La flor mas linda de mi querer

It's election day! Not here -- in Nicaragua. And the Bush regime, filled with operatives from the illegal, terrorist war waged during the 1980s by our government to undermine the twice-elected Sandinista administration, is taking a little time away from efforts to stave off electoral disaster here to do the same thing there. Their idea of disaster is the re-election of Daniel Ortega.

Now, I'm a Jarquin supporter myself (hey, if some norteamericanos get to side publicly with a candidate in another country's elections, we all do). Since being voted out in 1990, Ortega's shown himself to be much more of a politician in the worst sense than any kind of progressive leader. His recent co-governing deal with the right wing proved every bit as corrupt as the (U.S.-blessed) administration it replaced.

But the menacing gestures by our government -- "visits" by Rumsfeld and Ollie North, open threats by the U.S. ambassador of sanctions and blockades like those that hobbled Nicaragua twenty years ago -- are just shameless bullying. And the Bush regime's favored candidate? Ortega's partner in the scummy co-governing pact.

Festivals of democracy.