Ortega lost BIG

[El_Jibaro]

[i]NICARAGUAN PRESIDENT'S POISONED CHALICE
Thursday, 8 November, 2001, 13:23 GMT


President-elect Bolanos faces a daunting task

By BBC Central America and Caribbean correspondent Nick Miles

In the presidential election of 4 November, Nicaraguans voted OVERWHELMINGLY in favour of the Liberal party candidate Enrique Bolanos.

Until polling day the race between Mr Bolanos and the candidate from the Sandinista party, former president Daniel Ortega, was too close to call.

But last minute switches of allegiance pushed the race firmly in favour of the Liberals.

The vote is being seen as a vote against Mr Ortega rather than a vindication of Mr Bolanos or his policies.



Daniel Ortega's days as party leader are numbered

Mr Ortega came to power in 1979 after overthrowing Anastasio Somoza, the last of a dynasty of autocratic presidents who had dominated political power for more than four decades.

The Sandinistas implemented a series of socialist policies during the 1980s including the expropriation of private property and nationalisation of much of the nation's industries.

The United States sponsored a counter revolutionary group, the Contras, to destabilise the government and, while not toppling the Sandinistas militarily, the cost of the war brought the Nicaraguan economy to its knees.

In 1990 Nicaraguans, tired with the war, voted the Sandinistas out of power.

SAFER OPTION

With the memories of this time of strife in their minds, the electorate has now once again voted for the safer option, the Liberals.

So what happens to Mr Ortega and the Sandinistas now after three election defeats in a row?

During the campaign, Mr Bolanos constantly used the phrase: "Three strikes and you're out, Daniel" - a metaphor tapping into the national sporting passion, baseball.

So is this the end for Mr Ortega?

"Ortega changed too little and too late and the fear that he would return the country to the problems of the 1980s was too much for Nicaraguans." -Former Sandinista minister

"Certainly his days are numbered," says Alejandro Martinez Cuenca, a Harvard-educated former Sandinista minister.

"Ortega changed too little and too late and the fear that he would return the country to the problems of the 1980s was too much for Nicaraguans."

LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE

Still a member of the Sandinista party, from his small office in Managua Mr Cuenca is preparing to make a leadership challenge.

"The party can survive, more than 40% of the people voted for us," he said.

"But if we are to get back into power we need to move further to the right, become Social Democrats if you like."

As the Sandinistas enter a period of reflection and soul searching, Mr Bolanos will be taking over the reins of power.

VICTORY SPEECH

At his victory speech to thousands of supporters at the Liberal Party headquarters in central Managua, the 73-year-old president-elect promised to bring together all sections of Nicaraguan society.

He spoke of a new prosperity for the country.

But he faces a daunting task.

His victory is in many ways a poisoned chalice.



Poverty and child mortality rates are high[b]

Nicaragua is the poorest Spanish-speaking country in the world, and the second poorest of all in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti.

The average income is just $500 a year, and 60% of the population lives beneath the poverty line.

FREE-FALLING PRICES

Much of the country's income comes from agriculture, but free-falling coffee prices in the last year resulting from a worldwide glut in supply have bankrupted many small producers.

Tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs.

"The Liberal Party has never been interested in helping us," Manuel Chavez told me, as he sits in a makeshift squatter camp by a roadside in the central mountain town of Matagalpa.

The camp houses 200 families in appalling conditions with no running water or sanitation.

"We lost our jobs last year on the plantations," he says.

"A Sandinista victory might have helped us, now we have little hope for our future."

In the short term Mr Chavez is probably right.

Mr Bolanos has little room for manoeuvre. A crippling national debt of $6bn - 10 times the annual export earnings - means that he will not be able to carry out the spending programmes that the country's poor so desperately need.

Nicaragua is currently engaged in negotiation with its debtors to write off up to two-thirds of what it owes, but a final agreement could be several years away.

In the meantime Mr Bolanos has said he will raise funds by cutting corruption, an endemic problem, but this alone is unlikely to be able to finance even a fraction of the country's needs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/wor...00/1644590.stm

[darragh]

Hey, El Jibaro.

Say a prayer for Nicaragua. One upon a time, there was a young, unemployed, recent law school graduate, with some military skills he had picked up in a previous life, who went off to train Nicaraguan Commandos in 1978, back the people who knew what the terms "EEBI" and "Comando" outside the spook community were relegated to a few Puertorricans of military background. Anyway, he and his compadres (A Lajeno, un muchacho de Salinas, dos Colombianos, un Indio Boliviano, un Infante de Marina Ecuatoriana, un Teson Hondureno, y un paracaidista Dominicano) set about tryhing to train these clowns. THe troops (la soldadesca) were absolutely great. THe problem was they were without a cause. Their officers were pure trash. Scum, murderers, slime, etc. When the war began in earnest, we had to terminate our commando course early and send these campesino kids off to get killed, under the command of their slime officers. Some of secretly hoped that the Sandinistas would win, and that they represented something better. But time has proven otherwise. Daniel Ortega is today living on a farm that he stole from a fellow Sandinista, whose parents backed Somoza. (Very few know today that the Sandinistas were really three separate movements, or that the ORtega brothers were NOT field commanders, but politicians, living in a hotel up in Mexico City) Anyway, the best thing that ever happened to Nicaragua was Dona Violeta Chamorro, who I had the great honor of getting stuck with in the elevator once in the El Presidente Hotel in El Salvador during a Central American President's COnference. What a classy woman. (We got stuck because the combined weight of all the bodyguards prevented the elevator from working.)

Let's hope that Bolanos gives Nicaragua mroe than words.

[Suki]

How do you sleep at night, knowing you train in your own words "trash and their slime officers to go kill others"? You think you are doing the world some good huh? Nene787 was right about you after all you are a Verdugo....

How could such a bright mind be dedicated to something so immoral and disgusting like training killers and desperate soldiers who just want something to release their aggression on?

Ay, el mundo me desilusiona mucho....es un mundo feo que la humanidad ha creado...You Sr. Darragh are the classic "Men with Guns".

Suki.

[yautiawoman2]

You know, Mr. death squad, I was so happy to meet Ortega back when the Sandinistas constructed the first mixed economy in Latin America. He was charming, he was intelligent and truly commited to the idea that participatory democracy was the solution to all the confrontation about capitalism vs. communism in the Western Hemisphere. We did not believe nefastos like you existed, or that it was possible you or your kind would rule in Nicaragua. It was a brand new paradigm and we all had hopes that people, regardless of socio-economic status could co-exists, could build any dream in Nicaragua and life would bring us a true participatory democracy. But no, the US and people like you, infelices, pobres diablos, poor sick minds enamored with ruthless, criminal, contra, white racist, taliban pentecostalist, with low life such as Ollie North with the covert, contra everything gang of cowboys from good old Bush and Ronny Reagan had to spoil it all, I hope you are happy, idiot. May the all powerfull, all mighty computer in Ollie North's heaven have pity on your soul! Que Viva Nicaragua, Que Viva Sandino, Que vivan los Sandinistas, Que Viva Ortega! Que Viva Centro America y el Caribe!

[Eddier1]

Originally posted by Suki
How do you sleep at night, knowing you train in your own words "trash and their slime officers to go kill others"? You think you are doing the world some good huh? Nene787 was right about you after all you are a Verdugo....

How could such a bright mind be dedicated to something so immoral and disgusting like training killers and desperate soldiers who just want something to release their aggression on?

Ay, el mundo me desilusiona mucho....es un mundo feo que la humanidad ha creado...You Sr. Darragh are the classic "Men with Guns".

Suki.

Suki, of course you are correct in what you say about darragh. And Yautiawoman has hit the nail on the head squarely too, in that she knows that he is one sick individual. My take on him goes a bit further and lo and behold it is humanitarian based in me, because I know that darragh, served in Vietnam, and most probably availed himself of the GI bill that gave him a free education after the Vietnam war in that he became a lawyer, but I opine that he is most probably a victim of Post Vietnam Trauma Syndrome and has had to avail himself of the "potasito de Prozac" which the VA Hospital provides him as needed. However, he is totally a militarist and most probably re-enlisted after obtaining his law degree in order to continue his nefarious career as a soldier of the imperialist forces of the U.S.. HE MOST DEFINITELY HAS A MONKEY ON HIS BACK and uses his potasito as needed while currently "serving" in the Armed Forces as a career "soladito". His bland, almost trancelike, postulados are indicative of an individual writing them under the relaxing influence of Prozac, or some other tranquillizer gotten from Sick Bay as needed. This little soldier is currently lost in intrigues of imperialism, and is really nothing more than cannon fodder in the eyes of his superiors. He is all that you and Yautiawoman said about him, but he is also one sick cookie that is crumbling and/or self-destructing under the stress of his career and Post Vietnam Trauma.

Suki, I posted on the Philosophy Forum if my memory serves me correctly, a invitation for him to speak privately by e-mail about what I said above, but he NEVER replied. I was willing to do everything I could to help him to get the MONKEY off of his back, but he remains in his "trancelike" state. Too bad.

Regards,
EddieR

[nene787]

Ahy mi Darragh, mi querido "muerto de hambre", Con tu compresion y sabiduria has de saber que todos sabemos de tu TERAPIA DE ELECTROCHOQUE. Se te nota mucho mi "Verdugon". Porque con todos esos disparates distorsionados eso es la unica explicacion. "TERAPIA DE ELECTROCHOQUE". Si mi "trincayo", tiene que ser, porque tu tienes unos tornillos bien flojos. Y me parece que cada vez que te encuentro por algun sitio otro se te cae. Lo que me pone nervioso es que tu eres un peligro a ti mismo y no se si tu lo sabes. Tu eres un "muerto de hambre de verdad". Escucha mi "Trincayo", Quiero que sepas que tu hiciste que esto sucediera, lo mas extrano es que estoy empezando tener lastima por ti, o sea, al saber de tu tortura con la terapia de electrochoque, confieso, tenia un chipito de lastima por ti, pero la cosa es que los que rompen las reglas se van al infierno, asi que, sacude ya zapato viejo, "anda pa'l cara'". Oye Verdugon, si me estas oyendo, dondequiera que estes, "no trates de esconderte" "SAL DE TU MAYA RATON" te dije que saliera "Verdugon" Los ratones no estan bienvenidos por aqui, especialmente cuando quieren entregar Patria por chavo como tu "SINVERGUENZA". Si, me acuerdo mucho todavia lo que tu me dijiste, todo eso de entregar la mitad de la Isla a EEUU. Escucha trincayo, de ninguna manera te acepto como boricua, como trincayo si, pero Boricua nunca. Asi que, no le digas a nadie como tu le dijiste a Yautia que yo te acepto como Boricua. Antes, podria, pero cuando tu me revalaste ese "plan" tuyo, de entregamiento para nuestra isla del ahy bendito, ahora nunca podre. Y un consejo, las paredes oyen. Llego la ley y eso soy yo, Vengo por la maceta mijito, tarde o temprano te cobro la cuenta.



Le sigo enviando un caluroso saludo a todos mis distinguidos compatriotas del foro. Los quiero mucho y que viva Borinquen libre, y que viva el espiritu de Don Pedro Albizu Campos. "Patria o Muerte"


Borinqueneando,
El Nene787