But I will tell you that every time I arrived in Nicaragua (I drove down 7 of the 9 visits) it was like a breath of fresh air after the repulsive corruption and multiple layers of local police, national police, national guard, customs police, and of course the ever present military checkpoints.

At least 50% of the time we were stopped (and Honduras had about 14 checkpoints as I recall in the Looooong one day drive) the crooks in uniform tried to rob us of something, threatening arrest, seizure of our vehicle and cargo (medical aid) every kind of low life trick in the book. And WE WERE AMERICANS, the ones who gave them the very guns they were pointing at us. There was death squad activity in Honduras at the time, in Guatemala and El Salvador, and everyone lived in mortal fear of the thugs both in and out of uniform.

Then we would finally arrive in Nicaragua, the only country really at full on war at the time, and it would all vanish. No internal checkpoints, no thugs to harass and intimidate us. Just a straight drive without interruption to Managua.

And the police? They were the new “Sandinista Police” mostly freshly recruited young men that no one was scared of. Hopelessly inefficient for lack of funds (we had to file a police report once) I NEVER got the creepy feeling that I did dealing with the scum (hard word but true) that ruled the streets of the rest of Central America. And no one was scared of the Sandinista Army either, there was a draft, not a collection of creeps whose families had historically dominated the military thru the elite group of thugs who went to the elite military schools there (and traned in the U.S.)

The soldiers were just like American soldiers in the sense that nobody was impressed, because so many people were either in uniform, or had been before. An army officer, armed, had to wait in line for the bus like everybody else. And want a real laugher? How about a young Sandinista soldier, with an AK47 and probably 5 banana clips across his chest, hitch hiking? And not getting a ride, at least when I saw him. Heck, in the rest of Central America, the Army and police TAKE what they want.

Nicaragua had a genuine revolution of the poor, and will never go back to a dictatorship, and to say that Ortega wants this, or let alone could even accomplish it is absurd. It is also noteworthy that last time I was there, lots of people still were armed with rifles donated during the war by the Soviet Union. I hate guns, but there is not another country in all of Latin America where the POOR are armed. Keeps the government honest, and lets then know there is always a counterweight amongst the population as a whole against armed repression.

Ortega and his compatriots paid the price in blood, and years of imprisonment before they were able to throw out America’s Poster Child of terror and graft, the Somoza dynasty.

Thereby, in my opinion, there isn’t an American citizen breathing that has a damned bit of right to criticize Ortega, or the Sandinistas, that is unless they can show their credibility by working and fighting alongside them, and other national liberation movements so sorely needed throughout Latin America.

The United States government (not the people) have been the biggest source or terror and repression in the world (besides of course Hitler, and Stalin and his purges) and have treated the people of Latin America with an attitude worse than contempt.

I suggest those who wish to pass judgement on Ortega, or Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Evo Morales, etc. GO TO A LIBRARY AND SPEND A YEAR OR SO reading about the dirt we have done to these nations. Then go live in El Salvador or Guatemala or Honduras or Haiti for awhile. A nice long while. And ask the people of those nations about what they think of our treatment of their countries historically.

Mentions a few key words, like “CIA” “Death Squads” “freedom of speech and assembly” “family dynasties” “rigged elections” …..I’m sorry but only someone terrifically ignorant of both Nicaraguan history and US foreign policy in Latin America and the Caribbean would turn his nose up at Ortega or Chavez. These fellows are the ONLY ones who give a damn about improving the plight of their citizenry, and for that matter, try to imagine the difference in the lives of Cubans if the regular US owned and operated capitalist model had never been dislodged.

Castro has worked miracles considering the deck we stack(ed) against him, and Ortega worked his entire first administation under the gun of the drug dealing, ex military thug group known as the contras, U.S. supplied terrorism at its best.

Can one even IMAGINE an Ortega administration raping and murdering nuns, assassinating the Archbishop of the country, doing wholesale murder of people in the opposition as was and still IS the rule (although greatly diminished) in the other nations of Central America?

I will close with this: I am an Army veteran, got two cops in my family, and consider myself to be conservative on many matters. The lying crooks that have run my beloved nation have done unspeakable acts to virtually every country in our hemispshere save Canada, and I’ve met with the men who were on the ground doing it, yes, I’ve had dinner with a CIA agent or two, an ex ambassador, it was my life’s passion for awhile to try and help these desperately poor people who for no good reason had to live under tyranny.

So, the elections of populist presidents in Latin America and the Caribbean, often in spite of US efforts (including murder) to prevent it, is the only hope these folks have, or will ever have. Shame on any American who thinks they can sit back and be an armchair critic unless you’ve been thru the fire of dictatorship and repression and state terror yourself. Open your eyes and ears, before you open your mouth.

Sincerely

Patrick Young
Social Science teacher
Fresno, CA

Though I have nothing but contempt for Arnoldo Aleman, the president-crook who stole massive amounts of money from the country, what needs to be appreciated is that the Conservatives (Aleman) and the Liberals (Bolanos) hate each other even more than they hate the Sandinistas. From a purely political point of view, Ortega has played the game very well getting Aleman to help him isolate the Liberals–who hate Aleman even more for his doing that. I would rather he not even speak to a sludge like Aleman, but if you are forced to play the political game under the rules that exist in Nicaragua, Ortega’s “pacts” are simply the way to get things done. The latest “agreement” had to do with getting enough votes in the Assembly to elect a majority of Sandinistas to key posts. Aleman agreed to do that to put sand in the machinery of Eduardo Montealegre’s political ambitions.

Another detail that was not reported anywhere is that the decision by the Supreme Court to cut Aleman loose from his “country for prison” status was made by the four opposition judges, while the three Sandinistas were out of the country attending a conference. It was not a “deal” with Aleman.

Fred Morris
fced@aol.com

The idea of Ortega turning Nicaragua into another Venezuela honestly makes me tear up. I understand one gets tired of the lack of progress in Nicaragua over the past 18 years, though it has made formidable macroeconomic progress that can be seen just by traveling the streets of Nicaragua, simply playing the ‘blame Washington’ excuss is getting old.

You mention his “earlier ideas of creating a doctrinaire Marxist economy” as though that were a fact. It is not. The Sandinistas never proposed a doctrinaire Marxist economy. Throughout the 80s they were promoting a mixed economy. It was the US State Department and its lackeys that claimed they were “doctrinaire Marxists.” Not so.

You mention his hostility to the press: what can you expect when the only two dailies and majority of local TV in the country publish outlandish lies about his government every single day. They make Fox News look like objective reporting. But the press in Nicaragua is completely free, making outlandish and libelous claims virtually every day. Of course he is hostile. But he hasn’t shut them down.

As to his “former allies,” such as Sergio Ramirez and the Cardenal brothers: Sergio Ramirez got his nose out of joint when the FSLN decided to go with Daniel again in 2006, instead of making him their candidate. Sergio is an intellectual, a highly respected writer, and very intelligent. But there was no way he would have gotten even 10% of the vote in 2006 if he had been the candidate. He does not resonate with the people of Nicaragua. His Spanish is so elegant that most Nicaraguans don’t even understand him. He doesn’t understand that, and so took a opposition position in 2006. As for the Cardenal brothers: the Cardenal family has been one of the ruling families of Nicaragua for more than 150 years. They both did yoeman service in the 80s. Fernando, the Jesuit, was the minister of education who led the literacy campaign in 1980, financed by the World Council of Churches, that reduced illiteracy from 50% to 12% in less than a year. Ernesto became the darling of the world’s left because of his good work as the Minister of Culture, his poetry and his verbal emphasis on liberation theology. But when the Sandinistas lost the election 1990, largely because of the interference of the US, with the contra war killing more than 30,000 Nicaraguans and Bush I promising more of the same if the Sandinistas won; (Bush even went to far as to say, after his invasion of Panama in December of 1989, which killed more than 4,000 Panamanians–more than the 911 victims in a country of less than three million people–that “I hope the people of Nicaragua are paying attention”–the US Embassy also orchestrated Violetta’s campaign and put millions of US dollars into it, in violation of not only Nicaraguan law, but US law), the Cardenal brothers lost their platform and status and haven’t known what to do with themselves since then. Fernando went back to a Jesuit monastery and took a vow of silence for a year. Ernesto got into a quarrel with a neighbor over a piece of property and when the courts ruled against him, he claimed that Daniel was out to get him. He now travels around the world making speeches against Ortega, saying even “he is worse than Somoza” which has got to be the maximum of hyperbole.

You say that “Dora Maria Tellez led a hunger strike in downtown Managua to protest his authoritarian intentions to abolish press criticism and opposition from anyone who disagrees with his policies.” Those were her allegations, but you make them sound like established facts. I have been observing lots of criticism and opposition to his policies here in Nicaragua. And for the most part Daniel ignores it. It should be noted that no opposition figure or even demonstrator has been killed in the alleged conflicts. But several Sandinistas have been killed by opposition mobs.

You observe “It should also be stressed that the three-month suspension of U.S. aid has certainly done nothing to ease the country’s economic crisis. In fact, the loss of the aid has seriously hurt the country’s economy more than any other single action over the last few months.” That is certainly true. This is the same tactic the US used against Aristide in Haiti after his re-election to the presidency. It strongarmed its European allies to cut off all aid, and, literally, bankrupt the country. That is what the withholding of this aid is designed to do.

You refer to “his sclerotic temper that tends toward dealing harshly with those who have the temerity to question his policies.” What are you talking about? Lots of people, inside and outside of his government question his policies. Eden Pastora, the famous Comandante Cero, who later joined the contra, said recently when asked about Ortega’s “dictatorship” “If this were a dictatorship these folks would not be able to be out in the streets protesting and the papers would be shut down.”

Your last paragraph, Frank, is splendid. For those who have been watching Nicaragua over time, there can be no question but that the current Sandinista government is working to benefit the poor masses of the population more than any government in the country’s history, with the possible exception of the Sandinista government of the 80s. That doesn’t mean that it is perfect, but the commitment to the people is more than admirable. And certainly the alleged events of corruption pale in comparison to those of former President Aleman, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his stealing of funds from the public treasury and to that of “liberal” politicians under the Bolanos government.

Fred Morris
former editor and publisher of Mesoamerica (1982-1989)