AP Photo: Daniel Ortega
Honduras is in crisis with a president ousted for initiating an illegal referendum to eliminate term limits. Venezuela’s president succeeded in passing a referendum to eliminate term limits, but he is facing legal and diplomatic consequences for his country’s support to Colombian terrorist groups, involvement in cocaine trafficking, and a declining economy. Despite the grim circumstances his close South American allies find themselves in, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has called for a constitutional referendum to eliminate term limits.
Ortega was the leader of the Sandinist National Liberation Front (FSLN) in the 1980s. TIME Magazine reported some background on them in 1979: “The FSLN was founded in 1962 by Carlos Fonseca Amador, a Cuban-trained guerrilla who was slain by [then-Nicaragan President] Somoza's troops two years ago. Named for Augusto César Sandino, a legendary nationalist guerrilla murdered on the order of Somoza's father in 1934, the Sandinistas started out as a ragtag rebel band that staged sporadic raids on isolated government outposts. [Their] ranks have swelled to 3,000 or so battle-hardened fighters armed with an assortment of modern weapons… [The] largest [FSLN faction], known as the Terceristas (Insurrectionists), is composed of socialists, Roman Catholic liberals (including many priests), trade unionists and even a few businessmen. Financed by socialists in Europe and South America, the Terceristas have staged the most spectacular Sandinista operations.” Daniel Ortega and his brother Humberto represented the Terceristas on the nine-man Sandinista National Directorate.
When Ortega was elected president in 2006, he said he would fight poverty, encourage investment in Nicaragua and "create a new political culture" that would "set aside our differences and put the Nicaraguan people, the poor first." He tried hard to give the public impression that he was politically more moderate than he was in the 1980s. He said he had changed profoundly since he befriended Soviet leaders, expropriated land and fought Contra rebels in a war that left 30,000 dead and the economy in shambles. However, he acted quickly to form strong political and economic ties with Chavez, Cuba’s Fidel and Raul Castro, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa—arguably Latin America’s most influential, and radical, leftist leaders.
Since his 2006 election, Ortega has formed ties with Iran, clamped down on political opposition groups, possibly supported electoral fraud in 2008, and vocally expressed support for FARC terrorists. Yet none of this happened overnight. His actions are mimicking those taken by Chavez over the last several years—initially praising the democratic process, and slowly exerting more and more control over the people and public institutions. His current bid to eliminate term limits, and thus stay in power indefinitely, is another example of an attempt to further socialist goals in the region and stray farther away from true democratic ideals. Ortega could learn an important lesson from a similar attempt by ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, but he’s chosen to follow in his and Chavez’s footstep. Only time—and the Nicaraguan people—will tell what consequences he will ultimately face for his ambitions.
Comments
"Nicaragua’s Ortega following in Chavez and Zelaya’s footsteps"
Soon to be followed by Barack Hussein Obama
Nicaragua is a beautiful country. I would hate to see it return to dictatorship. Hopefully the Nicaraguan people will not fall for Ortega's tricks. However, Ortega has already stacked the government with his cronies. The people may already not even have a say in the mater. The U.S. has not opposed Ortega's fraud.
Oscar Arias, who is supposed to "mediate" regarding Honduras, helped Chavez/Ortega enslave Nicaraguans. Ronald Reagan wanted the Sandinistas and their leader Daniel Ortega vanquished. But Arias got the Sandinistas to “agree to hold internationally supervised elections”. And we can see the results now -- Nicaragua is becoming another Cuba. The refendum will make Ortega dictator for life, like Fidel Castrol.
Oscar Arias demonstrates that the Nobel Prize, which has been politicized, is biased and corrupt. It is often awarded to people who can be used by the forces of evil to manipulate public opinion, as it’s happening now with Oscar Arias regarding Honduras.
Oscar Arias has NOT advanced and will NOT advance the cause of peace. On the contrary, as we can see in Honduras, Arias is doing the opposite – he is helping the forces of violence and evil – Castro, Chávez and Zelaya – trample on the law and on the human rights of the Honduran people.
You are right, Dawn. Nicaraguans will not be able to defend themselves because the referendum will show whatever results Chavez and Ortega decide are the best to manipulate the international opinion. In Honduras, the results had been pre-determined!
The same thing happened in Ecuador and Bolivia. People were not able to defend themselves.
What is terrifying is that the U.S., the country that used to defend freedom and democracy, is now in the hands of a Marxist thug like Chavez!
The U.S. should be supporting Hondurans and the rule of law, NOT Zelaya, a Chavez clone sending drugs to the U.S. and enslaving Hondurans! It's despicable that, rather than defending the human rights of Hondurans and Latin Americans, Obama is siding with the Marxist thugs who are trampling on human rights and working with drug cartels and Islamic terrorist to destroy the U.S!
I guess it was to be expected from Obama. As his parents, relatives, friends and mentors, Obama is a Marxist who hates the U.S. As such, he sides with Marxist dictators and would-be dictators who seek to enslave their countries and destroy the U.S.
We hope Americans can defend their freedoms, their country and their future like Hondurans are defending theirs.
I agreed with all of your comments! when I was a kid and I lived in Managua back in the late 1970's I experience what war is all about in my country and is some experience that I would never wish any infant or kid to go thru. I believed that politics in our nations are always tricky and dirty...Ortega would like to be a dictatorship because in our history with the Somoza's has always been there...is not that Ortega is following Chavez footsteps is that Chavez is instigating the cause. Very hard issue to deal with our country. Keep in mind the economy in the world still is oil and because of that issue in the world Ortega have to do whats best for Nicaragua and deal with thieves like Chavez, including him! how funny politic can be. QUE VIVA NICARAGUA...LIBRE!!!
Gracias!
Everyone here is a bunch of neo-liberal nuts. Trying to impose the same failed economic policies that have led Latin America to its current impoverished state. Ecuador, Bolivia,Venezuela, asked their citizens if they wanted a new, more modern constitution (read them first), the citizens voted for the new constitutions (60%-70%). The first time in these countries that the government sought public input (In the past, citizens had no say in it, it was just published). So enough with these one sided arguments, it is too bad that poor people (the majority) in these countries don't have access to the internet yet to voice their support for these new changes occurring.
But anyway, the bulk of South Americans have decided on a new path, and even if "conservatives, neocons" manage to stifle these movements, the savage pure capitalism practiced before will not last long in South America. They want a capitalistic model that places people & national sovereignty first
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