Old U.S. Adversary Poised for Comeback

By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 5, 2006; Page A20

Here in Nicaragua, however, the vote is being viewed less as a referendum on Ortega's 11-year rule after his guerrilla forces seized power in 1979 than as a chance to end a more recent era of collusion between his Sandinista National Liberation Front and the Constitutionalist Liberal Party, which holds the most seats in the National Assembly

Although the immense affection Ortega earned by toppling brutal dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979 was severely eroded by his government's human rights abuses, confiscation of property and bloody war against U.S.-backed contra insurgents, Ortega still leads public opinion polls in the five-way race with as much as 33 percent -- putting him within striking distance of a first-round victory.

Ortega, meanwhile, sought to answer his critics by casting himself as the candidate of reconciliation.

In place of his old military fatigues, he has campaigned in jeans and white shirts to the accompaniment of a Spanish adaptation of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."

Over the last several months he has also reached out to old enemies, signing a public "peace agreement" with a former contra group and picking as his running mate a former contra negotiator whose house he once confiscated.

Ortega, once an avowed secularist, even courted the Catholic Church by supporting legislation last month to extend Nicaragua's already restrictive abortion ban to cases in which a mother's life is in danger.

Ortega's opponents charged that such statements were merely an attempt by Ortega to disguise his true nature. In the closing weeks of the campaign, they tried to drive the point home with ads featuring grainy black-and-white footage of the mustachioed leader strutting in his military fatigues as ominous voiceovers warned that an Ortega win could bring back unpopular features of the Sandinista era such as the military draft, confiscation of private property and a U.S. embargo.

"Let us not return to the dark night," ended one spot paid for by Rizo.

The message was echoed by Bush administration officials, including U.S. Ambassador Paul A. Trivelli and U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, who raised hackles among Nicaraguans and international observers by making what many interpreted as a thinly veiled threat to withdraw aid and impose economic sanctions in the event of an Ortega victory.

Adding to the atmosphere of deja vu has been a series of visits from former cold warriors such as Oliver L. North, the Reagan administration aide who served as point man for secretly funneling money and weapons to the rebels in the 1980s Iran-contra scandal despite a congressional ban.

U.S. alarm over a possible Ortega victory is at least partly due to concern that he will prove an eager partner in Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez's bid to counter U.S. influence in Latin America.