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Daniel Ortega Saavedra (born 11 November 1945) was President of Nicaragua from 1985 to 1990, during the Sandinista government, and is currently the leader of the Sandinista party.
Ortega was one of several leaders of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional in its guerrilla war against
Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. After
Somoza's forces were defeated in July 1979, he became a member of a five-person Junta of
National Reconstruction that also included Sandinista militant Moises Hassan, novelist Sergio Ramírez Mercado, businessman Alfonso Robelo
Callejas, and Violeta Barrios de
Chamorro. After Robelo and Chamorro resigned from the junta, the Sandinistas under Ortega's leadership became undisputed
heads of the new government and undertook a radical program for economic transformation and reconstruction of the war-torn
country. Parts of the Sandinista program were inspired by the Fidel
Castro's socialist system in Cuba, while other parts were modeled after social
democracies in Europe.
Though much of the Sandinista platform was supported by the nation's large poor
population, there were also allegations that the new government actively suppressed political dissent and violated human rights.
Ortega's ambitious program of land redistribution was also subject to criticism, and it was alleged that Sandinista leaders used
their power for personal advantage.
In November 1984 Ortega called national elections and won the presidency with 63% of the
vote, taking office on January 10, 1985. The results of the election were
rejected as fraudulent by the United States but upheld as free and fair
by many other observers. Frightened by the notion of a Soviet proxy state in Latin America, the U.S. under the Reagan administration supported anti-Sandinista Contra rebels operating out of Honduras and Costa Rica and, in early 1984, illegally mined Nicaragua's harbours. These actions caused much controversy
in the United States, and out of these events developed the Iran-Contra Affair and the Nicaragua v. United States judgement of the International Court of Justice.
Although the Contras were never able to win militarily inside Nicaragua, by 1990 the U.S. strategy of low-intensity conflict, which combined Contra attacks with
domestic sabotage and a debilitating trade embargo, left Nicaragua economically devastated and politically polarized. In
Nicaragua's 1990 elections, Ortega was defeated by a former junta member, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who led a 14-party
anti-Sandinista alliance, and was succeeded by her on April 25, 1990.
He stood for election again in October 1996 and November 2001, but lost on both occasions. His loss in the 2001 election can be attributed to a number of factors: allegations
of corruption made against him in relation to the last days of his government in the 1980s, allegations made by his stepdaughter,
Zoilamérica
Narváez, that he sexually abused her, and U.S. interference in the election campaign. He continues to lead the Sandinista
party to this day, which holds 43 seats in the Nicaraguan Parliament, making it the second largest party.
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