Daniel Ortega, the one-time Sandinista leader who defied US President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, has won a landslide victory in presidential elections in Nicaragua.
President Ortega, who returned to the presidency in 2007 after leading the Latin American country from 1985-1990, had won 63 per cent of the vote by the time Tribune went to press. Mr Ortega’s main challenger, Fabio Gadea, secured 31 per cent of the votes cast. Thousands of Ortega supporters poured onto the streets of the capital, Managua, to celebrate his victory.
After Mr Ortega won the presidential election in 1984 Mr Reagan increased American support, in terms of cash and weapons, to the right-wing death squads, known as Contras, responsible for heinous human rights abuses in the country. Washington accused the Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN, of supporting “Marxist terrorism” in the region.
Following Mr Ortega’s defeat at the 1990 presidential election, he unsuccessfully stood as a candidate in 1996 and 2001. However, after rebranding himself with the slogan “Christianity, socialism and solidarity”, he triumphed again in 2006.
Despite having abandoned the Marxist slogans, Mr Ortega has again caused concern in Washington over his close relations with Russia, a country he embraced with open arms in the 1980s.
Like Venezuela, Bolivia and Guatemala, Nicaragua has leant towards Russia in recent years, signing various agreements with Moscow for construction projects.
Nicaragua is also one of the few countries in the world to have recognised the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, following Russia’s lead.
The realignment of Nicaragua and other countries in the region has resulted in the Kremlin referring to these countries as its “Latin American comrades”.
