Richard Feinberg featured in Latin America Advisor Q&A
Where Will Nicaragua's Volatile Politics Lead the Country?
05/12/2010
Latin America Advisor
Richard Feinberg, professor of international political economy at the University of California at San Diego and former president of the Inter-American Dialogue:
"Negotiations among the three political chieftains in Nicaragua— Ortega, Aleman, and Montealegre—are interminable, and there is no end to the creativity by which they seek to restructure and divvy up national institutions. But the wily Ortega has many instruments to sustain himself and his astute wife with a hefty slice of the political pie: the president will continue to accumulate powers—in the executive, legislature and municipalities—by clean elections if he can and unfair ones if he must, occasionally seasoning the landscape with a dose of coercive force just to remind folks where power really lies. In classic Nicaraguan style, Ortega is willing to engage in continual 'dialogue' and dealcutting with cowered and out-maneuvered opponents. To his credit, Ortega is focused 24/7 on politics, whereas many of his chief adversaries are diverted by personal business matters..."
For more of the Q&A, download a PDF of the April 29, 2010 Inter-American Dialogue newsletter.
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Professor Feinberg is an authority on U.S. foreign policy, multilateral institutions (IMF, World Bank, NAFTA) and summitry (APEC, Summitry in the Americas, G-8). He is an expert on trade and investment, globalization, democratization, and non-governmental organizations.
