Word: cruz
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Sandinista government of Nicaragua, convincing the world that next week's national elections will be meaningful has been an uphill climb. The first major setback came when Arturo Cruz Porras, widely considered to be the strongest opponent facing Sandinista Presidential Candidate Daniel Ortega Saavedra, decided once and for all three weeks ago not to run, claiming that the regime would not allow him to campaign freely. Then the next strongest rival, Virgilio Godoy Reyes of the Independent Liberal Party, announced last week that he too was dropping out. "There are not sufficient guarantees for an electoral process," said...
...colleagues are not likely to accomplish their primary purpose in holding elections, which is to persuade critics at home and abroad that the Sandinista government legitimately represents the Nicaraguan people. What makes the vote especially suspect in U.S. eyes is the absence of a strong opponent to Ortega. Arturo Cruz Porras, a former member of the Sandinista junta, originally planned to head a ticket backed by the Coordinadora, an amalgam of opposition political parties, labor unions and businessmen. Cruz's supporters, however, demanded concessions from the Sandinistas, including a relaxation of press censorship. After several weeks of bargaining...
...more dangerous threat is represented by the turbas (mobs). Early in the campaign, Cruz's car was stoned and his supporters were assaulted several times. Though Sandinista leaders publicly condemn the violence, the turbas are organized by middle-level party officials. In some cases, planners have even supplied municipal buses to transport crowds...
...wearying of its proclivity to blame all of its considerable economic woes on the United States. Reliable reports from Nicaragua have it that the government is going out of its way to squelch the campaign of the most prominent of its opponents, the disillusioned former junta member Artoro Cruz, and right now there is no reason to expect the janta leader, Daniel Ortega Snavculra, will not be elected president next month in an electoral sham overshadowed only by the angling guerilla...
Even some socialists sympathetic to the Sandinistas feel that without Cruz the elections will be virtually meaningless...