Sandinista Official Says U.S. Is Meddling

[Rose Siding]

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Two decades after the United States backed a civil war against Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government, a top Sandinista official said Tuesday Washington is meddling again, leveling accusations against party leader Daniel Ortega to try to prevent him from returning to the presidency.

Tomas Borge, the former interior minister who is currently No. 2 in the Sandinista Party, said the United States is using a complaint about surface-to-air missiles left over from the war to try to derail a bid by Ortega to retake the presidency in elections next year.

"The United States is trying once again to meddle in Nicaragua's internal affairs, because they are desperate and scared by a certain Sandinista victory in the upcoming elections," Borge, the party's vice-secretary, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
...
Ortega has led Sandinista opposition to the missile destruction, allying with another opposition group to pass legislation preventing President Enrique Bolanos from destroying the weapons. They say bowing to U.S. pressure to destroy them would infringe on the country's sovereignty. But even Bolanos' administration has said Nicaragua needs to hold on to some of the missiles to maintain Central America's balance of power.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-nicaragua-us-sandinistas,0,7390052.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[applegrove]

1. This is going really well. What was it the USA was saying to China on

Taiwan?

[Rose Siding]

2. Ya know, angel or devil, we just don't have a leg to stand on anymore

ZERO credibility. tragic

[cthrumatrix]

14. credit goes to bush

[0007]

3. 0h God! Not again?

No wonder we're the most hated nation on this little planet.

[arcos]

4. The US doesn't need to get involved to derail Ortega's ambitions...

He does enough all by himself...

[webtrainer]

5. the whole missile issue is a CIA sham anyway . . .

Remember, this started when they "found" a missing missile in a man's home that was later understood as being a known CIA asset . . . I sure hope Nicaragua stands up for itself and does not rollover on this, but realistically, what can they do? Chavez can do his Bolivarian Revolution act all he wants without fear of losing U.S. aid because he's bringing in BILLIONs in oil $ but poor Nicaragua . . . ?

LINK:

http://nicanet.org/hotline.php?id=151#topic1

[struggle4progress]

6. kick

[bemildred]

7. No shit.

You can hear the mighty Wurlitzer cranking up as we speak.
We go six months, maybe years, and hear nothing of Nicaragua.
Then all of a sudden Rumsfeldt is touring Latin America and
obsessing over the "missile crisis" in Nicaragua.

[Say_What]

8. Pretty transparent at this stage... predictable.

Mercosur has an article today about Rummy and his Argentine counterpart, Pampuro, discussing the progress being made on installing radar units to monitor Argentine air space and the possibility that U.S. forces could carry out military exercises in the country.

Radar units and US military exercises in Argentina? :wtf:

http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=5309

[bemildred]

9. So many small countries to threaten, so little time,

Hence the "whirlwind tour".

I kind of wonder what's up with Pampuro? Is he an SOA grad?
Does Kirchner need to check his bodyguards? Or is he just
stroking Rumsfeldt off diplomatically speaking?

[Say_What]

12. Weird...

According the today's Mercosur, Pampuro is the one in Kirchner's administration linked most closely to the USSA and has already met with Rummy three other times.

Kirchner was held prisoner and tortured under the CIA-supported military government. One would think that he'd be well aware of the US dirty tricks. But who knows, like you said--stroking Rummy may be what they're up to in order to put their country back on track.

From an article today:

...A controversial issue since United States is demanding total immunity for its servicemen, which at one point President Nestor Kirchner was ready to accept but walked back under pressure from local human rights groups who are highly critical of US passiveness during Argentina’s military dictatorship and of the current Iraq war.

...Another point was the “radar national coverage system” the Kirchner administration wants to establish over the whole territory and which has an American company as one of the main potential suppliers.

Mr. Rumsfeld also announced an “important increase in technical cooperation”, given Argentina’s leadership in “scientific-technological development”.

http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=5317

[bemildred]

13. The US and Argentina have a common interest (of sorts) in what

is happening in Bolivia. The Radar system makes perfect sense for
Argentina to want. Argentina under Kirchner has been non-confrontational
where it could, hence I think I lean to the "stroking off" theory.

Edit: Rumsfeldt, of course, is just working his PR strategy.

[FlemingsGhost]

10. And Negroponte is unavailable–what's a washed-up empire to do?

:puke:

[regnaD kciN]

11. Dear Daniel Ortega...Give it up, already!

Even though your cause against Somoza was just, and you were unfairly treated at the hands of Reagan/Bush, are you going to keep trying a "comeback" every single presidential election? You lost as an incumbent in 1991, you lost in your first "comeback" in 1996, even though you supposedly had a "good chance" to win in 2001, you still wound up losing badly...you think you're going to have any better chance this time around?

Besides, you are so 1980s. ;-) Seriously. The Sandinista Party twenty years ago was led by Daniel Ortega, with Tomas Borge as second-in-command. Now, it's led by...Daniel Ortega, with Tomas Borge as second-in-command. There's something wrong with an electoral party, IMHO, when the same people occupy the leadership posts for a full two decades, with fifteen of them after they got turned out of power. Hasn't anyone joined the party leadership, or even the party, in all that time?

President Ortega, you and your party did a great deal of good for your country during your time in office, and it's to the shame of the United States that we valued "fighting the evil empire" over helping your people. But that was then, and this is now. Isn't it time to step down, and let someone else lead the party...someone who won't merely remind people of the "old days" of the Cold War, with their country caught in the middle between two superpowers? And, besides, what would happen should you actually manage to win? Surely you've noticed that the son of your nemesis is now in the White House...and that he thinks nothing of wielding any amount of power, however flimsy the pretext, to "finish what his father started." If you were to come to your country's presidency, don't you think we'd suddenly find your name ranked in the "Axis of Evil," with calls for yet another "regime change" in your country? :-(