Neo-structuralist bargain and authoritarianism in Nicaragua

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the relations between the FSLN government in Nicaragua and the social actors that have mobilized against it, especially Indigenous, campesino and Afro-descendant activisms during the second Ortega administration. These relationships are interpreted from the perspective on a ‘neostructuralist bargain’ which allowed the FSLN, since 2007, to embrace neoliberal policies under an environment of relative social cohesion and economic growth. That bargain came to an end in 2018 when the government – facing a political crisis – resorted to the use of force and authoritarian practices to contain the mounting social discontent. The limited realization of Indigenous and Afro-descendant rights and the ongoing transformation of agrarian structures that marginalizes peasant economies, coupled with the FSLN’s promotion of extractive forms of capitalist accumulation, all tested the bases of the bargain, while also revealed unprecedented articulations of collective agency by subaltern actors.