What a total FUBAR. I spent a week or so in NIcaragua in the mid 90's. Chamorro had been legally elected president but Ortega still owned the show. Learned a lot about what really went down. Like most people, the Nicaraguan people are really nice and kind people. Like most of us, they are getting a huge fucking by the gub'mint. I stayed a couple days around Managua and the rest up in and around Esteli near the northern border where most of the war took place. The difference in attitude was noticeable. In Managua the folks were openly friendly and warm. In the north they were far more reserved and cautious, though polite.
I was beat so spent the extra bucks and stayed at The Hotel Managua right across the street from the International airport.. After supper I got into a conversation with the bartender. The subject turned to politics and after several stiff drinks I asked him..."What type of government is in Nicaragua? Democratic, socialist, or communist.?" You could have heard a pin drop. The bartender turned and asked his boss..."What type of government do we have, democratic, socialist, or communist?" The boss looks around and cautiously says"democratic". But no one much wanted to chat with me after that so I went to bed. Woke up in the middle of the night and realized my fuck up talking politics in a communist country I still had to drive out of. I considered walking across the street and getting on a plane but I didnt want to lose my truck.
When I was driving from Managua north I got lost and stopped an old guy at a bus stop to ask directions. He told me he was going that way and if Id give him a ride he'd show me the way. He seemed really nervous and wouldnt talk much. I happened to look in my mirror and saw why. I had on an olive drab military cut shirt and a pair of Baush and Lomb Aviator sunglasses...I looked like an American helicopter pilot. I took off my glasses and looked in his eyes and said in Spanish "Im glad our countries are at peace now so we can be friends". The old guy just smiled and started jabbering about everything, told me about his family, his cows and hogs, and invited me to come stay with at his place if I ever came back. I ended up spending several days in Esteli. Id go out to the Zocolo to read and all the younger men would come over to talk and practice their English. Like I said they were polite but reserved, still much kinder than I would have been had their country done to mine what my country did to theirs.
The US funded their efforts with the cocaine, the Sandinista's by shipping huge amounts of cannabis grown in the remote eastern jungles. My understanding is that Ortega didnt really want to align with anyone and essentially wanted to go socialist, The US feared the commies and pushed him into the Cuban/Russian laps. Once turned its hard to retreat. Now he's trying to sell a canal to the Chinese. Power to the people of Nicaragua.
