Eli Altamirano Pérez (27 February 1934 – 15 January 2016) was a

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

n politician and trade unionist. He served as the general secretary of the

Communist Party of Nicaragua The Communist Party of Nicaragua (, abbr. PCdeN or PCN) is a communist party in Nicaragua. Founded as the Socialist Workers' Party () in 1967, the core founding members were Juan Lorio, Augusto Lorío, Elí Altamirano (who later served as the par ...

for a quarter century.

Biography

Altamirano was born in

Chinandega Chinandega () is a city and the departmental seat of Chinandega department in Nicaragua. It is also the administrative centre of the surrounding municipality of the same name. It is Nicaragua's 2nd most important city (economy) and 6th largest ...

on February 27, 1934. His parents were Angel Maria Altamirano Gutierrez and Mercedes Perez Altamirano. He studied up to the fourth grade at the Escuela Superior de Varones in Chinandega. In 1956 Altamirano was jailed thrice, during the wave of repression that took place after the killing of

Anastasio Somoza García Anastasio Somoza García (1 February 1896 – 29 September 1956) was the leader of Nicaragua from 1936 until his assassination in 1956. He was officially the 21st President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947 and from 21 May 1950 unt ...

. In the same year he began organizing a union for mechanics and metal workers in Managua. He became a member of the

Nicaraguan Socialist Party The Nicaraguan Socialist Party (''Partido Socialista Nicaragüense'') is a political party in Nicaragua. Founded in July 1944 by Dr. Mario Flores Ortiz. PSN operated as the official communist party in the country. At the time of its foundation, P ...

(PSN) in 1959. In 1960 he became a member of the leadership of the Federacion de Trabajadores de Managua. In 1961 he founded the Socialist Youth of Nicaragua, the PSN youth wing. He became a member of the central leadership of the Confederación General del Trabajo (independiente) trade union centre in 1962. He stayed in exile in Cuba between April 1963 and March 1964, after which he left for studies in Moscow. He took part a split in PSN in early 1967, and took part in founding the Socialist Workers Party of Nicaragua (POSN) in October 1967. He spent eight month in jail in 1968. Upon his release he was named general secretary of POSN. Taking over the control of POSN, he expelled the older leadership. In December 1970 POSN held its constitutive congress, adopting the name

and electing Altamirano as its general secretary. Under Altamirano's leadership the Communist Party took an anti-Sandinista stance, isolating itself from the broader revolutionary movement. Within the party a

personality cult A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create an ideali ...

around Altamirano began to emerge. In October 1971 he founded the newspaper '' Avance'', and became its chief editor. In 1973 he founded the Central de Acción y Unificación Sindical trade union centre.Radio La Primerísima.
Fallece ex diputado Elí Altamirano
'' He was the coordinator of the United People's Movement (Movimiento Pueblo Unido). At the time of the fall of Somoza, Altamirano was imprisoned. He had been arrested in April 1979 and sentenced to six months imprisonment. He was released after the victory of the revolution on July 19, 1979. After the revolution, Altamirano sought to push the political process into a leftward direction. CAUS organized a strike on factory workers in March 1980, provoking reaction from the new Sandinista government. Altamirano and other CAUS leaders were arrested. He was accused of participating in a CIA destabilization plot. Altamirano was arrested along with other Communist Party and CAUS leaders on October 21, 1981 and sentenced to seven months imprisonment for violating the Public Order Law. He was recognized as a

prisoner of conscience A prisoner of conscience (POC) is anyone imprisoned because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, or political views. The term also refers to those who have been imprisoned or persecuted for the nonviolent expression of their conscienti ...

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

. Altamirano was elected deputy of the National Opposition Union (UNO) in the 1990 elections.''El Nuevo Diario''.
Vivió soñando en Moscú
'' Within UNO, Altamirano was particularly close to

Virgilio Godoy Virgilio Abelardo Godoy Reyes (1 May 1934 in León – 17 November 2016 in Managua) was a Nicaraguan politician who served as the vice president of his respective Central American nation from 25 April 1990 until he resigned in October 1995 to run ...

. Altamirano stood as candidate for president in the 1996 Nicaraguan general election. He obtained 4,802 votes (0.27% of the national vote). After 1996 Altamirano largely retired from public affairs. However, he remained as the leader of the party, albeit he struggled with health issues late in life.''La Prensa''.
Los últimos camaradas
' Altamirano died in early 2016, but his death was kept secret for almost a month.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Altamirano, Elí 1934 births 2016 deaths Nicaraguan trade unionists Communist Party of Nicaragua politicians Members of the National Assembly (Nicaragua) People from Chinandega