COTTonLINE tries to keep up with goings-on in Latin America, it’s our “neighborhood.” Today World Politics Review reports the anti-Ortega unrest in Nicaragua is building toward a civil war.
Sadly, this condition is no newcomer to Nicaragua. We remember the “contras” fighting Ortega’s Sandanistas in the Reagan era, the most recent conflict, and before that the battle to oust Somoza.
Unrest and civil war comes and goes in Central America, the lucky countries (e.g., Costa Rica) dodge it if they can. Conflicts happen between indigenous peoples and European “settlers,” between left and right, sometimes between rival criminal gangs. And rarely they are “visited” by the U.S. military, think Panama.
Ortega faces student unrest, which is catching on with other elements of Nicaraguan society, and has responded repressively with deadly force. Author Ghitis believes this will lead to civil war.
Polling suggests President Ortega, 72, and his wife - Vice President Murillo - have become unpopular. They need to buy a villa in simpatico Havana and retire.
