Sandino Lives!

US deputy secretary of state, and neo-con hatchet man for the White House, Robert Zoellick, was in Nicaragua this past week doing the Empire's dirty work: making threats and twisting arms over the remotely possible return of anti-capitalist Daniel Ortega to the presidency and the potential ousting of Washington's little handpuppet, President Enrique Bolaños.

It appears the Bush regime got to the OAS on this one, however, and for the moment their man in Managua may finish out his term. Bad enough that the citizens of Nicaragua have to suffer being run deep into extreme poverty by the vengeful Reagan administration back in the '80s, now the ghosts of the Reagan White House are haunting them once again with their imperial bullying. Otto Reich, one of the key architects of U.S. policy in Central America under both Reagan and George W. Bush, stated recently: "Ortega is a communist. ... If he wins, there will be no foreign investment and no U.S. aid." Wins as in democratically elected, we presume. Naturally, resentment toward The Empire is growing down there, as it is everywhere.

Of course, Ortega is not all that popular with some in the Nicaraguan Sandinista Party either, and these forces plan to run their own candidate in the November 2006 election. A lot can happen between now and then though, and a united Sandinista Party, as well as an alliance with, of all people, rightwing nationalists is apparently not out of the question.

Perhaps the Bush regime is smarting from the growing anti-capitalist revival in South America and the continued burr of Cuba under its' hegemonic saddle. A return of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua would certainly leave a bad taste in the mouths of the far-right extremists in DC. Since the Bush regime is tanking anyway from all its accumulated sins (finally!), it seems a few more well-deserved karma-bits wouldn't do that much harm. Viva Sandino!