THE GOVERNMENT OF DOÑA VIOLETA DE CHAMORRO: THE CONSTRUCTION OF A POLITICAL-IDEOLOGICAL MYTH VERSUS SOCIAL ECONOMIC REALITY

Abstract

This essay offers a critical analysis of three books published in the last twenty years about Violeta Chamorro’s government, written by government officials and members of her family: Imágenes de cambio, a luxury volume filled with photographs, published in the last few months of Chamorro´s administration to disseminate her goverment’s achievements in different aspects of Nicaraguan life; La difícil transición nicaragüense, by Antonio Lacayo, Chamorro´s Minister of the Presidency (2006); and La democracia de Pedro y presidenta Violeta B. de Chamorro, edited by Cristiana Chamorro, daughter of the former president.

This paper argues that those books attempt to construct a “mystical aura” around Violeta Chamorro and turn her government into a political and ideological myth. The article contrasts the interpretations offered by these books with facts and figures that show the real consequences of the Chamorro government’s economic policies for most of the Nicaraguan population. It aims to show that this political myth lacks a solid foundation: like the emperor in the famous Danish children’s story, it has no clothes.