Enrique Bolaños

Early life and career Bolaños was born in Masaya, Nicaragua, on 13 May 1928. He received his primary and secondary education in Nicaragua at the Jesuit Colegio Centro América, and graduated from Saint Louis University in the United States with a degree in industrial engineering. They had five children, a daughter and four sons,

With his brothers Alejandro and Nicolás, Bolaños served as an active member of the influential business chamber COSEP (Superior Council for Private Enterprise), and served as its president from 1983 to 1988. Under his leadership, COSEP was a vigorously anti-Sandinista institution; Under the government's controversial agrarian reform program, in 1985 SAIMSA was confiscated by the government. He worked as a computer programmer following the confiscation of his business.

Presidency (2002–2007)

Bolaños was chosen as the presidential candidate for the 2001 elections at the Grand Convention of the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) meeting in 2001. Facing a country still recovering from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, Bolaños campaigned on the slogan "let's roll up our sleeves".

Bolaños was sworn in as President of the Republic of Nicaragua on 10 January 2002 to serve a five-year term (2002–2007). Two days later, he began an anti-corruption campaign to investigate and prosecute all former and current state employees who engaged in corrupt behavior. In August this resulted in the prosecution, and ultimately the conviction of his predecessor Alemán with fraud, money laundering, and misuse of public funds, The second came in 2004 when an opinion from the Comptroller's Office sent to the National Assembly sought to remove him from office.

Despite this crisis, he succeeded in negotiating the ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) by the National Assembly; as well as the forgiveness of 80% of Nicaragua's debts by creditors. In November 2006, abortion was outlawed under all circumstances

During the 2006 presidential election campaign, the Nicaraguan Constitution barred the incumbent from seeking re-election and Bolaños's Alliance for the Republic party (APRE) joined the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance, whose candidate Eduardo Montealegre took second place. Bolaños turned over the presidency to his longtime political opponent Daniel Ortega on 10 January 2007. As outgoing President, he was legally entitled to a seat in the new session of the National Assembly, a practice he had criticized after its creation in the 1990s as part of the "pact" between Alemán and Ortega. that provides free and democratic access to all documents from Bolaños' presidency as well as many digitized collections of Nicaraguan historical, political, cultural, and juridical documents, making it one of the main centers of historical documentation in the country. It is the first Nicaraguan presidential library, and one of Latin America's first virtual presidential libraries, which Bolaños programmed and developed himself. He died on 14 June 2021 in his home outside Managua at the age of 93. He was interred at the family crypt at Monimbó cemetery.

Electoral history of Enrique Bolaños Geyer

VicepPresidential election results, 20 October 1996

National Convention of the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) presidential primaries, 28 January 2001 Enrique Bolaños Geyer – 220 (54.6%) Eduardo Montealegre – 143 (35.5%) Iván Escobar Fornos – 38 (9.4%) Null – 2 (0.5%) Source:

Presidential election results, 4 November 2001 CandidateParty/allianceVotes%Enrique Bolaños GeyerConstitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC)1,228,41256.31%José Daniel Ortega SaavedraSandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)922,43642.28%Alberto SaboríoConservative Party of Nicaragua (PC)30,67001.41%Total valid votes100%2,181,518 Source: