- (July 2001)
The truth about the Sandinistas finally revealed.
In 1979 the Sandinistas defeated the fascist dictator Anastasio Somoza
that had ruthlessly ruled Nicaragua and installed a communist regime.
During the 1980s, the Soviet Union and the USA fought a cold war over
Nicaragua, the Soviets financing the Sandinistas, led by Daniel Ortega, and
the Americans financing the Contras, led by Alfonso Calero.
when the Soviet Union and the USA ended the cold war, the Sandinistas were
forced to let Nicaragua vote and the people of Nicaragua voted them out of
office. In 1990 Violeta Chamorro, leading a right-wing alliance, defeated
Ortega. In 1996 Arnold Aleman, leading the same alliance, again defeated
Ortega. The most amazing transformation was not the change towards democracy,
but the fact that long-time rivals became friends and even partners... in
robbing Nicaragua. The president got richer and richer, and the Sandinistas
got richer and richer. Corruption is so rampant that the two parties joined
together in voting a series of laws that basically makes it impossible to send a
politician to jail. (Incidentally, Ortega has also been accused by his
stepdaughter of sexually abusing her when she was still a teenager).
Both Aleman and Ortega could never win enough votes from the people, so they
simply created a new law that gives the loser of the presidential
election a place in Parliament (i.e., immunity). Since they will be the two
presidential candidates, one will become president and the other one will
get his place in Parliament again.
All of Ortega's friends (including his own brother Humberto) have deserted
him, but he still controls the machine of the Sandinista party, and will
therefore be the automatic candidate for the party in the November 2001
elections.
He has no chance of getting 50% of the votes, as most Nicaraguans deeply hate
the Sandinistas in general and him in particular. But he has found a way to
increase his chances: he has manufactured a third candidate, another
conservative (the Sandinistas provided the signatures this conservative
needed to become a candidate). The plan is to have this man, Noel Vidaurre,
steal enough votes from Enrique Bolanos (Aleman's chosen successor).
In the meantime, Nicaragua has remained one of the poorest countries in the
world, with the highest illiteracy rate of the Americas and the only one to
be constantly on verge of famine.
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