Word: ortega
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Some things never change. Every year Ronald Reagan petitions a resistant Congress for renewed aid to the contra rebels. And every year, as the vote nears, Nicaragua's Sandinista leaders make a blunder that puts Reagan's request over the top. In 1985 Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega Saavedra jetted off to Moscow four days after a $14 million contra-aid measure had been rejected; chastened by what looked like a deliberate slap in the face, Congress reversed itself and okayed a $27 million package. The next year a Sandinista attack on contra bases inside Honduras persuaded Congress to approve...
...Sandinista stumble began last weekend, after Managua learned that the U.S. press would carry the damning charges of a recent Nicaraguan defector, Major Roger Miranda Bengoechea, who had occupied a top post in the Defense Ministry. Hoping to pre-empt Miranda's charges of a planned military buildup, Humberto Ortega delivered a powerful speech reaffirming Sandinista plans to arm up to 600,000 Nicaraguans and obtain Soviet MiG-21 jet fighters by 1995. Unflinchingly defiant toward the U.S., Humberto thundered, "We do not need to hide our relations with the socialist camp in defense matters...
Daniel apparently had second thoughts. The next day he told U.S. reporters that the military plans were only a "proposal" and painted instead a picture of a Swiss-style large reserve army. But Ortega was trying to have it both ways. While aiming to soothe Washington, he was playing to audiences at home, where both Miranda's charges and peace talks with the contras threaten to weaken Sandinista support. In a speech the same day, Ortega warned that if the Sandinistas lost an election they would step down but would lead an insurrection if they disagreed with the new government...
Other undemocratic soundings emanated from Managua. After learning that Ortega planned to ask the Supreme Court to step down, three of the seven members resigned last week, citing the government's failure to abide by the tribunal's rulings. They found particularly galling a case in which Agrarian Reform Minister Jaime Wheelock was ordered to return a large farm to its former owner; he has not yet complied. After asking the rest of the members to resign, Ortega packed the court with his supporters. A national dialogue also collapsed last week after 14 opposition parties walked out, charging that...
...ruling party candidate handily wins a five- year presidential term amid charges of fraud. -- Facing the worst riots in 20 years, the Israeli military comes down hard on Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza. -- Reagan' s quest to secure new aid for the contras gets an inadvertent boost from Nicaragua' s Ortega brothers...