Confronting Adversity with Experience: The Emergence of Feminism in Nicaragua

Kampwirth, Karen

doi:10.1093/sp/3.2-3.136

Cited by 24 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…For further discussion and critique of the Sandinista program and the growth of the women's movement, see Chinchilla 1994, Kampwirth 1996, and Randall 1992 Elsewhere, I discuss the Sandinista decade briefly and then focus on the 1990s, when feminism and lesbian and gay activism grew stronger (Babb 2001a).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Out in Nicaragua: Local and Transnational Desires after the Revolution

Babb

2003

Cultural Anthropology

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Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Out in Nicaragua: Local and Transnational Desires after the Revolution

Babb

2003

Cultural Anthropology

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“…During the Aleman years, Nicaragua had the most significant feminist movement in Central America and one of the most significant in Latin America as a whole (Babb 2001;Bland6n 2001;Chinchilla 1994;Criquill6n 1995;Isbester 2001;Kampwirth 1996;Montenegro 1997).…”

Section: Church State and The Feminist Threatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arnoldo Aleman Takes on the NGOs: Antifeminism and the New Populism in Nicaragua

Kampwirth¹

2003

Latin American Politics and Society

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. ABSTRACTThis article analyzes the campaign of Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Aleman (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002) against organized competitors, what has been called his war against the nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs. Aleman's attacks on the NGO sector are shown to be consistent with the logic of the new populism in Latin America. At the same time, his choice of targets-prominent NGO figures who were often foreign-born and always female-must be explained with reference to the specifics of Nicaraguan civil society and its evolving relationship with the political parties. This study argues that by choosing to respond to the challenges of international neoliberalism and local feminism through the anti-NGO campaign, Aleman helped to weaken democracy in Nicaragua. hroughout his political career, Arnoldo Aleman often framed political dilemmas in stark and simplistic terms, as a battle between good and evil, us and them, insider and outsider. In doing this he drew on a long tradition of populist politics in Latin America in general and in Nicaragua itself, a tradition in which often-dictatorial leadership was justified in reference to an excluded and long-suffering "people." Although the populist emphasis on "the people" is a bland lower common denominator-so low that it is not confined to populism-it does carry some further connotations. Invocation of "the people" is regularly and logically associated with a dichotomisation of "people" and-the permutations are endless-the "non-people," "anti-people," "the other," "the oligarchy," the "elite," foreigners, Jews, and traitors. (Knight 1998, 229) Like revolutionaries, populists spoke to the real anger felt by the traditionally excluded. But unlike revolutionaries, they did not seek to mobilize that anger so as to overturn the system, so as to transform it into a new political order that was to be characterized by more justice and less exploitation. Instead, classic populists promised inclusion without revolution, an inclusion that was material as well as symbolic (Conniff 1999, 4-7).But Amoldo Aleman, who served as president of Nicaragua from 1997 to 2002, was not a man of the classic populist age, an age that 133 This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Fri, 6 Feb 2015 02:25:14 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY reached its peak in the 1940s. Instead, in the last years of the twentieth century and the first years of the twenty-first, he and other Latin American politicians faced a new set of dilemmas, making the new populism significantly different from classic populism. Understanding the new populism required distinguishing "between electoral movements that seek powe...

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“…The attacks on the NGOs and their individual female leaders reflected another aspect of Nicaraguan civil society in the 1990s, the explosive growth of feminist organizing. During the Alemiin years, Nicaragua had the most significant feminist movement in Central America and one of the most significant in Latin America as a whole (Babb 2001;Bland6n 2001;Chinchilla 1994;Criquill6n 1995;Isbester 2001;Kampwirth 1996;Montenegro 1997).…”

Section: Feminist Threatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arnoldo Alemán Takes on the NGOs: Antifeminism and the New Populism in Nicaragua

Kampwirth¹

2003

Lat. Am. polit. soc.

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This article analyzes the campaign of Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Aleman (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002) against organized competitors, what has been called his war against the nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs. Aleman's attacks on the NGO sector are shown to be consistent with the logic of the new populism in Latin America. At the same time, his choice of targets-prominent NGO figures who were often foreign-born and always female-must be explained with reference to the specifics of Nicaraguan civil society and its evolving relationship with the political parties. This study argues that by choosing to respond to the challenges of international neoliberalism and local feminism through the anti-NGO campaign, Alemin helped to weaken democracy in Nicaragua. hroughout his political career, Arnoldo Aleman often framed politi-

show abstract

Confronting Adversity with Experience: The Emergence of Feminism in Nicaragua

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Out in Nicaragua: Local and Transnational Desires after the Revolution

Out in Nicaragua: Local and Transnational Desires after the Revolution

Arnoldo Aleman Takes on the NGOs: Antifeminism and the New Populism in Nicaragua

Arnoldo Alemán Takes on the NGOs: Antifeminism and the New Populism in Nicaragua

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