Enrique Bolaños Geyer | |
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Enrique Bolaños during a visit of United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to Managua in 2004
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President of Nicaragua | |
In office January 10, 2002 – January 10, 2007 |
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Vice President |
José Rizo Castellón, Alfredo Gómez Urcuyo |
Preceded by | Arnoldo Alemán |
Succeeded by | Daniel Ortega |
Vice President of Nicaragua | |
In office January 10, 1997 – October 24, 2000 |
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Preceded by | Julia Mena |
Succeeded by | Leopoldo Navarro |
Personal details | |
Born |
Masaya, Nicaragua |
13 May 1929
Political party | Alliance for the Republic |
Spouse(s) | Lila Abaunza (deceased) |
Children | 5 |
Alma mater | Saint Louis University |
Religion |
Roman Catholicism |
Presidential styles of Enrique Bolaños |
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Reference style | El Honorable Enrique Bolaños, Presidente de la República de Nicaragua The Honorable Enrique Bolanos, President of the Republic of Nicaragua |
Spoken style | Presidente Bolaños President Bolanos |
Alternative style | Señor Presidente Mister President |
Enrique José Bolaños Geyer (born 13 May 1929) was the President of Nicaragua from 10 January 2002 to 10 January 2007. President Bolaños is of Spanish and German heritage and was born in Masaya (department of Masaya).
He received his education in the United States, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from Saint Louis University in 1962.
He publicly opposed the Sandinista controlled government of the 1980s. His family cotton farming operations, SAIMSA, were confiscated during the first Sandinista administration of the 1980s.
Bolaños served as vice president under his predecessor, Arnoldo Alemán. On 4 November 2001 he defeated Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front party in the presidential elections and was sworn in as president on 10 January 2002.
He was a member of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) until he broke with it to help form the Alliance for the Republic (APRE). At the beginning of his term he led an anti-Corruption campaign against his predecessor and the head of the PLC Arnoldo Alemán politically isolating himself from the influential Liberal Party. Institutional struggles for power between the legislative, executive and judicial branches resulted in great inefficiency for the Bolaños government.
Enrique Bolaños was born in Masaya on 13 May 1928 to Nicolás Bolaños Cortés (1890–1963) and wife Amanda del Rosario Geyer Abaunza, and paternal grandson of Alejandro Bolaños Cuadra (1858–1914) and wife and cousin Cándida Cortés Bolaños (1854–1918). His father, a wealthy businessman, was poisoned by an employee. He was also a maternal relative of Justo Abaunza, 25th and 27th President of Nicaragua. The Bolaños family has played a minor role in Nicaraguan politics, traditionally associated with the deep-rooted Liberal Party that brought Somoza dynasty to power in 1939. Bolaños, however, carefully aligned himself with the anti-Somoza Liberal Constitutionalist Party founded by Ramiro Sacasa Guerrero in 1968. The Bolaños family has usually maintained a hands-off approach to Nicaraguan politics, focusing rather on business endeavors.