Ex-gun runner a Nicaraguan presidential favorite

[arcos]

Ex-gun runner a Nicaraguan presidential favorite

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, March 21 (Reuters) - A convicted arms smuggler and high-ranking revolutionary who battled U.S.-backed Contra rebels in the Cold War could soon be Nicaragua's next president -- and even win an approving nod from Washington.

Herty Lewites, who last year broke away from longtime Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega to run his own candidacy after a three-decade friendship broke down in acrimony, is one of the favorites ahead of Nicaragua's election in November.

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Polls show a close race between Lewites, Ortega and pro-business candidate Eduardo Montealegre, with the three showing roughly the same level of support in recent months.

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"Ortega is corrupt. I am the one rescuing the most important values of the Sandinistas," he said in an interview at his headquarters in a wealthy suburb of the capital Managua.

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N2147722.htm

[Peace Patriot]

1. DO read the article. Lewites is a Bush Cartel shill, who was recruited by

the Bush junta to divide the majority leftist vote, and put "pro-business" (i.e., pro-US/IMF/World Bank) Montealegre in office. Sad, sad. Nicaragua, which has suffered so much at our hands, will thus be prevented from joining the peaceful, democratic, leftist revolution that has swept Latin America over the last several years (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia--all with popular leftist governments; Peru and Mexico will likely be next). Nicaragua will become isolated like Columbia and Haiti--and become a haven for dreadful "free trade zones," global corporate predators, and fascists--surrounded by countries full of people who have declared their independence from the US.

I hope the leftist voters in Nicaragua wake up before the election and reject Lewites. I'm sure they fear the Bush junta--that is the fear that Lewites is playing upon--but I hope they can overcome it, and join the free countries of Latin America, the vast majority, by electing Daniel Ortega at long last, the man who freed Nicaragua from the horrors of dictatorship, and WOULD HAVE BEEN its elected leader, if the Reagan Iran/Contra death squads had not intervened.

[arcos]

2. I totally disagree...

Daniel Ortega was a great man, but he became obsessed with power and money and as such, has been involved in countless corruption scandals and questionable deals with right winger former President Arnoldo Alemán.

Nicaraguan people are absolutely tired of both Ortega and Alemán because they mostly see them like what they are: corrupt traitors. Ortega is no better than the average Nicaraguan right winger, he's not concerned about the poor people, he is concerned about his bank accounts.