NEWSMAKER-Nicaragua's Ortega a changed man, still a leftist
11 Jan 2007 02:50:47 GMT Source: Reuters
By Greg Brosnan MANAGUA, Jan 10 (Reuters) - One of a few men in history to take power first by force and later by ballot, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega has matured since he rolled into Managua in a jeep with a rifle in hand leading a 1979 revolution. Chastened by nearly 17 years in opposition, Ortega returned to office on Wednesday after promising to avoid his past mistakes that helped drive Nicaragua into a civil war with U.S.-backed Contra rebels. But the pull of the old days is still strong, and Ortega, who easily won a presidential election in November, is making friends with leaders seen in Washington as troublemakers. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the most vocal U.S. foe in Latin America, and his ally Bolivian President Evo Morales attended Ortega's inauguration. After Ortega took the oath of office, the three men raised their fists in the air in a sign of victory. Ortega railed against "savage capitalism," saying it had left millions of Nicaraguans trapped in hunger, illiteracy and misery. "We now face the challenge of taking a new path, a path that allows Nicaraguan families to live with dignity," he said. A far cry from the Cold War, when Nicaragua was a Soviet ally under Ortega's Sandinistas, the Central American nation is now a U.S. partner and sent troops to Iraq briefly in 2003. Nicaragua is in a regional free trade pact with Washington -- an agreement Ortega supports -- and its economy would plummet without the money sent home by immigrants in the United States. Ortega has also changed with the times. Gone are the austere olive green military fatigues on a skinny frame, the unfashionable thick-rimmed glasses and the fiery rhetoric against "Yankee imperialism." Instead, the balding Sandinista Party leader drives a Mercedes Benz sport utility vehicle, uses contact lenses and dresses well. Only his thick mustache remains. PEACE AND LOVE? The former urban guerrilla who was jailed and tortured for fighting the U.S.-backed dictatorship he later toppled now prefers to talk about God, peace, love and reconciliation. Church leaders and senior former Contra rebel leaders have been won over, including his vice president, Jaime Morales. Nicaragua is the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and many have high expectations after Ortega's election victory over a divided right. But others worry the radicalism of Ortega's rule in the 1980s will also be repeated. They mistrust his friendship with Chavez, who has sent cheap fuel and fertilizer to Nicaragua. "I don't want him to have influence over Nicaragua or Daniel," said Alejandro Robleto, 24, who owns a small Chinese food stall. "Nothing good will come out of this." Nicaraguans voted the Sandinistas out of office in 1990, tired of the civil war that killed some 30,000 people. Ortega and two brothers were senior commanders in the long guerrilla war that finally ousted dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Ortega was arrested at age 15 and later jailed for seven years for robbing a bank to finance the revolution. He survived a scandal that would have destroyed most politicians when a stepdaughter alleged in 1998 that he had sexually abused her for years. His wife, Rosario Murillo, stood by him and he weathered the storm.
