Thoughts on Nicaragua

Char and I were sitting outside of the convention center. As we were sitting there one of the grounds keepers came up to us and we struck up a conversation and I’m not sure exactly how but we started talking about Nicaragua. This guy was pretty set on the idea that if Daniel Ortega got elected the president of Nicaragua that it would be a bad thing. “After all,” he said – “he’s a socialist.”
Now I’m pretty much out of touch when it comes to Latin American politics but for what its worth here’s a few perspectives:
Most of what I’ve been reading both in the local new media: (See: La Prensa, La Noticia, El Nuevo Diario, brush up on your Spanish before you go) and in other publications (See: The Economist, NPR, CNN, and Time) give a pretty similar picture of Ortega.
Ortega has claimed that he has changed: “My idol was Sandino, and also Christ. I was brought up a Christian, but I regarded Christ as a rebel, a revolutionary.” He claims to have had a conversion experience and is embracing the Catholic church which shunned is former communist regime. Ortega was a war president rising to power as the most articulate of the 5 leaders of the Junta National, he fought the U.S. backed contras for most of his presidency. Some of the articles I read even suggested that Ortega might be leaning strongly to a form of liberation theology popular in many parts of the Latin American Catholic church.
Of course most of the reporting give cautious hope at best that this new leaf is little more than wily electioneering on Ortega’s part.
Ortega makes Washington nervous. Ortega still holds strong affinity with Cuba and most recently with Venezuela. From my rudimentary perspective there does seem to be a strongly anti-American block of leadership forming in Latin America that has reacted against the right wing foreign policy of the Republican party. It will be interesting to see if these leaders can develop enough cohesion to manipulate some power in the region.
Ortega’s skeletons mean Nicaraguans should try sleeping with one eye open at least until he delivers on some of the promises of peace and fair trade.
Nicaraguans have long been pawns for political agendas that were not of their own making. If Ortega can help Nicaragua find its own voice on the world stage – he will earn my respect.
So we wait and hold our breath…