Word: ortega
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...Daniel Ortega Saavedra hit the road at 5 a.m., bound for the northwestern city of Ocotal, where several thousand supporters awaited him. The same day, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro met in her airy Managua home with advisers of her National Opposition Union (U.N.O.), then received a courtesy call from Joao Baena Soares, secretary-general of the Organization of American States. Next door, Chamorro's aides frantically tried to add more appearances to her schedule, despite doctors' orders not to tax her limited stamina...
With the election set for Sunday, the two candidates for the presidency of Nicaragua continue to campaign against type. Ortega, 44, the sometimes arrogant incumbent who has ruled since 1979, is hopscotching around the country with the fervor of a write-in contender. Gone are his military fatigues in favor of cowboy togs, complete with pointed boots. Chamorro, 60, a political neophyte who depicts herself as the best chance to save Nicaragua, placidly directs her campaign from her living room...
Though Sandinista leaders exude confidence, opinion polls project wildly conflicting results. One survey puts Ortega 20 points ahead of Chamorro; another gives Chamorro almost exactly the same lead. The discrepancy confirms a suspicion that Nicaraguans, unused to honest elections and chary of speaking their minds to strangers, say whatever they think a pollster wants to hear. Gallup would...
Eager to win official recognition from the Bush Administration, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (F.S.L.N.) has turned up the propaganda noise and ladled out servings from a meager pork barrel. Billboards featuring Ortega nuzzling his daughter Camila, 2, dominate Managua, while the strains of the Sandinista campaign song (and old Beatles hit) All You Need Is Love blare from TVs and radios. The F.S.L.N. has distributed nearly a million toys in a country where playthings are a rarity, and has also handed out 1,000 parcels of land to farmers. Two weeks ago, Ortega pardoned the last of Nicaragua...
...invaded Panama -- which the Sandinistas predictably denounced as Yanqui imperialism. To make matters worse, U.S. soldiers burst into the residence of the Nicaraguan Ambassador to Panama and searched it for weapons, a blatant violation of diplomatic immunity. Managua retaliated by expelling 20 American diplomats. Still bristling last week, Ortega drew a nasty parallel between the ambush and the November slaying of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador, a crime many believe was committed by the U.S.-backed Salvadoran army...