Recent accusations of sexual misconduct leveled against former President Daniel Ortega, patriarch of the leftist Sandinista movement, have brought to a boil simmering discontent over the lack of democracy and treatment of women within the party.
The crisis is splitting a party already weakened by repeated losses at the polls and the defections or expulsions of top lieutenants during the eight years since Ortega left office in electoral defeat.The scandal erupted about two weeks ago, when Ortega's 30-year-old stepdaughter, Zoilamerica Narvaez, publicly accused him of having sexually molested her since she was 11 - during the decade he was president of Nicaragua. The harassment continued even after her marriage in 1990, she said.
Ortega's wife - and the mother of Narvaez - denied the allegations at a news conference earlier this month that Ortega also attended. All three have turned down requests for interviews since then.
The accusations have divided Sandinistas between Ortega loyalists and those who support Narvaez, who has held leadership positions in the party's youth move-ment.
Two Narvaez backers, William Rodriguez and Henry Petrie, have been removed from elective party offices. A third, lawmaker Xanthis Suarez, said she is facing expulsion from the party. Narvaez and her estranged husband, who has supported her accusations, joined Suarez in filing complaints with the police last week stating that they have been harassed by menacing telephone calls.
Ortega's backers insist that their support is based on their belief in his character.
"I have known him for 33 years," said Doris Tijerino, who led an unsuccessful attempt to remove Ortega as secretary-general of the party in 1994. "I do not believe that he could be a rapist and hide it."