Venezuela needs our attention, but so do dictatorships-in-waiting Nicaragua and Bolivia

[Zorro]

While the world is watching Venezuela’s descent into a full blown dictatorship, scant attention has been paid to the slow-motion disappearance of democracy in two other countries: Nicaragua and Bolivia. If they continue on their present course, they may soon be called Latin America’s emerging dictatorships.

The erosion of basic freedoms in these two countries came to mind this week when I interviewed Sergio Ramirez, the Nicaraguan writer and former Sandinista vice president who, on Nov. 16, was awarded the Spanish Royal Academy’s coveted Cervantes literary prize — considered the Nobel literature award of the Spanish-speaking world.

Ramirez, whom I have known since his days in the Sandinista government in the 1980s, became disillusioned with the increasingly totalitarian bent of his leftist comrades and broke ranks with Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega in the early 1990s. In 1996, Ramirez ran for president as leader of a democratic leftist party he founded, and — after losing that election — quit his political career to become a full-time writer and journalist.

After becoming the first Central American writer to win the Cervantes prize, Ramirez got congratulatory calls from across the world. In Nicaragua, many celebrated the news. But there was no congratulatory call from Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, or any acknowledgment from his government, Ramirez told me.

http://amp.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andres-oppenheimer/article186095083.html

[GatoGordo]

1. We used to go into Nicaragua years ago to do mission work

Never again.

We weren't there for 48 hours before we literally fled across the border into Honduras for our lives. The local Acaldes (mayors) and their FSLN goons seem to think the quickest way to earn a living is to kidnap gringo women and ransom them. Only when a local came by at 11pm and warned us about what was about to take place did we leave. The next day, when we were nowhere to be found, the local jefe told everyone we were smuggling drugs and were about to be arrested, when we fled with money stolen from local businesses.

The medical supplies we brought in? Confiscated and offered back to us for sale.

The building materials we paid for and were waiting for to build a clinic and rooms for a school? Hijacked... but the Acalde could "find the culprits" and return the materials... for a fee.

Danny Ortega is running a Hell of a country.