Jaime Chamorro Cardenal (October 23, 1934 – July 29, 2021) was a Nicaraguan newspaper editor and
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...
was the
family business
A family business is a commercial organization in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by blood or marriage or adoption, who has both the ability to influence the vision of the business and the willingn ...
, as his father owned the newspaper ''La Prensa''. Chamorro joined ''La Prensa'' in 1974, where he worked for 47 years and served as publisher for 28, from 1993 until his death in 2021.
Early life
Chamorro was born in
Granada, Nicaragua
Granada () is a city in western Nicaragua and the capital of the Granada Department. With an estimated population of 104,980 (2021), it is Nicaragua's ninth most populous city. Granada is historically one of Nicaragua's most important cities, eco ...
Xavier Chamorro Cardenal
Xavier Chamorro Cardenal (31 December 1932 – 4 January 2008)Source: articl''Fallece Xavier Chamorro Cardenal''from EFE agency, on ''El Nuevo Diarios Website. He grew up first in the San Sebastián neighborhood of
, then from 1941 on El Triunfo street next to ''La Prensa'', in a house built with the inheritance from his maternal grandfather’s death in 1936.
When he was 10, harassment from dictator
Anastasio Somoza García
Anastasio Somoza García (1 February 1896 – 29 September 1956) was the leader of Nicaragua from 1937 until his assassination in 1956. He was only officially the 21st President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947 and from 21 May 195 ...
forced the newspaper to close and his parents went into exile in New York. Pedro Joaquín, Anita and Ligia also left the country to pursue their studies, while Jaime and Xavier went to Granada, staying with their grandmother Isabel Argüello de Cardenal. Two years later, the paper reopened and his father returned, but by then Jaime was in school at Colegio Centro América in Granada, where he remained, making periodic trips to see his family in Managua. His father died in December 1952 and his brother Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal took over the paper.
Chamorro studied civil engineering at the
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...
in
South Bend, Indiana
South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...
, U.S.
Career
In June 1959, following his brother Pedro Joaquín, Chamorro was part of the Olama y Mollejones movement, a group of guerrillas that sought to overthrow the dictatorship of
Luis Somoza Debayle
Luis Anastasio Somoza Debayle (18 November 1922 – 13 April 1967) was the 26th President of Nicaragua from 21 September 1956 to 1 May 1963.
Somoza Debayle was born in León. At the age of 14, he and his younger brother Anastasio attended Sa ...
. He was jailed for eight months as a consequence.
After college he married and, feeling the family did not need another journalist, embarked on a career in his chosen field of civil engineering. In the 1960s he focused on his construction company, Chamorro & Cuadra Contractors SA, formed with Pedro and José Cuadra, but the company faltered after an unsuccessful highway project, prior to the
1972 Nicaragua earthquake
The 1972 Nicaragua earthquake occurred at 12:29:44 a.m. local time (06:29:44 UTC) on December 23 near Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. It had a moment magnitude of 6.3 and a maximum MSK intensity of IX (''Destructive''). The epicenter w ...
. Pedro Joaquín advised liquidating the company and in 1974 he asked Jaime to take over direction of ''La Prensa'''s finances.
In 1978, Pedro Joaquín, then ''La Prensa''’s editor and an outspoken Somoza critic, was assassinated, turning the tide of public sympathy toward the
Sandinista National Liberation Front
The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto Cé ...
’s (FSLN) efforts to overthrow Somoza. However Jaime Chamorro later became a critic of the FSLN, particularly for the censorship of non-state media in the 1980s. The FSLN shut down ''La Prensa'' in 1986, accusing it of sympathizing with the US-backed Contras, and Chamorro, then the newspaper’s senior editor, left the country until the paper reopened the following year, under a new peace accord.
In the late 1980s he was also a leader in the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
. In 1987 he published ''Frente a dos dictaduras : la lucha por la libertad de expresión'' (trans. ''Facing Two Dictatorships: The Struggle for Freedom of Expression''), comparing the Somoza regime to FSLN rule in the 1980s particularly as regarded suppression of speech. Discussing the book in 2021, he argued the Somoza dictatorship had been more liberal in this regard because they had not captured all the institutions the FSLN had, like the judiciary.
In 1990, his sister-in-law (the widow of Pedro Joaquín)
Violeta Barrios de Chamorro
Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro (; 18 October 1929) is a Nicaraguan politician who served as President of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997. She was the first and, as of 2022, only woman to hold the position of president of Nicaragua.
Born int ...
was elected president and left her role at the paper, and in 1993 Jaime Chamorro became publisher of the paper.
In the 21st century he became at odds with the FSLN again, with the government blocking the import of paper, ink and other supplies for ''La Prensa'' in 2018 and 2019 before relenting. This followed on the protests that began in April 2018 in Nicaragua and the criminalization of independent journalists covering the unrest. However, Chamorro remained optimistic about the paper’s ability to adapt especially with internet-based work, telling vice-president Rosario Murillo that the paper, founded in 1926, would survive to celebrate its 100th birthday.
Personal life
Chamorro married Hilda Argeñal (born c. 1939) in 1961 and together they had five children.
Chamorro’s mother Margarita Cardenal Argüello died in 1998.
Following a brief illness, Chamorro died on July 29, 2021, at age 86. At the time of his death, three of his nieces and nephews were imprisoned (presidential pre-candidates
Cristiana Chamorro Barrios
Cristiana Chamorro Barrios (born 1954) is a Nicaraguan journalist, nonprofit executive and political candidate. Vice-president of ''La Prensa'', she was an aspiring presidential candidate in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election until the Orte ...
,
Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios
Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios (born 24 September 1951) is a Nicaraguan journalist and politician. He began his career in journalism working at La Prensa (Managua), ''La Prensa'', following the 1978 assassination of its editor, his father, Ped ...
, and
Juan Sebastián Chamorro
Juan Sebastián Chamorro García (born 1971) is a Nicaraguan economist, businessman and politician. He was a pre-candidate for president in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election until he was detained in a wave of arrests of opposition candidates ...
) and a fourth, journalist
Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios
Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios (born ) is a Nicaraguan independent investigative journalist. He is the founder and editor of Confidencial, a news website and weekly publication combining investigative journalism and analyses of current affair ...
, was exiled, in a crackdown by the FSLN government on opposition leaders a few months before the
2021 Nicaraguan general election
General elections were held in Nicaragua on 7 November 2021 to elect the President, the National Assembly and members of the Central American Parliament.
President Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front sought re-election, ...
.
He was buried the next day (July 30, 2021) in Managua, in a private service observing precautions for the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...