Last Sunday, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was re-elected
by a large margin. His party, the Sandinista National Liberation
Front (FSLN), won an unprecedented majority in the National
Assembly. The major media, which are generally hostile to Ortega
(and to most of the left governments in Latin America), mostly
missed the main economic changes that might explain this result.
These include a significant reduction in poverty and inequality
and a considerable increase in access to health care and
education. Given that the world economic downturn occurred right
as Ortega’s government social and economic programs were taking
effect, it is surprising that poverty decreased at the rate that
it did during this period. The latest household survey,
published in 2009 by the Nicaraguan National Institute of
Information and Development (INIDE), showed that while poverty
decreased by only 9 percent between 1993 and 2002 (an average
annual improvement of 1% per year), this rate of improvement
tripled after 2005, decreasi