President Bush suffered another defeat this week. The fact that the Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega won the presidential election in Nicaragua on Sunday has not been widely publicized. Sixteen years after he left power, the communist leader recaptured the presidency in part because he used the United States' meddling in this election as a rallying point.
President Bush and his "handlers" thought it was a good idea to influence the Nicaraguan election by threatening to withdraw aid from the impoverished nation if the voting result was not to our administration's liking. In good old U.S.A. fashion, we even backed our own candidate: conservative banker Eduardo Montealegre. This meddling failed miserably.
Daniel Ortega is a pretty bad choice for Nicaragua if past behavior is an indicator of future behavior . During his 1985-1990 Presidency, he not only antagonized then-President Reagan, but his brutal Soviet-backed regime destroyed his country's economy as well. 50,000 people lost their lives during the civil war he and his Sandinista guerrilla fighters fought against the U.S.-backed contras. So he is not a nice guy by any means.
But did the United States not learn anything yet about sticking its nose in other countries' votes? How can we claim to bring democracy to others when we don't even keep out of their election?
What do you think?
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