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October 28, 2006
Oliver North helping Ortega?
Perhaps someone more expert in Nicaraguan politics - especially Nicaraguan right-wing politics - can explain this one.
Most polls for Nicaragua's November 5 presidential elections put José Rizo in third or fourth place with less than 20 percent of the vote. Rizo is the candidate of the right-wing National Liberal Party, which is still controlled by Arnoldo Alemán, a disgraced former president. Alemán today is under house arrest for stealing large amounts of money from the national treasury.
In 1999 Alemán signed a power-sharing pact with Daniel Ortega, head of the leftist Sandinista Front that held power throughout the 1980s. Since then, Nicaragua's main right-wing party has been in what Reuters calls "a virtual power duopoly" with the Sandinistas - a party that the Reagan administration once went to great lengths to try to overthrow.
José Rizo is viewed as one of two candidates from the Ortega-Alemán alliance. Polls put him behind Ortega and Eduardo Montealegre, a former Alemán ally now running as an independent center-right candidate.
Montealegre is the Bush administration's clear choice over Rizo, who in their eyes is tainted by association with Ortega. According to Reuters, U.S. Ambassador Paul Trivelli "told reporters this week that voting for Rizo was practically the same as voting for the former guerrilla."
Most of right-wing Washington sees things the same way. Rizo "has no chance of being elected," notes a recent briefing paper from the American Enterprise Institute. "His singular role is to siphon anti-FSLN votes from fellow Liberal Eduardo Montealegre." Roger Noriega, a former Bush assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs and now a fellow at AEI, wrote recently in the Washington Post that Rizo "appear[s] to be flush with cash thanks to donations from [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chávez."
A right-winger funded by Venezuela and splitting the opposition to Daniel Ortega? Sounds bizarre, but the likely reason is that if Ortega wins, Alemán will continue to enjoy immunity from prosecution for past corruption.
But it gets weirder. Oliver North, the far-right radio talk-show host who first made his name illegally running guns to the Nicaraguan anti-Sandinista rebels, paid a visit to Nicaragua last week. North - a controversial figure in Nicaragua - was not shy about endorsing a candidate.
In a public event before the country's media, North threw his enthusiastic support behind ... José Rizo.
"The U.S. embassy was said to be furious about his [North's] arrival, obliging him to call it a private visit," reported the Guardian. But North may not be an outlier. There apparently is a contingent of U.S. Sandinista-haters - perhaps even Florida Governor Jeb Bush - who are supporting Rizo.
Why are they backing a candidate who, according to the Bush administration and much of Washington's right wing, is essentially helping their nemesis Daniel Ortega win the election?
I have no idea. Anybody else have a guess?
[UPDATE 10/30: Robert Novak - who gets mentioned far too often on this blog - has a column today endorsing North and Rizo. For some reason it fails to mention the pact. Again, no idea why.]
Posted by isacson at October 28, 2006 5:46 PM
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