April 30, 2007. Copyright 2007, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Daniel Ortega now focused on pragmatism rather than revolution
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, April 30, Graphic News:  Ever since Daniel OrtegaÕs recent return as Nicaraguan president after a 16-year absence, commentators have pondered the question of leopard and spots. For poor Nicaraguans, however, for now itÕs enough to believe that a revolutionary heart still beats within the chest of a leader who once inspired idealists around the world to rally to his countryÕs cause.

In some sense, one remarkable aspect of OrtegaÕs comeback is that he takes over a land whose people are almost as desperate as they were when he lost to the opposition back in 1990. As for their president, heÕs dropped the military garb but still sports the moustache, and these days he talks about Òdefending socialist idealsÓ in line with the Ònew realityÓ.

If the old, Cold War reality pitted OrtegaÕs radical Sandinistas against the United States and the contras during a 10-year civil war, the new one sees left-wing leaders across Latin America assert independence from Washington and forge economic solidarity. VenezuelaÕs Victor Chavez and BoliviaÕs Evo Morales attended OrtegaÕs inauguration.

Born in La Libertad on November 11, 1945, Ortega was weaned on revolutionary ideas: his mother and father were both active foes of the dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. In his teens, Ortega joined the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), but his first real job for the movement involved robbing a bank to raise funds and landed him in jail.

Prison hardened the introverted Ortega and his political resolve. Following his release in 1974, he moved to Costa Rica with wife Rosario Murillo, a prison visitor with whom he had fallen in love. He was back in Managua and part of the FSLN leadership junta, when in July 1979 the Sandinistas seized power and forced Somoza to flee to Paraguay.

In 1985 Ortega became president of a country that was battling for its survival. Beset by U.S. economic sanctions and the ill-effects of a disastrous economic experiment based on CastroÕs Cuba, the Sandinistas tried to push through an ambitious social programme and land reform while fighting a devastating civil war against the U.S.-backed contras.

A national war-weariness (30,000 people died) has been cited as a key reason why in 1990 Nicaraguans voted for an opposition coalition led by Violeta Chamorro. Ortega promised the Sandinistas would continue to rule Òfrom belowÓ, but he himself lost bids for the presidency in 1996 and 2001 before his narrow victory in November 2006.

Until then Ortega had been consigned to the political dustbin, not least because of claims in 1998 by his stepdaughter, Zoilamerica Navaez, that Ortega had sexually abused her as a child, and raped her. The scandal looked set to finish him off in a way that neither the United States nor the opposition had managed. That he was re-elected speaks volumes about the political savvy of an awkward character, and the weakness of his opponents.

Under a pact with former president Arnoldo Aleman, who was jailed for embezzlement, Nicaragua settled into a system whereby the FSLN and right-wing Constitutional Liberal Party dominated politics. Their pact included a deal that lowered the percentage needed to avoid a poll runoff: Ortega finally claimed victory with just 37% of the vote.

His comeback has its critics, including those who believe he has encouraged a personality cult at the expense of the Sandinista movement. Not everyone is ready to forget the sex scandal, and others are unhappy about his ties with the confrontational Chavez. For his part, Ortega promises a more moderate socialism that embraces the business community.

For others, however, Ortega deserves a second chance. He may be older, wiser and more Catholic than in the old days, but heÕs still driven by the same wish to wrench his people out of the wretched poverty that has outlasted the other presidents of the past decade and a half.
/ENDS