Quotation by Gioconda Belli:

With time, the Revolution's stance grew more and more rigid. Powerful economic groups and the extremist Left began to challenge the revolutionary reforms-- the former because their own interests were being threatened, and the latter because their extremist demands were not being met. But their criticism was not met with an open mind. It was hard to forget previous Latin American experiences, like Chile in 1973, where leniency had ended in a bloody coup. Rather than working toward an all-inclusive social pact, we decreed a new order because we felt it was the only way to remain true to the impoverished masses. Lacking a democratic tradition of our own, we took advantage of the authority we wielded. We might have considered ourselves very benevolent, but the truth was we had inherited a long legacy of authoritarianism.

Gioconda Belli     (more by this author)

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Source: The Country Under My Skin
Uttered: 2002