Those Were The Days!
From the Washington Post:
MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Sixteen years after voters swept Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega from Nicaragua's presidency, the former Marxist icon appears to have his best chance yet for a comeback in elections scheduled for Nov. 5.
The bloc of staunch anti-Ortega voters who denied him victory by backing the rightist Liberal Party in three previous elections has been fractured by the recent emergence of popular splinter parties on both the left and the right.
Tired Of The Danny and Arny Show
Ever since, he has been fending off efforts by the Liberals and Ortega's Sandinistas -- who control the National Assembly jointly -- to curb his presidential powers and impeach him.
Many Nicaraguans across the political spectrum have grown tired of the power-sharing arrangement between the two parties, known here as el pacto or the pact, saying it has transformed Nicaragua into a false democracy in which the bosses of the two nominally competing parties tolerate each other's corruption.
It Takes Two Thieves, its Gordoman and Ortega!!!
Cynical Danny - Que Descarado!!
Poor Mayor Herty is barely in the grave, and Danny is shamelessly using his image to gain votes.
When Ortega asked for a moment of silence to honor the most recent Sandinista luminary to die this year, there was an awkward ripple through the crowd. No one needed reminding that Managua's folksy, beloved former mayor, Herty Lewites, 66, had been expelled from the Sandinista party for challenging Ortega and was running for president on the MRS's ticket when he suffered a fatal heart attack earlier this month.
Polls
Ortega was leading the opinion polls with as much as 30 percent in this nation of 5.6 million people just before the death of Lewites, who had about 17 percent. Much now depends on how many Lewites supporters remain loyal to his successor, Edmundo Jarquín, 59, an economist and former Sandinista diplomat who is politically astute but less known.
Ni Chicha Ni Limonada Chavez and Bush
That is a typical Nicaraguan saying, which applies in this situation where many think Venezuela is interfering in the election. But almost the same percentage believe that U.S. officials are going overboard and interfering against Ortega's campaign, which also bothers the very opinionated and independent Nicaraguan public.
But there are signs that Chávez's assistance could backfire. In a recent poll commissioned by the Nicaraguan weekly Confidencial, 49 percent of Nicaraguans said they thought Venezuela was interfering. And there are rumors that Chávez is directly financing Ortega's campaign -- fueled by the abundance of enormous posters of Ortega's smiling face across not merely the capital but also in the countryside.
"No other candidate has those kinds of resources. Where is he getting it from?" Montealegre asked during an interview on the way to Somoto.
However, the same Confidencial poll also found that 46 percent of Nicaraguans have concerns about interference by U.S. officials -- who have made no effort to hide their distaste for both Ortega and Alemán.
I have this banker in Switzerland....
1 comment:
I grew up in Miami due to the Nicaraguan exile. I was born in August of 79 in Guatemala since my parents left the country. I have no moved back and live in Managua, and I can tell you that on the ground, at least in business, I have not seen Nicaragua so well in years. For the first time since free elections in 1990 Nicaraguenses are still investing , as are foreigners, even in an election year. Las ventas estan buenas, pero si seguimos apegados a los titulares moribundos de La Prensa todos los dias, no vamos a salir del calvo, porque la realidad es que es una cosa de percepcion. it is up to each one of us nicaraguans, inside and outside of nicaragua, to rally around one common cause, which in my opinion is that Daniel does not win. When you analize the canidadtes, its a difference of form, yet they have managed to put us on different sides. Si la gente que estaba con Herty realmente creia en su mensaje, pues que se unana a Eduardo y entremos a la eleccion como un bloque centrista donde nos concentramos en mantener la economia creciendo, pero si que podamos exigir REPRESENTATIVIDAD e inversion social. Ninguno de los candidatos es perfecto, pero creo que a este punto Eduardo es el menos peor. Si unimos a los votos de Eduardo con los de Herty y podemos convencer a los mas de 20% de votantes that are still undecided to vote for Eduardo, we will not only win in a lnadslide, pero we will send a message to the world that Nicaragua is truly ready to play by the globalized rules of the game.
The alternative, that Danny wins, is so potentially disastrous, ni siquiera lo comentemos.
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