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Reporter's Notebook: A Visit With Daniel Ortega

www.newint.org

Ortega in the press in 1988

By Adam Housley/Fox News

He has an air of confidence and calmness that eases the room once he enters. Daniel Ortega has done interviews many times before, in times of war, in times of electoral loss and now in times of yet another leftist movement in Latin America.

It has been nearly a generation since Ortega led this country, but that could change come November because Ortega is back in the race yet again. He is polling sometimes in third place, but he has secured the support of the ever-controversial and sometimes brutal leader in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez.

Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista party also has control of Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council (confirms election results) and also the countries Supreme Court and we have come here to question him about it.

The leader of Nicaragua’s Sandinista movement has aged since his days as the thorn in America’s side, but he still has a youthful glow to his face and he still has that fighting demeanor towards the “imperalist Americans” to the north. Ortega says he would like an open road with the United States, but he blames America, Great Britian and most of Europe for the continued problems in Latin America. Ortega tells me that he would like to work with the U.S., but if not, there are many other countries in the world and he cites China’s large market for goods.

But this interview is not how our trip started. We come to Central America at a time of an alarming leftist trend in the region. Fidel Castro has been joined by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, a strong leftist showing in the recent Costa Rica elections, and various other threats of socialist or strong-arm change throughout the South American region.

As our plane reaches Managua, we cross greenish-yellow fields, the rainy season has not come here yet. Rust and orange colored metal roofs envelop the city below, intermixed with barren soccer fields and baseball fields. It is clear even before our wheels touch down, that this country remains extremely poor. In fact, Nicaragua is said to be the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere next to Haiti.

The airport has only two small electronic baggage claims, it reminds me of arriving in Maui as a child years ago. The air is tropical and thick and this isn’t even the warm season. Quickly we move through customs and find our driver Hector Reyes, a 24-year-old local.

The van is in my name, so along with Reyes, I rent the van and proceed to drive the very short distance back to the airport to pick up the crew and baggage. One problem: la policia. It seems that in Managua in order to make a U-turn to return to the airport, you need to take a right turn into the local gas station, then pull back out of the station across three lanes of traffic to make a left.

It takes me about 10 minutes to convince the officer, who of course demands immediate payment, that we had only been in the country for 15 minutes and haven't even loaded our luggage yet. Eventually he tires of my persistence and he consents to our request. We leave without payment.

Once loaded we head straight to our hotel and quickly we notice why this country is mentioned in the same sentence has Haiti. Many roads and floors of homes are of dirt and the infrastructure is in dire need of improvement. I also notice there are few large buildings, no high rises like you see in other Latin American countries. It’s as if this place has been stuck in time.

Sure we pass cars and even some smaller SUVs, but we also pass men driving carts with horses down the four-lane highway. These scenes remind me of my FOXNews trips to Kuwait and Pakistan. This country needs help and we plan to press Ortega about this fact.

Daniel Ortega has not given an interview to a foreign reporter in sometime. In fact, television stations and networks from around the world continue to request time with the Sandinista leader.

As we make our way around the capital of Managua, people are surprised that Ortega has agreed to such a request and many say there is no way he will keep his word. We remain cautiously confident.

We talk with his wife Rosario who always returns my calls and continually reminds us that her husband will either be available Friday night or early on Saturday. In the meantime, we get as much video footage as possible.

We also get time to visit Eduardo Montealegre, a candidate who is polling higher than Ortega and a man the United States would surely prefer to Ortega.

The Montealegre campaign office is located in a small middle class Managua home. We decide to hold the interview in a covered veranda across the street, where campaign signs adorn the walls and the natural lighting is good.

Montealegre is a young-looking businessman who spent years on Wall Street and received his college education at an Ivy League school. He is well spoken, amiable and dressed in a casual style: gray slacks and an open collar shirt with the sleeves rolled up a bit.

Montealegre has all sorts of plans and has aligned himself with business. He believes that call centers and other outsourcing jobs would be a great way to help the people of his country.

As others we have met, Montealegre believes Ortega will lose the upcoming Presidential election in November. But Montealegre also understands that Ortega controls the Supreme Electoral Council and the Nicaraguan Supreme Court.

This is troubling to him and he tells me "If Daniel wins, the money will evaporate the first day. Companies will leave and people will be afraid the Sandinistas will again nationalize industry and scare companies away from investing in Nicaragua’s future."

After about an hour our visit is complete. A few handshakes, some pictures, and then we pile back onto the plastic seats in our Nissan van. I conclude will we be putting some serious miles on this thing before we leave.

We head to Granada, the Colonial and now tourist Capital of Nicaragua, in search of video footage of tourists. I'm told the city is as an example of what the rest of the country will eventually look like. The streets are clean and the homes are painted in pastels. Reds, blues, greens, even yellows jump from adobe painted buildings like they’ve been wrapped in a colorful quilt.

Like much of Latin America, the city has a plaza square at the center of town with an incredible Catholic church and a gazebo for fiestas.

The crew has just swapped the plastic van seats for chairs at a table for some cold drinks when my local cell phone rings. On the line is Rosario — her schedule has changed and El Comandante (as he is referred to) is ready for us now.

We leave the cold drinks on the table and jump back into the van to head for Managua. As in many third world countries, driving in Nicaragua is not always pleasant. Many roads are rough, detours are anything but smooth and traffic flow can be better in an old west stampede.

Add to our bumpy ride, phone calls every 5 minutes or so. Each one is an Ortega assistant asking our whereabouts and encouraging us to rush even faster. Hector, our driver, manages to get us to the Sandinista headquarters in about 35 minutes. Hector, it seems, has become a much more aggressive driver thanks to three Americans desiring one major interview.

The Sandinista location looks like it has been cut from Granada adobes in twenty-foot sections. The metal and cement walls that serve as the first line of defense from the surrounding neighborhood are bright reds, blues and yellows. It looks like someone has opened a giant roll of lifesavers.

Our monitor meets us outside the first wall and quickly shuttles our crew past a couple of armed guards and into a round interior about 40 yards in diameter. We see the prevalent colors on the inside walls as well and there are small tropical gardens and a couple of small buildings.

We are taken into a large circular glassed meeting room, which looks like a multipurpose room at a neighborhood church. There are four glass and wicker tables set in a square, and sticking with the drastic colored theme, a massive red, green, blue and yellow mural adorns one wall.

Also there seems to be a theme that reminds me of many locales in Tucson, Arizona. Colorful Native American-looking decorations and painted serpents adorn the colorful walls. I later find out that Ortega's wife Rosario is the artist behind the look, heavily influenced by her studies of mysticism and artwork of the world’s native people’s.

Within five minutes of setting up our camera and our lights, in walks Ortega, with wife Rosario and one of his sons. Both Ortega and his wife look youthful for their age and they greet us with handshakes and kisses on the cheek.

Ortega sits behind a table with one of his wife's murals behind him. Gone are the heavy glasses he wore in the 80’s. He wears a lightweight cotton white shirt and a pair of looser slacks. His mustache remains and for a man his age he looks young.

Ortega remains clam throughout most of our interview that is conducted primarily in Spanish. While he understands and speaks English, Ortega prefers to do the interview in his native tongue.

I ask questions as best as I can in my learned Spanish, but it is difficult to understand all of his answers. Our producer Elka Worner speaks Spanish fluently and she jumps in to translate when necessary.

It becomes obvious very quickly that Ortega is a confident and proud man. He likes to play the part of a man who has risen from the people. It is clear his theme in the campaign will be to represent the poor people. This has been a constant for the Sandinistas and for Ortega since the time of the Somosa Dictatorship.

 

 

 

Daniel Ortega is careful in the way he criticizes the United States. He is quick to say "the American democracy is based on imperialism." He also calmly fumes and repeats his displeasure with the Iran Contra affair and the United States' support of the Somoza dictatorship.

He claims the Americans along with Great Britain and the Europeans, have created many of the problems facing Latin America by continuously exploiting the people and the region's resources over the years.

I remind him that much of the fighting in Nicaragua has come from within and that the corruption that plagues his country is also homegrown. My response is dismissed. Ortega acknowledges there have been problems here, but he blames the democratically elected governments since he was voted out of power in 1990.

In fact, Ortega says the socialist Sandinistas deserve a shot during a time of peace. He reminds us that their last chance to lead was during a civil war to oust Somoza and then as a Cold War partner of the Soviet Union against the United States.

At this point we begin to notice the air conditioners that keep the room cooler have been turned off for a quieter backdrop. The air has begun to thicken and I notice several swarms of mosquitoes that have formed in various parts of the room. Our wicker chairs remain comfortable and Ortega seems oblivious to it all. He does not sweat, the bugs stay away from his brow.

This, he reminds me, is his first major interview in about three years. I remind myself that it is one I have been working on getting since last July.

Ortega seems pleased that the interview is being conducted in his native Spanish. My questions are partly in English, but I get help from our producer Elka Worner who speaks Spanish fluently.

He becomes more comfortable with our questions, but is still cautious not to condemn the United States in the same disparaging way as Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. That does not mean he leaves President Bush alone.

Several times he mentions the United States' mistakes in Iraq and basically says that we should have worried more about hurricane Katrina rather than issues or leaders in other countries.

Daniel Ortega gets agitated only once during our 90-minute interview. It comes after we again ask him about Chavez and Fidel Castro. He calls the men his brothers, but assures us they are not injecting money or influence into this Nicaraguan campaign.

I ask about Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, pointing out that in the 1980’s the Libyan leader faced strong U.S. opposition as he seemed to snub his nose at President Reagan.

Ortega responds quickly and a bit louder. He is not angry, but obviously he wants to make this point quickly and directly. Ortega tells us in Spanish that Qaddafi blew up a plane and killed innocent people, while Nicaragua did no such thing.

I tell him the comparison has to do with opposition to U.S. policy and leadership in the 1980s. Quickly Ortega turns our question into more rhetoric about the United States not caring about Latin America and how American imperialism is to blame for many of the problems in Nicaragua.

He says he, Chavez and Castro are well respected in Latin America and that the three "brothers" are fighting for the people.

Our talk is not entirely about relations with the United States, or even international policy. Ortega tells us, unlike years past, he will win this November’s presidential election. He says he wants to build the country back by supporting the small farmers and small business. He promises not to nationalize foreign companies or seize property belonging to individuals who have invested in this country. He does tell us he would nationalize electricity, water and various other essential services.

Several times "El Comandante" (as he is known) cites China’s progress and how the socialists there are doing well by adopting some forms of capitalism. Ortega also takes a shot at U.S. foreign policy by citing the friendship and trade with Socialist China, while at the same time opposing smaller socialist nations like Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela.

Of course Ortega fails to mention Nicaraguan support of the Soviets before their fall.

Ortega admits Nicaragua is a very poor nation, by most accounts the second poorest in the western hemisphere next to Haiti. He says the way to improve conditions here is through investment, but he really doesn’t give us much in the way of examples.

His greatest idea, though, is an old one. He talks about the need to expand the Panama Canal and the difficulties associated with that process. Ortega argues that a second canal built across Nicaragua would be a huge benefit to this nation and to the world. He suggests the nations of the world could pay for such a grand idea, adding that the canal would be used solely for commerce and not for military movement.

Our talk basically ends on that note. The air is very thick now and everyone has some sort of sweat forming. Rosario, who sat by her husband’s side throughout the interview and even chimed-in a few times, opens a book to show us some of her favorite ancient mystical artwork.

Everyone exchanges pleasantries and I tell Ortega that our next meeting needs to include his "brothers" Chavez and Castro.

Adam Housley since 2001, is Fox News Channel (FNC) Los Angeles-based correspondent. Petroleumworld not necessarily share these views.

Editor's Note: This commentary was originally published by Fox News on March 5, 20069 (http://www.newint.org/issue185/endpiece.htm). Adam Housley is in Nicaragua to cover regional elections and to interview Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, who hopes to win the presidential election in November. Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of our readers.Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of our readers.

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Petroleumworld 03/25/ 06

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