Nicaragua's Ortega rallies former foes

Nicaragua's Ortega rallies former foes

If you want to be a friend of Daniel Ortega, the once and perhaps future president of Nicaragua, it helps if you were once his enemy. An intimidating nom de guerre doesn't hurt either.

``The Godfather,'' ``Commander Bull's-Eye'' and ``the Alligator'' -- to a man, they either fought in or backed the Contra war that sought to overthrow Ortega's revolutionary Sandinista government in the 1980s. Now all three are working to get him elected president, 16 years after Nicaraguans voted the mustachioed hero of the Latin American left out of office.

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Across Nicaragua, pictures of the graying Morales occupy billboards alongside portraits of Ortega, himself an avuncular 60-year-old with thinning black hair who bears a diminishing resemblance to the youthful rebel he once was. The Ortega-Morales ticket leads in all the polls: A Zogby survey last week had Ortega 15 percentage points ahead of his nearest rival.

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``Ortega has turned his movement into a buffet lunch, and everyone is invited: conservatives and radicals, Sandinistas and anti-Sandinistas, pro-Americans and anti-Americans,'' said Emilio Álvarez Montalván, a conservative former foreign minister. ``The essential question people are asking themselves is if Daniel Ortega has really changed.''

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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15842801.htm

(flamesuit on)
This is one of the reasons I don't like Ortega... to me, he is an opportunist, his thirst for power knows no limits, not only he has been the Presidential candidate in four consecutive elections (!), but he has sold out to everything and everyone in order to be President again. For me, he represents old politics. Unlike Chávez, Bachelet, and López Obrador that represent new politics, he has been part of the Nicaraguan political establishment for over two decades, and as the leader of the main opposition party during this years, he's partly to blame for all the problems that Nicaragua is in. That doesn't mean that his conservative opponents are any better, especially the Oliver North supported José Rizo, but for the first time in years (as has happened in several Latin American countries) the Nicaraguan people have a real choice among different candidates, not only the two of the main parties, and that is good. I would certainly prefer Ortega to win instead of either Rizo or Montealegre, but that doesn't mean he will be any different than the last three presidents.

After all, was it not the arrogant belief of the BFEE that they should have a say in who rules a foreign country that unleashed all that horror in the 80's?

I do hope however that the Nicaraguans don't choose the same politicians who have been screwing them for 3 decades now, be it Montealegre, Rizo or Ortega.

My country on the other hand, by the time of the next election in 2009, will have had 30 years of a Thatcher government under 4 Prime Minsters, all because people think not voting is an adequate means of expressing discontent :eyes:

Just 12 years ago we always had an 80% turnout, but over the last 3 elections the number has been going down all the way to 65% last February. It's especially frustrating considering that in February's general election the difference was only 1.1% between the right wing winner and the left wing loser...

No reason the Nicaraguans can't.
(See sentence below in little blue letters)

He has shown he actually respects democracy, or I should say, election results at least. However, so I think he would be the same corrupt politician as he was when he gained power in the 80s.

The Sandinistas are the largest political party in Nicaraugua, yet the other parties have consistently formed coalitions in order to win the presidency.

If the Sandinistas don't use coaliltion politics, they won't win.

Or do you have a better idea or a better candidate?

There are a whole "buffet" of political parties in Nicaragua. (unlike here) Yet no party is a majority. So coalititions are the key to any victory.

It may not be perfect, but it beats the crap out of the Samosa regime. And with the aid, money and influence of the US on keeping the Sandinistas out of power, I'm glad to see the Sandinistas turn the tables.

Ortega won his first election after the revolution and then lost the subsequent ones due to the fact his opponents formed broad coalititions that included everyone from the Nicaraguen Communist Party to the Contras. Not having power doesn't give one too many options.

A moderate left winger and an extremely popular former mayor of Managua. Sadly, he died a few months ago.
But I was pretty pissed off when the Sandinista leadership threw him out of the party because he was planning to run for the nomination against Ortega. All polls showed Lewites was the most popular politician in Nicaragua, untainted by all the scandals of both the Liberal Party and the Frente Sandinista. The fact that they didn't allow him to run and expelled him really said something about the internal democracy (or lack of) of the FSLN.

After Lewites died, his Sandinista Renovation Movement nominated Edmundo Jarquín, who's not as popular or as known as Lewites was. I really don't know much about him, though.

Nicaraguan politics very closely of late and I leaned a few things.

Thanks again for your posts on the subject.

"Who could ever have imagined that the U.S. Hawk missiles I sneakily and illegally gave to Iran might be used against America's son's and daughters in uniform? I mean, was I supposed to think ahead, or consider the morality of this shit?

"I am a republicon, and morality is 'different' for us. We are 'special.'" - Ollie

I love your Ollie thing!
Bu$hCo and/or BFEE (RayGun's brain no longer existed) were responsible under IRAN/CONTRA for killing at least 200,000 Guatemalan Native Americans, lots of disappeared and killed Nicaragua, forcing Costa Rica to support an army and taking away from health and education, etc., etc., etc.

Edit to add: The whole IRAN/CONTRA group, including Bu$h Senior and RayGun in absentia of a brain should be tried at the Hague and wearing orange jumpsuits for the rest of their life. Jr. and Company should be tried for pre-emptive war, crimes against humanity, etc. and also be in orange jumpsuits and imprisoned for LIFE (i.e, until they are dead)!