Cartoonists Go to War - (Political cartoonists in Nicaragua)

How do you parody a government that does such an outstanding job of parodying itself? That’s the daily challenge facing Nicaraguan cartoonists Pedro X. Molina and Manuel Guillen. Take the moment, three and a half years ago, when conservative former President Arnoldo Alemán and leftist current President Daniel Ortega, sworn political enemies with a similar fondness for power, agreed to divvy up their kingdom in an infamous power-sharing pact: Molina decided to lampoon the deal by drawing the two men seated at a banquet table being served Nicaragua on a plate. But the internationally acclaimed cartoonist for El Nuevo Diario was beaten to the punch by his subjects, who appeared together, in a leaked photograph, seated at the actual banquet table where they had forged their alliance.
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But not everyone is laughing. As Nicaragua becomes increasingly polarized and the Sandinista government intensifies its crackdown on the independent press, cartoonists are suddenly in the firing line. Molina, known for being the more aggressive of the two, says his plume is no more barbed than before, but that the worsening political climate has changed the context of his work. “What has changed is how my role as a cartoonist is understood today, especially from the government’s viewpoint,” the long-haired cartoonist said. “Whatever I do is automatically called oligarchic, counterrevolutionary, or an instrument of the empire.”"*

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