Nicaragua

Area: 130,373 sq km (50,337 sq mi)

Population (2006 est.): 5,233,000

Capital: Managua

Head of state and government: President Enrique Bolaños Geyer

The presidential and legislative elections held in November 2006 were the highlight of the year in Nicaragua . The four main contenders were the left-wing Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), the dissident Sandinista Renewal Movement (MRS), the right-wing Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC), and the dissident Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN). In July Herty Lewites , the MRS presidential candidate, died of a heart attack. Though the U.S. government actively sought to impede an FSLN victory in the presidential race, FSLN candidate Daniel Ortega ( Ortega , who captured 38.1% of the vote, probably benefited from a change in election rules that allowed a candidate to claim victory in the first round with only 35% of the vote, provided that figure was 5% above that of the nearest opponent. Eduardo Montealegre of the ALN came in second, with 29%. Although the FSLN won more seats in the National Assembly than any other single party, together the ALN and the PLC would control a majority of the seats. Ortega was scheduled to take office on Jan. 10, 2007. The PLC won legislative elections in both autonomous Caribbean regions in March.see Biographies)—a former guerrilla leader and member of the Sandinista junta that took power in 1979 and a former president (1984–90) of the country—emerged victorious.

Former president Arnoldo Alemán , sentenced for corruption, continued to be under house arrest. In March 2005 Byron Jerez , Alemán 's revenue minister, had had his own conviction for corruption overturned. A Panamanian court in May opened a trial in which Alemán was accused of having laundered Alemán and Jerez .$58 million, and the court issued an international arrest warrant for

The projected economic growth rate was about 4%. About 80% of Nicaraguans lived on less than U.S. came into effect in April. The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and the Multilateral Debt Relief initiatives granted Nicaragua a foreign-debt cancellation totaling PDVSA and the Nicaraguan Association of Municipalities to sell Venezuelan petroleum at economical prices. Shipments of oil were stalled because the central government would not provide storage facilities. For months electricity and water services were cut off for several hours daily throughout the country, owing to insufficient domestic production of energy and a dispute between the government and Union Fenosa, the private electricity distributor.$2 a day, and 45% of the population subsisted on less than $1 a day. The Central America–Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement with the $1,148,000,000. Rising world oil prices had an impact on Nicaraguan politics and the economy. In April an agreement was signed between the Venezuelan oil company

A six-month strike by doctors, who earned between $200 and $500 monthly, ended in May.

Women's existing right to therapeutic abortion was eliminated in October after the legislature banned all abortions, even those sought in the case of rape or when the mother's life was threatened by the pregnancy.

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