Daniel Saavedra Ortega, leader of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in the 80's, is the front runner to win the Presidential election in Nicaragua this week.
Ronald Reagan spent billions of dollars arming the Contras who were fighting to overthrow the Sandinistas. The Contras, which Reagan called "the equivalent to our founding fathers," were primarily, though not entirely, composed of members of the
vicious Guardia Nacional of the former dictator Anastasio Somoza. Others came from the ranks of the Sandinistas as they became dissillusioned with Ortega. There were atrocities committed in that war by both sides.
Ortega has run for President several times in the years since he was deposed in a U.S. led coup in Nicaragua.
His old foe Oliver North has been campaigning against him and supposedly there has been undreds of thousands of dollars of foreign (read U.S.) money spent in opposition to his election.
If Ortega should win he will join the growing list of Latin nations that have elected left wing leaders with antipathy or outright hostility to the United States.
This is happening because the U.S. basically turns a blind eye to affairs in our own backyard and invariably supports governments that oppress their people. As long as these governments toe the U.S. line, which used to be anti-communist and is now anti drug cartel, the U.S. government is perfectly willing to ignore the massive inequities and poverty in Latin America.
The American response to these problems by and large is xenophobia and proposals to build walls along the border. If we actively worked to improve education and better health services and helped to create governments and economies that benefitted most of the poor populations we would not have the undocumented alien problems we have now.
