10 - Nicaragua

Summary

Chapter 10 returns to the Nicaraguan context, examining the country’s experience of postwar chronic instability within land tenure. It traces how frequent elite political realignments drove the breakdown of the undermining rules governing land titling. After losing the 1990 elections, the FSLN retained considerable influence and pressured the new UNO government into compromise; however, within the property sector, a new decision-making coalition came to dominate – one comprised of UNO technocrats, US government agencies, and international civil society groups dedicated to resolving the confusion and conflict sown by previous policies. As a result, new procedures to formalize land acquisitions emerged. However, this neoliberal coalition was again unsettled with the return of the FSLN to the political scene through a series of bargains with the ruling Liberal Party in the 2000s. The eventual second period of FSLN rule beginning in 2007 has further reconcentrated land and resulted in politically motivated confiscations.