This summer marks thirty years since the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional overthrew the Somoza dynasty in Nicaragua, ending nearly half a century of oppressive rule. However, Daniel Ortega's ever-tightening hold on power since he was reelected in 2006 should give one pause to consider what was it all for. His return to power has been tarnished by the "highly-substantiated" allegations of sexual abuse made by his step-daughter, his about-face on abortion policy (seen as a way to buy-off the powerful Catholic Church), and his embrace of such bad actors as Iran's Ahmadinejad. But his government's awful behavior during the 2008 municipal elections and his numerous moves to strangle press freedom demonstrate that the idealism of those first years has plunged into paranoia and deception.
In short, we've come along way since the palpable idealism of the early days of the revolution as felt in this historic performance by Silvio Rodriguez in Managua:
To a culture of conformity and corruption that embraces the thuggish harassment of the few remaining investigative journalists in Nicaragua.
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