Arnoldo Alemán

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José Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo

President of Nicaragua
In office January 10, 1997 – January 10, 2002
Preceded by	Violeta Barrios de Chamorro
Succeeded by	Enrique Bolaños

Born	January 23, 1946 Managua, Nicaragua
Political party	Constitutionalist Liberal Party

José Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo was President of Nicaragua from 1997 to 2002.

1 Career
2 Bibliography
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Career

Alemán was born on 23 January 1946, in Managua to an official in the government of Anastasio Somoza García.

In 1967 he graduated with a degree in law from the National Autonomous University of León. Between 1968 and 1979, he worked as a lawyer in the commercial and banking world. In 1980 he was arrested by the Sandinista junta. He also had some of his property seized. Alemán spent 9 months in prison.

Alemán helped resurrect Nicaragua's Liberal Party, renaming it the Liberal Alliance (now the Constitutionalist Liberal Party).

In the early 1990s he became mayor of Managua, and was popular due to his urban renewal projects which helped spruce up the city. Managua had been severely damaged by a 1972 earthquake, and much of the city had never been rebuilt.

In 1996 he campaigned for president under a strong anti-Sandinista platform. He defeated Daniel Ortega the Sandinista leader by 48% of the vote to Ortega's 40%. Many claimed widespread election fraud and Ortega refused to concede. For the first time in 17 years, pro-Somoza forces controlled the presidency.

Alemán was successful in promoting moderate economic recovery with reduced inflation and some growth of GDP. Foreign investment grew during his administration which helped to improve Nicaragua's infrastructure.

Alemán developed a strategic alliance with Ortega to rule the country without opposition by offering employment in public offices and other privileges to key members of the Sandinista party. At the same time it is alleged that Alemán was concealing massive corruption in his administration. At the end of his presidency, public information about alleged corruption committed under his government became available. Recently, both Panama and the US Government froze bank assets of Alemán and his family.

Alemán was succeeded by his vice president, Enrique Bolaños. Bolaños accused Alemán of widespread corruption and was integral in exposing alleged corruption throughout the Alemán administration.

Alemán and other members of his family were formally charged with corruption in December 2002, and on 7 December 2003 he was sentenced to a 20-year prison term for a string of crimes including money laundering, embezzlement and corruption.^[1] Because of "health problems", he is serving his "prison" term on his private ranch. Recently, he and some of his family members have been barred from entering the United States and Panama.^{[citation needed]}

British-based anti-corruption lobby group Transparency International has ranked Alemán as the world's ninth most corrupt leader in history for embezzling a total of approximately $100 million from the people of Nicaragua.^[2]

[edit] Bibliography

Close, David and Kalowatie Deonandan. eds. 2004. Undoing Democracy: The Politics of Electoral Caudillismo. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Kampwirth, Karen. 2003. “Arnoldo Alemán Takes on the NGOs: Antifeminism and the New Populism in Nicaragua” Latin American Politics and Society Vol. 45. No. 2. (Summer). pp. 133-158.