small farmers. After
the nationalization of his business, Bolaños worked as a
freelance computer programmer until his election to the vice - presidency in 1996. In the 1990 elections, Bolaños was denied presidential candidacy for the National Opposition Union (UNO,
a coalition of multiple anti - Sandinista parties), as he was considered
too stubborn and difficult to work with in the context of
democratization and national reconciliation. Violeta Chamorro was chosen instead. In 1996 Bolaños was chosen by presidential candidate and former mayor of Managua Arnoldo Alemán as
vice - presidential candidate for the PLC (Liberal Constitutionalist
Party). Bolaños was also elected as campaign manager for the
Liberal Party in the 1996 elections. Alemán defeated Ortega with
51% of the vote, and Alemán and Bolaños were sworn in as
president and vice president, respectively, on 10 January 1997. During his tenure as vice president,
Bolaños kept a discrete profile even with rising allegations of
corruption against Alemán and many members of his cabinet. Following the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in
1998, Bolaños was responsible for the management of foreign aid.
He spearheaded a movement to review and redact Nicaragua’s laws
concerning the prevention and management of natural disasters. Bolaños
was chosen as the presidential candidate for the 2001 elections at the
Grand Convention of the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) meeting
in 2001. Former President Arnoldo Alemán handpicked
Bolaños as his successor. La Prensa and
other Nicaraguan newspapers have since reported that Alemán
chose Bolaños as an interim president. Because the Nicaraguan
constitution forbids consecutive presidential terms, it is believed
that Alemán sought a candidate who could be easily manipulated,
allowing him to govern from behind the scenes until the 2006 elections,
when he would seek re-election. Alemán has denied these
allegations. While
Bolaños had the support of the powerful PLC, he was widely
regarded as an American “puppet” candidate and was also seen as
apathetic and lacking charisma. Many voters saw him as a weak public
figure, particularly because he had failed to speak out against the
rampant corruption present during Alemán’s tenure as president.
Daniel Ortega, the main opposition candidate, commonly referred to
Bolaños as a “candidate for the wealthy” and a “senile” old man
unfit for office. He was nicknamed by some “bola de años” a pun
on his surname literally translated as “ball of years.” In
August 2001 he publicly denounced corruption in the presidency,
distancing himself from Alemán without publicly attacking him.
Bolaños also accused Daniel Ortega of “destroying” the country’s
economy during the 1980s and criticized his close ties to Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez and Muammar al - Gaddafi. Public
polls showed Ortega and Bolaños virtually tied up to the
elections held on 5 November 2001. On election day, a massive 90% voter
turnout overburdened the polls. Some Nicaraguans waited in line for as
much as 10 hours before casting their vote. Bolaños won the
presidential elections with 56.3% of the vote, Daniel Ortega received
42.3% and Conservative Party candidate Alberto Saborio received 1.4%. International observers from the United States, United Nations and Europe declared the elections clean and fair, and there was no violence and minimal public disturbance during the elections. Enrique
Bolaños was sworn in as President of the Republic of Nicaragua
on 10 January 2002 to serve a five year term (2002 – 2007). Two days
later, he began an anti - corruption campaign to investigate and
prosecute all former and current state employees who engaged in corrupt
behavior. Arnoldo Alemán, then serving as a member of the National Assembly and the Central American Parliament,
was formally charged with corruption in December 2002, and was stripped
of his parliamentary immunity. Alemán, along with some family
members and other high ranking party officials, was convicted of money laundering, embezzlement of over $100,000,000 and corruption. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison from which he was recently released. Immediately
following the prosecution of Alemán, Bolaños was kicked
out of the PLC – the party which Alemán still retains
strong influence over – and helped to form another political
party, APRE (Alliance for the Republic). In
September 2005 Bolaños publicly announced what he called a “slow
motion coup” by the joint efforts of the PLC and the FSLN. The
executive branch was partially stripped of its powers to appoint
ministers and public officials, but with backing from the international
community, particularly the OAS, the EU and the United States, any
constitutional changes were postponed until the following year. This reversal coincided with passage of the CAFTA by the Nicaraguan legislature. Bolaños
has been frequently criticized for his previous close ties to
Alemán. It has been argued that during his term Bolaños
received a substantial pension from his tenure as vice - president, as
well as a $300,000 a year salary for the presidency. However, the
monthly presidential salary was reduced at the outset of the Bolanos
administration, and the pension from his tenure as vice - president was
eliminated by the National Assembly. Bolaños attempted to work closely with the IMF and the World Bank in attempts to reduce Nicaragua’s foreign debt by means of cooperation with Structural Adjustment Programs.
He also created a long term National Development Plan meant to reduce
poverty and diversify Nicaragua’s traditionally agriculture dominated
economy. In the 2006 presidential election campaign Bolaños' Alliance for the Republic party joined the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance, whose candidate Eduardo Montealegre took second place. Bolaños turned over the presidency to his longtime political opponent Daniel Ortega on 10 January 2007. By nature of his status as outgoing President, he was legally entitled to a seat in the new session of the National Assembly,
but has since remained out of the political arena and never assumed his
seat. He also faced a series of verbal allegations from opposition
party members ranging from mismanagement of public funds to human
trafficking, however evidence was never presented and he was never
formally accused at the courts nor charged. Bolaños argued that
the accusations were false, politically motivated. |