"Nicaragua pres Ortega poised to win 3rd term" by Filadelfo Aleman Associated Press / November 6, 2011
MANAGUA, Nicaragua—Nicaraguans were poised to return one-time Sandinista revolutionary Daniel Ortega to the presidency in Sunday's election even with reports of protests and international observers being blocked from participating....
Since returning to power in 2007, the 65-year-old Ortega has boosted his popularity in Central America's poorest country with a combination of pork-barrel populism and support for the free-market economy he once opposed....
Ortega led the Sandinista movement that overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, and withstood a concerted effort by the U.S. government, which viewed him as a Soviet-backed threat, to oust him through a rebel force called the Contras....
Otherwise known a the Iran-Contra affair, whereby the Reagan administration sold weapons to Iran (to use against Iraq, our alleged ally at the time) and then used the profits to illegally arm the Contras -- and ship drugs back into the United States in the empty gun-running airplanes.
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Also see: Nicaragua's polling results show Ortega won by a landslide
