NICARAGUA: Nicaragua's Ortega promises no radical reforms

Nicaragua's leftist President-elect Daniel Ortega promised on Wednesday (November 8) that he will not push for radical economic reforms. Ortega, who led Nicaragua through a bitter civil war with U.S.-backed Contra rebels in the 1980s, returned to power in Sunday's presidential election, 16 years after voters threw out his left-wing Sandinista government. Washington worries Ortega will join a bloc of radical leaders in Latin America headed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and some in Nicaragua fear he could spark a new confrontation with the United States. Ortega met outgoing President Enrique Bolanos on Wednesday. Bolanos promised to offer Ortega all his support. "You can count on our collaboration in a way that will be beneficial to the well-being of our people," said Bolanos. "At this start of this new presidential period with Daniel, we should continue our efforts towards development and prosperity," said Bolanos. Ortega, 60, tried to ease fears that he would take radical steps as regards the economy. "We are not contemplating any dramatic or radical changes as regards the basics of the economy, our call to the economic group, to the business sector, to political forces, is for all of us to unite," he said. In the 1980s, the Sandinistas confiscated many businesses and lands. Combined with the fierce Contra rebellion and a U.S. economic blockade, the policies plunged coffee producer Nicaragua into chaos and wrecked ambitious anti-poverty plans. The president-elect has dropped Marxism for a center-left program but he is also a friend and ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who is challenging U.S. influence across Latin America and using petrodollars to support his allies. Analyst Irwin Kruger said there was little appetite in Nicaragua for a return to the past. "In the 1980s during the civil war, it was so terrible that I don't think we want to return to those types of confrontations. We have found dialogue, compromise, reconciliation, an organism to find a joint solution to Nicaragua's problems," said Kruger in an interview. Ortega will now try to walk a political tightrope, pulling in help from Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro for anti-poverty programs without upsetting the United States.

ITN Source | November 9, 2006

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