25 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Well-written but Self-Serving Account, September 18, 2010
This review is from: Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua (Hardcover)
"Gringo Nightmare" is Eric Volz's compelling first-hand account of his high-profile arrest, conviction and imprisonment in Nicaragua for his alleged role in the 2006 murder of ex-girlfriend Doris Jimenez. The book is slick, nicely packaged, and a few first-edition typos notwithstanding, surprisingly readable. Mr. Volz is clearly a talented writer and this is without question a compelling story. But for anyone with first-hand knowledge of his case or experience with Nicaragua, many of his assertions strain credibility, and I was left wondering how much of this account is factually accurate, and how much is self-serving embellishment or outright fiction.
Is Nicaragua's judicial system really as corrupt as Volz asserts? Absolutely. Are Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista Front as virulently anti-"Yanqui" as this book suggests? No argument there. Did Eric murder Doris? Probably not. But beyond those fundamental issues, many of the assertions made in "Gringo Nightmare" are questionable and some are simply absurd (though undoubtedly credible from Mr. Volz's own perspective, which appears to suffer from an inflated sense of his own importance in Nicaraguan politics and world affairs).
Among the most absurd allegations:
--that Mr. Volz was a pawn in SAM-7 missile negotiations between Ortega and the U.S. Government. At the risk of sounding callous, U.S. foreign policy (particularly arms control and counter-terrorism issues) is almost never influenced by the plight of an individual citizen, and even someone as ideologically anti-American as Ortega is smart enough to realize that (never mind that Mr. Volz's arrest occurred under the administration of a staunchly pro-U.S. president who had no reason to conspire to falsely accuse a gringo of a murder he didn't commit).
--that the Nicaraguan president is more likely to take a phone call from the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) of a U.S. Embassy than from the Ambassador himself. That assertion makes no sense in any country, much less in Nicaragua, where the U.S. Ambassador has "rock star" celebrity and regularly discusses key foreign policy issues with the Nicaraguan president, while the DCM (in any country) ensures the smooth internal functioning of the embassy and is almost unknown outside its walls.
--a suggestion that former U.S. Ambassador Paul Trivelli was removed from his post and replaced by a more assertive Washington appointee based on Trivelli's (presumably unsatisfactory to Mr. Volz) handling of this case. The fact is that Trivelli, a career Foreign Service Officer, left Nicaragua on schedule at the end of this three-year assignment as part of a routine personnel transfer.
--that Volz's "godfather" and political protector, former Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Aleman, is an honest and virtuous man who was falsely convicted of corruption after his traitorous Vice President (who was later elected President) lifted his immunity from prosecution. Fact: Arnoldo Aleman was convicted of embezzling more than $100 million from Nicaragua's public coffers during his presidency, much of which ended up in bank accounts in Panama and the United States. Transparency International has named him one of the 10 Most Corrupt world leaders of all time. Ironically, Aleman is himself largely responsible for the corruption and politicization of the very Judiciary which Volz is so quick to (accurately) describe as biased and corrupt.
These assertions appear to be the product of a self-important world view in which Mr. Volz sees himself quite naturally as the object of vast, tangled, international conspiracies. The reader is therefore left to wonder whether Volz's descriptions of his arrest, life in prison, and other key facts are accurate, or distorted to fit this narcissistic world view. Not to mention whether his oft-claimed sympathy for the murder victim and her family is authentic, or simply motivated by a desire to appear more empathetic in this public account.
Bottom line, assuming Eric Volz is completely innocent of the crime for which he was convicted (an assumption few Nicaraguans would make), he did indeed suffer a horrible ordeal at the hands of the Nicaraguan judicial system. But his experience was far more likely the result of widespread incompetence, ignorance, garden-variety corruption and opportunism--which are regrettably common in most developing countries--and to some extent maybe even his own attitude and behavior, than any coordinated, malicious political conspiracy designed to falsely imprison him as a pawn in international missile negotiations.
"Gringo Nightmare" is a cautionary tale, and certainly one worth reading, but it is a subjective account that should be read with a healthy dose of skepticism.
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14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A compelling read! Hard to put down., April 29, 2010
This review is from: Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua (Hardcover)
"Gringo Nightmare" is an exceptionally solid and compelling memoir about a year in the hell of Nicaraguan prison. Eric Volz was charged and convicted of the murder of a lovely young woman named Doris Jimenez, and although 10 witnesses placed him over 2 hours away at the time of the murder and no evidence linked him to the scene, he was sentenced to 30 years in jail. I have been following Eric's journey through the corrupt Nicaraguan legal system from early on, and so I was anxious to read his description of events. It was much worse than I had imagined... and yet, he tells the story with such detail, and paints such a multi-faceted picture of the people and events involved, that it is a hard book to put down. I got my copy 2 days before moving to a new home; well, several hours that should have been spent packing were lost to this book. And I think this would make a really good movie!
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22 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nica Nightmare, October 31, 2010
This review is from: Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua (Hardcover)
Eric Volz was seemingly wrongly convicted in Nicaragua of the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Doris Jiménez, and his book is a gripping "true crime" saga of his ordeal.
Yet, the book is surprisingly unpersuasive and disturbingly ideological.
Even his own account of the crime frankly left me suspecting Volz as the culprit. Volz claims that he was just a friendly ex-boyfriend and he and Jiménez had mutually agreed to cool it months before she was killed. However, he admits to talking with her the night before the murder, and on the day of the murder he immediately showed up at the crime scene where he was identified as "the boyfriend" and tried to take charge of parts of the investigation. This makes it sound like he was more involved with Jiménez than he lets on, plus shows the kind of controlling personality that is consistent with domestic violence. As for Jiménez, those close to Volz warned him that she was a gold digger, and although Volz dismisses these warnings as unfounded he never explains them away. Since Jiménez did take up with other wealthy suitors there would frankly appear to be some merit to this gossip, and since Volz was a comparatively wealthy newcomer to Nicaragua it is possible that he was initially in denial about Jiménez's pecuniary motivations. If a scenario something like this unfolded, it would make sense that once Volz got whiff of it he became angry and hurt, which lends plausibility to the "jealous boyfriend" motive. Indeed, the crime scene investigation points to the murderer being a "jealous boyfriend," and Volz fingers another of Jiménez's suitors as the culprit. As for his alibi--that he was elsewhere when Jiménez was killed as his cell phone records and witnesses could attest--it isn't as rock solid as he implies. His cell phone records show where his phone was--not that he was the one using it--and the witnesses were mainly Volz's employees (presumably people with a vested interest in his remaining free) who couldn't always corroborate the times. Whereas Volz provides enough "reasonable doubt" to believe that a not guilty verdict was in order, it is hard to fault Nicaraguan authorities for suspecting and arresting him. And even if he was unjustly convicted he is hardly the first guilty-appearing suspect in any society to be convicted of a crime he didn't commit.
For those of us who know a little something about Nicaragua (I recently published [[ASIN:1556528086 Unfinished Revolution: Daniel Ortega and Nicaragua's Struggle for Liberation]) Volz also comes across as a bit clueless and arrogant. He touts his Spanish fluency, Latin American Studies degree, and previous visits to Latin America, but these aren't quite the trump cards he presents them as being. He initially settled, after all, in San Juan del Sur (where the crime took place), but this is a gringo enclave that some Nicas don't even consider part of their country. Then, in San Juan del Sur, he sold real estate (no doubt to other gringos). He learned Spanish from his Mexican mother and further language study in Mexico, which leads one to suspect that he speaks with a Mexican accent that is sometimes off-putting to Nicas. He acts surprised to hear that Nicas believe that gringos don't take showers regularly, but if he knew Nicaragua he would know this is a common stereotype. And while this may have been an editorial decision, the very use of the term "gringo" is a little jarring. Nicas don't as a rule refer to Americans as gringos, but rather as yanquis. When you put these various things together and remember that Volz was a 20-something kid who hadn't lived in Nicaragua for much longer than a year, you come up with a portrait of perhaps a well-meaning and decent fellow but not one who had come to fully understand the country in which he living.
Volz's misunderstanding of Nicaragua though becomes serious when he searches for explanations for his alleged mistreatment by its criminal justice system. Volz concocts one explanation after another to account for this without ever appearing to grasp the obvious, namely that there is rarely an explanation. Nicaragua is a society where simply trying to buy and register a car can require a dozen trips to various offices where paperwork is regularly "lost" and you can never find a person responsible. Granted, this is very frustrating--and would be more frustrating if instead of registering a car you were fighting for your freedom from wrongful imprisonment--but the reality is that there is often no explanation besides a marginally competent clerk displaying a little passive aggressiveness.
The gravest weakness of the book therefore comes when Volz speculates that his conviction was politically motivated--and faults Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas for it. Actually, the crime and Volz's incarceration took place before Ortega was inaugurated president, and although he had recently won the election surely Ortega had better things to do than meddle in the criminal investigation of a murder that had all the earmarks of a crime of passion. (Volz's own later conjectures leave Ortega and the Sandinistas out of it initially, although earlier he implies differently.) Volz is also quite unfair to Ortega and the Sandinistas, mischaracterizing them as "communists" while grossly simplifying their history in a pejorative way. For example, while he is not obligated to include this, Volz fails to mention that Ortega himself spent seven years as a political prisoner in the same prison where Volz spent less than a year. This would seem to be a transparent attempt to deprive Ortega of sympathy cast him as the ogre. Then, Volz's adoration of Arnoldo Aléman, the leader of the opposition to Ortega and every bit the same dirty deal-maker (as well as one of the ten most corrupt politicians in the world) is unsettling. Aléman is no defender of the "rule of law," as Volz claims, but simply saw advantage to be gained by assisting Volz. Meanwhile, Volz ends up largely relying on the assistance of defrocked former CIA agent--seemingly an unsavory character--and eventually wraps his story up into a missile deal Ortega is trying to negotiate with the US, which is borderline crazy.
In contrast, as best as I can make out Volz's case only became political after he and his mother launched a massive public relations campaign on his behalf, and even then it wasn't especially political. Volz simply became a small lightning rod for US/Nicaragua relations, and no doubt Aléman's eagerness to curry the US's favor explains why he became involved. Ortega's interests though were likely different from those that Volz imputes. Ortega had attracted the ire of feminist groups in Nicaragua, and these groups also opposed Volz (who they saw as a domestic abuser). Ortega therefore had a small incentive to appear "tough" on Volz, but it is just a myth to imagine that Ortega was against Volz because he was gringo. Ortega's right-hand man, Paul O'Quist, is gringo, and Ortega has been supportive of the tourism industry of which Volz was a part. In the end, there were some minor political ramifications to Volz's case, but not the grand machinations that Volz conjectures. In fact, my guess is that Nicaraguan authorities wanted to release Volz on appeal and deport him sooner than they did, although Volz's own public relations campaign complicated and delayed this.
Volz's political conjectures ultimately establish the theme of his book, which is that gringos should beware before they venture into a corrupt backwater like Nicaragua lest they endure a similar miscarriage of justice. Indeed, the book jacket declares that "this story should be issued with every passport."
But this is not a fair theme. The fairer theme is frankly the one that Nicas make of the story, namely that rich gringos come to Nicaragua, get away with even murder, and Nicas need to be careful of them. Interestingly, stripped of his speculations, Volz's own story verifies this Nicaraguan theme. The guy he fingers for the murder was also a rich gringo (albeit with Nicaraguan roots) whose only advantage over Volz was to have paid off the right people when he was arrested. If Volz is right about whom he suspects, the story remains identical with only the name of the culprit changed. This story is that rich gringo came down to Nicaragua, killed Jimézez, and got away with it. As such it is a cautionary tale for Nicas more than it is for yanquis.
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