Silence of America’s Surging Socialists Speaks Volumes as Nicaragua’s Ortega Ends Democracy

President Daniel Ortega is terminating Nicaragua’s democracy without protest from his fans on the left. America’s surging socialists are ignoring the once-and-future dictator snuffing out democracy, excusing all the traits they attribute to President Trump because it’s in service of a Marxist-Leninist who would be king.“There won’t be any more elections,” Mr. Ortega said in a speech on Sunday. “Never, never, never.” In 2018, he crushed mass protests, killing hundreds. He and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, last faced voters in 2021, an election that the Biden Administration dismissed as a “pantomime” and “sham.”Mr. Ortega’s party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front, jailed opponents for daring to campaign against them in that most recent faceoff. An opposition candidate, Juan Chamorro, along with over 200 other political prisoners, were exiled to America in 2023.The declaration by the “dictatorship,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday, that “Nicaragua will never again hold elections” lays bare their true authoritarian nature. Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have abandoned even the pretense of popular consent.”Of all the things to miss about the 1980s, a Soviet satellite in America’s backyard is not on the list. Mr. Ortega first came to power in 1979 with a bloody uprising and claimed a mandate in 1985’s election. That victory was tainted because anti-Sandinista parties boycotted unfair balloting.President Daniel Ortega (left) is welcomed by President Fidel Castro of Cuba, at Havana’s José Martí International Airport in 1988. Jason Bleibtreu/Sygma via Getty ImagesThe Contra rebels split Washington by fighting a guerrilla war against the regime. Democrats, enamored with the Sandinistas, passed the Boland Amendment to prohibit support for those President Reagan hailed as “freedom fighters.”Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts and Bernard Sanders of Vermont, then mayor of Burlington, were among those who made pilgrimages to Managua. In 1985, Mr. Sanders praised Mr. Ortega — as he later celebrated Venezuela’s socialist dictator, Hugo Chavez. The Democratic-socialist of Vermont even attended an anti-American Sandinista rally.“The word ‘socialism’ does not frighten me,” Mr. Sanders told Channel 17 after that trip. “They,” he said, meaning America under President Kennedy, “invaded Cuba.” But Cubans had defended their dictator, Fidel Castro, because “he educated their kids, gave them health care, totally transformed the society.”That transformation turned Cuba into what Kennedy called an “imprisoned island.” Yet Mr. Sanders was “impressed” with the “sincerity of Sandinista leaders,” whom he likened to “hippies.” The only problem was that “they were getting killed in the American media” because “Reagan and his people … own the airwaves” and “lie.”President Daniel Ortega, center, with police officers at Masaya, Nicaragua, on July 13, 2018. AP/Cristobal VenegasA Vermonter, Edward Pike, wrote Mr. Sanders in 1985 criticizing his support for “dictatorships, whose only true concern is its length of stay in power,” and highlighting the suppression of “basic human and civil rights” in Nicaragua. Mr. Sanders replied that the “suspension of certain civil liberties” was “temporary.”Mr. Sanders compared the crackdown to President Franklin Roosevelt infamous internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, for which Reagan issued an apology and reparations. The Sandinistas could not, Mr. Sanders said, allow “the total freedom to defeat them and destroy their government.” Their revolution was just too important to allow dissent.A Reagan Administration effort to circumvent the Boland Amendment led to the Iran-Contra Scandal. The pressure forced Mr. Ortega to allow elections in 1990. The left’s assumption was that Nicaraguans loved socialism as much as they did. Instead, President Violeta Chamorro, aunt of the 2021 candidate, won in a landslide.After several attempts to recapture the presidency, Mr. Ortega succeeded with 38 percent of the vote in 2006. The repressive measures that Mr. Sanders assured Mr. Pike were “temporary” 40 years ago were entrenched as the Sandinistas set about creating a one-party, Marxist state.The word “socialism” may not frighten leftists like Mr. Sanders. Those who have lived under its oppression in places like Nicaragua, however, know that it’s an ideology to fear. Their cries for freedom are heard, even as so many of America’s self-appointed defenders of democracy choose to stay silent.

Silence of America’s Surging Socialists Speaks Volumes as Nicaragua’s Ortega Ends Democracy

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