Editorial: Daniel Ortega, the Butcher of Nicaragua
The ruthlessness of Ortega’s desperate attempt to cling onto power is now apparent to the entire region, and the entire world.
The Butcher of Nicaragua WikiMedia
One of the latest victims of the repression of the Ortega regime, was a child just over a year old. Renowned Cuban journalist and writer Carlos Alberto Montaner opined: “The murder of a 14-month-old baby was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Either Daniel Ortega and his wife accept early elections in March, and they take their millions and go elsewhere, or they will be overthrown, or they may face a similar fate to the Ceausescus in Romania.”
Montaner’s reference to the dictatorial communist regime of the late 1980s in Southeastern Europe is a very sensible comparison, which includes a warning, to boot: after his overthrow, Ceausescu found himself tried by a military court. They accused him of genocide, subversion of society by the state, destruction of the economy, and embezzlement. Being found guilty, they executed him and his wife, Elena Ceausescu, the Rosario Murillo of Romania.
Whether or not the Ortegas face a similar fate as the European communist dictators, depends, as Carlos Alberto Montaner notes, on them. However, there seems to be no indication on their part that they wish to avoid a dramatic and lethal conclusion.
Faced with massive and courageous opposition, with hundreds of thousands of young people in the streets, standing up to the rampant authoritarianism in the nation, Daniel Ortega has responded implacably and cruelly. His actions should be a clear reminder to anyone who doubted in the late 1980s that he was still a Communist; as his government destroyed the country in a scorched-earth campaign to convert it into a replica of Fidel Castro’s Cuba.
The peaceful demonstrations of recent months in Nicaragua were met with state security forces unconcerned about shedding blood. The rampant violence on the part of the government quickly conjures up images of the other great murderer of the region: the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro.
