Nearly twenty-six years after they rode a revolution to power, and sixteen years after they were defeated in an election, the political party that American Republicans love to hate is back. Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista party of Nicaragua looks to have won a commanding enough victory in Sunday's elections to win the Presidency outright, without need of a second round run off vote.
There's quite a bit of history behind this election, and perhaps before a new smear campaign is begun against the Sandinista leader, a quick overview is in order from someone who didn't think of the Contras as kin to the American Founding Fathers.
In the late 1970s a popular revolution in Nicaragua overthrew the reign of the Somoza family. De facto rulers of the country since the turn of the century, either directly as president or the power behind the throne, the Somozas had protected the interests of the elite and American business at the expense of the majority of the population.
The 1979 uprising led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Leberación Nacional in Spanish or more familiarly known by its initials FSLN) was aimed at improving the lot of the majority who lived in poverty through an aggressive program of land reform, nationalization of industry, education, and improved health care. Major private landowners – mainly American and British - who used prime agricultural land for ranching instead of food growing were forced to surrender their land for redistribution to the people who had been their former tenant farmers.
After years of seeing American backed governments, like El Salvadore and Chile, in Central and South America oppress and kill their own people, the revolution in Nicaragua became a rallying point for people looking to affect change in the Western Hemisphere. Aid workers from around the world, but primarily the United States and Canada, came to the country to help what they saw as building hope.
They helped villages set up agricultural systems that we would take for granted, like irrigation, figure out how to maintain the Russian tractors (the United States had imposed a trade embargo in 1985 under Reagan so they were forced to turn to anyone who would sell them equipment) they were using, built school houses, and educated teachers in the skills needed to teach young people.
Article comments
1 - Howard Dratch
Nicaragua suffered under the Contra violence that we (Reagan/Bush-Republican "we") supported so hard.
The decisions to be made by Latin America and Latin Americans are not easy ones and the present US government has made itself again unable to provide a model of freedom and self-determination that could have led the region out of poverty and the horrors that accompany the kind of distribution of wealth that America supported for so long.
The future of the whole region is certainly in doubt and, it would seem, the Bush Administration has pushed hard to make our southern neighbors more unstable, more anti-American, more prone to accept any solution that is not "American".
Perhaps today's US elections will rob the Bush forces of some of their power to destabilize the hemisphere as they have been trying so hard to do.
2 - RedTard
Another hate america circle jerk. Run of the mill bullshit from the left these days. How quickly they forget the scores of millions of people they slaughtered for their failed ideology. Perhaps we didn't want Nicaragua to end up like Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.
3 - Zedd
RedTard, are you joking???? You must be...
It’s also come out that Ortega has actually had a religious conversion which has tampered his politics. His former friends on the left have expressed a great deal of disappointment in him because he is espousing some ideals that they think are a departure from their original goals.
4 - Bliffle
Ortega is back?! Oh hell, there goes my beachfront resort condo in Nicaragua!
5 - Angela Chen Shui
Thank you, Richard.
One of my best friends from way back helped to build those schools you spoke of and helped to teach new agricultural methods.
He was also there when Nicaraguan villages came under attack.
The entire Central and Latin American region will move forward... with or without enlightened US backing. There are many forces worldwide that would love to wreak havoc in this US backyard...
I pray, fervently, it doesn't come to that.
Thanks again. Your piece brings back fond memories...
Angela.