Amazing (part II)

The first post in what may now turn out to be a series of posts entitled "Amazing" focused on a surprising editorial in the Los Angeles Times that blamed airline inefficiencies on government regulations. Today I noticed an editorial in the Washington Post that warns of Communists returning to power in Nicaragua and wonders why the Bush administration is not doing more about it(!). Here's how it starts:

MANY PEOPLE outside Latin America probably assume Daniel Ortega's political career ended 15 years ago when his ruinous attempt to install a Marxist dictatorship in Nicaragua ended with an election he decisively lost. The slightly better informed might suppose that his two subsequent electoral defeats, the allegations of corruption and child molestation that haunt him, or his single-digit rating in opinion polls have made him a marginal figure in Nicaraguan politics. Sadly, the truth is otherwise: Thanks to the weakness of the country's new democratic institutions, Mr. Ortega is close to regaining power and to broadening the Latin alliance of undemocratic states now composed by Cuba and Venezuela.

If true, this is indeed worrysome, particularly given the sympathy Cuba and Venezuela have had for Iran (for examples on Venezuela's contacts with Iran see here and here, for Cuba see here). The editorial details the recent machinations of Ortega and the Sandinistas to get back into power and mentions the support Chavez of Venezuela has given them. Toward the end the editors write:

Compared with Mr. Chavez's aggressive intervention, attempts by the Bush administration and other outsiders to save Nicaraguan democracy so far look feckless. The new secretary general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, tried to broker a political compromise but pronounced himself frustrated when Mr. Ortega ignored his appeals to stop undermining Mr. Bolanos's government. The Bush administration managed to win congressional passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement this summer, but Mr. Ortega has blocked its ratification by Nicaragua.

These developments are worth watching.