Sandinista and U.S. nemesis Daniel Ortega is the frontrunner going into Nicaragua's presidential election this Sunday. What would his victory mean for U.S.-Nicaragua relations?

Mientras los nicaragüenses se preparan para votar en las elecciones presidenciales de su país el próximo 5 de noviembre, el dictador sandinista Daniel Ortega encabeza las encuestas en medio de un escenario dividido.

One of the cornerstones of Latin (and particularly Central) America's democratic transformation is sliding back toward the abyss.

With Chavez pumping millions into the Sandinista coffers, it is essential that Nicaragua's democrats give full and united backing behind a single candidate.

Nicaragua provides insight into the pathologies that afflict postrevolutionary states, and on what we can expect in post-Castro Cuba and post-Chávez Venezuela.

Ortega's electoral defeat establishes that the Nicaraguan people wish to put the Sandinista era behind them; the problems of Nicaraguan society are too deep to be resolved by an electoral contest alone.

On Sunday, February 25, 1990, Nicaraguans went to the ballot boxes and quietly voted out of office Marxist President Daniel Ortega, running for reelection against Mrs. Violeta Chamorro, publisher of the opposition daily La Prensa and head of a fourteen-party coalition known by its Spanish acronym UNO. 

If the Nicaraguan people stand up to Daniel Ortega, they will begin to turn back the tide of authoritarian populism that threatens the future of Latin America.