Former Marxist rebel Daniel Ortega returns to power in Nicaragua today, a blow to the United States even though he has shed much of the 1980s radicalism that helped turn Central America into a Cold War battleground.

Now a balding 61-year-old, Ortega says he has matured since his Sandinista guerrillas seized power in a 1979 revolution against dictator Anastasio Somoza that pushed Nicaragua into a crippling civil war with US-backed armed Contra rebels.

Under Marxist rule, Cuban-style literacy and health-care programs helped Nicaragua's poorest citizens, but mismanagement and war ruined its economy and Ortega was voted out in 1990 by free-marketers who have since run the country.


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Do you think it is a cause for concern?

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In terms of the sort of policies he's suggesting, it does seem that he's moved from full-blown Marxist Communism to something more akin to Social Democracy. On the other hand, this is someone who did cause a lot of deaths.
But at the end of the day, it's no one's business but the Nicaraguans. They voted him in, and he's no threat to anyone else.

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I wonder if the same attitude would be held if Nicaragua had a bunch oil?

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You overestimate the influence of oil. While it is huge, Nicaragua's lack of oil did not prevent us from being deeply involved in the 80s, and it wouldn't stop us today if we were truly alarmed.

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. On the other hand, this is someone who did cause a lot of deaths.
But at the end of the day, it's no one's business but the Nicaraguans. They voted him in, and he's no threat to anyone else.[/quote] I do not agree with your assertion that Ortega caused a lot of death. It was Reagon and Olly North who brought Nicaragua 10 more years of war after the Sandinista's succesful and very popular overthrow of the brutal Samoza dictatership. As an Oregonian, I am proud of the fact that the U of O dedicated the Ben Lindner room in honor of the young rural water systems engineer and unicycle rider who was martyred by US supported Contra forces