Et tu, Nicaragua?

Chavez, Ortega

The 1980s were not a good time for the people of Nicaragua.

The deposing of the dictator Somoza was followed by years of dictatorship, lead by Daniel Ortega, repression and civil war, all proped up by the Sandinistas' benefactors in Havana, Moscow and the rest of the Eastern bloc. The regime was a mortal threat to its people and to its neighbors.

Eventually, thanks in part to U.S. support for the contras,, democracy prevailed, and Ortega was booted from office in 1990. Subsequently, he has failed in two attempts for the presidency.

But if they are not careful on Sunday, the 1980s is to where Nicaraguans risk returning their country.

Nicaraguans on Sunday will election a new president, and almost inexplicably — you can thank a divided opposition — the front runner is former leftist dictator Daniel Ortega. He might even get the 35 percent of the vote he needs to avoid a runoff.

The Soviet Union is no more, and Cuba is not what it once was. But Ortega has a new sugar daddy doing all he can to have one of his own at the helm of power in Managua.

His name is Hugo Chavez, the clown of Caracas, who has funneled cheap oil and other bennies to Nicaragua. His goal being to help elect another leader — he failed in Peru and Mexico, but succeeded in Bolivia — that will march lock-step with his leftist, "Bolivarian revolution."

Chavez has been busy with his own re-election campaign — Venezuelans go to the polls next month — but Nicaraguans have a chance on Sunday to reject his buffoonery. And in doing so, perhaps give Venezuelans the courage to the same.

But more importantly, by rejecting Ortega, Nicaraguans have a chance to save their country from an awful return to the future.

For more, read "The Dangers of Daniel Ortega."