Sandinistas Steal Elections - Media Yawns

Our one party media has studiously ignored the Sandinistas stealing the latest elections in Nicaragua.

But by some miracle it has caught the eye of the suddenly outraged editors of the Washington Post:

A supporter of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) fires a homemade mortar toward Mall Metrocentro during a protest against the election council in Managua November 13, 2008. Dozens of people have been injured in Nicaragua in post-municipal election violence, according to reports from local media.

Nicaragua’s Spoiled Ballot

President Daniel Ortega moves to construct another dictatorship.

Sunday, November 16, 2008; B06

THROUGH MUCH of the 1980s, the United States waged a proxy war to prevent Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista party from consolidating a dictatorship in Nicaragua. In 1990, Mr. Ortega finally agreed to hold a presidential election, which he lost; since then Central America’s poorest country has struggled to build a functioning democracy. Now Mr. Ortega is back and once again is seeking autocratic power. This time, however, neither the United States nor other outside powers are doing much to stop him.

Mr. Ortega regained the president’s office in 2006, thanks to a corrupt alliance with a right-wing leader and a constitutional amendment that allowed him to claim power with 38 percent of the vote. Since then eight of 10 Nicaraguans have turned against the president, according to independent polls — yet Mr. Ortega’s campaign to dismantle the political system has accelerated. He has banned two opposition parties, brought criminal charges against independent journalists and nongovernmental organizations, and built bullying “citizens power councils” with funding from Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez.

The opposition hoped to block what several former Sandinista leaders have called an emerging dictatorship by winning local elections last Sunday. Mr. Ortega responded by barring international election observers for the first time since 1990 and organizing what the opposition and Nicaraguan election observers say was a massive fraud. Opposition leader Eduardo Montealegre, who was favored to win the race for mayor of Managua, was declared the loser by a government-controlled electoral council. Mr. Montealegre’s own count, compiled by collecting results from individual polling stations, showed him winning decisively. In the country’s second-largest city, León, thousands of ballots were found in the municipal dump, most of them marked with votes for Mr. Montealegre’s Liberal party. Now violence is mounting in Managua’s streets between opposition supporters and groups of Sandinista thugs, who wield machetes and guns.

Outraged by Mr. Ortega’s behavior, European governments are moving to cut off funding equal to a third of the government’s budget. But the Bush administration’s reaction has been laconic. The State Department issued a statement last week deploring the “irregularities”; on Thursday the U.S. ambassador said he was concerned. The United States has considerable economic leverage it can employ — there is no need for another contra army. Among other things, Nicaragua is currently the beneficiary of a $175 million aid program from the Millennium Challenge Corp., which is supposed to condition grants on the government’s respect for political rights and the rule of law. It seems pretty obvious that Mr. Ortega has flunked those tests.

Remember our watchdog media’s complete lack of reportage about Mr. Ortega’s campaign back in 2006?

We really only heard about his bid when the media announced, in passing, his victory.

And then we were painstakingly reassured that Mr. Ortega had changed his ways and had become a responsible centrist democrat, who highly valued the electoral system.

Of course that was all a lie, and Mr. Ortega turned out to be just as much of a revolutionary communist as ever.

And here we see that he is also still a dictator.

But now that Mr. Ortega is safely ensconced even the Washington Post thinks it is time to “denounce” him. They even denounce Mr. Bush for not doing more to stop him.

Meanwhile, this is the same Washington Post that never had an unkind word for the man during the “Contra” war. And who called for Mr. Reagan’s head for daring to help those who opposed him.

It was ever thus with our watchdog media.

But why should we worry?

It can’t happen here.

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