[NYTr] Nicaraguans Mark Anniversary of Sandinista Revolution
 
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 03:02:40 -0500 (CDT)


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
The Washington Post - July 20, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072000022.html

Nicaragua Sandinistas Recall Revolution

By Filadelfo Aleman

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Nicaragua's Sandinistas marked the 28th
anniversary of their 1979 revolution on Thursday and this year's
celebrations were particularly sweet _ the leftist party is back in
power and surrounded by allies.

President Daniel Ortega, elected for a second term in November, was
joined by the presidents of Panama and Honduras, as well as Venezuela's
Hugo Chavez, who has supplied Nicaragua with oil and other fuels.

"Unity will make us free," Chavez said. "The empire has always
maintained its plans to keep us divided, and thus weak and dominated,"
he added, referring to the United States.

Ortega called the anniversary "a glorious date," saying many still
"fight for liberty, justice, sovereignty and against imperial
domination."

The celebration was to include the formal rollout of Ortega's
controversial "people's councils," described by the Sandinistas as an
exercise in direct democracy. Some, however, fear they will resemble
the Sandinista Defense Committees that operated in the 1980s and were
accused of spying on and intimidating citizens.

The Sandinistas toppled dictator Anastasio Somoza on July 19, 1979, and
installed Ortega as president. The Sandinista armed forces later
battled U.S.-backed Contra rebels in a war that claimed an estimated
50,000 lives.
       
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