More on the America-friendly Ortega

Yesterday, I asked people for their thoughts on why Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega is so America friendly. Passport reader Richard Feinberg, a professor at UCSD's graduate school of international relations and a former president of the Inter-American Dialogue, e-mailed us a thoughtful offering: You're right, not only is candidate Daniel Ortega not touting anti-Americanism, but he seizes ...

Yesterday, I asked people for their thoughts on why Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega is so America friendly. Passport reader Richard Feinberg, a professor at UCSD's graduate school of international relations and a former president of the Inter-American Dialogue, e-mailed us a thoughtful offering:

Yesterday, I asked people for their thoughts on why Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega is so America friendly. Passport reader Richard Feinberg, a professor at UCSD's graduate school of international relations and a former president of the Inter-American Dialogue, e-mailed us a thoughtful offering:

You're right, not only is candidate Daniel Ortega not touting anti-Americanism, but he seizes every opening to suggest that he would be able to play ball with the United States. When U.S. Ambassador Paul Trivelli mentioned in passing that the US will be willing to work with whomever is elected in a free and fair election, Ortega jumped on the statement to say that, see, he would be able to maintain normal relations with Uncle Sam. Why? Because polls show that most Nicaraguans do not want a return to confrontation with the United States, on the contrary, most Nicaraguans favor the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and welcome U.S. foreign assistance, trade and investment. In fact, the Sandinistas say publicly they welcome the opportunities offered by CAFTA and would seek to exploit them (even as they also welcome promised subsidized oil shipments from Venezuela's Hugo Chavez). Most Nicaraguans — most Central Americans — generally look favorably on the United States, indeed polls show that, if given the chance, as many as half or more would move to Miami. Anti-US feelings grow as one moves southward toward Argentina, but in the Central American tropics, politicians jockey to demonstrate their warm relations — even as they pledge an independent, sovereign foreign policy — with Washington."

Good point. It has been my experience that most Central Americans are friendly toward the United States, too. So why is the Bush administration so staunchly against Ortega? Given the surging popularity and influence of Chavez, don't we need all the friends we can get in Latin America?

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