Nicaragua
Daniel Ortega (1945-present)
His full name is Jose Daniel Ortega Saavedra and he was born on November 22,1945 in La Libertad, Nicaragua. He is the Nicaraguan guerrilla leader. He is also a member of the Sandinist junta which took power in 1979 but he is also the current elected president of Nicaragua.
In 1963, he went underground and became a member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front or what is reffered to as the (FSLN) and by 1967 he became the leader of this organization. But that same year he was arrested for playing a part in a bank robbery and ended up spending seven years in jail. Before they went to jail, Ortega had learned guerrilla warfare in Cuba from Fidel Castro. Himself and other members of the FSLN changed the guerrilla campaign into a civil war but it led to a victory by the organization in 1979. Ortegas regime also were the cause of many genocides which is a common trend of Communist dictators.
In 1984, he was elected the president of Nicaragua. Once into the elections for Nicaraguan President, he stopped being communist and set his focuses on election. When the time came for reelection in 1990, he was defeated by a man named Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. He was a representative of the National Opposition Union. In 1996 his term expired and Ortega ran for office again but was defeated for a second time by a conservative candidate named Arnoldo Aleman Lacayo. After his term expired, he ran again in 2001 but once again did not get a vote. During the campaign for 2007, he had gained enough support from the poor to make sure he won and he did.
During the first few months of his presidency, he kept his campaign promises of creating programs to eliminate hunger and illiteracy among the country's poor, keeping a free-trade agreement with the United States, and of making more jobs. After his first year in office, Ortega critics began to question him when he started restricting news coverage, journalist access to government reports. When it got closer to reelection again he removed the ban that had allowed a president to only serve one term. Ortega won reelection again but some claim there was election fraud.
In 1963, he went underground and became a member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front or what is reffered to as the (FSLN) and by 1967 he became the leader of this organization. But that same year he was arrested for playing a part in a bank robbery and ended up spending seven years in jail. Before they went to jail, Ortega had learned guerrilla warfare in Cuba from Fidel Castro. Himself and other members of the FSLN changed the guerrilla campaign into a civil war but it led to a victory by the organization in 1979. Ortegas regime also were the cause of many genocides which is a common trend of Communist dictators.
In 1984, he was elected the president of Nicaragua. Once into the elections for Nicaraguan President, he stopped being communist and set his focuses on election. When the time came for reelection in 1990, he was defeated by a man named Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. He was a representative of the National Opposition Union. In 1996 his term expired and Ortega ran for office again but was defeated for a second time by a conservative candidate named Arnoldo Aleman Lacayo. After his term expired, he ran again in 2001 but once again did not get a vote. During the campaign for 2007, he had gained enough support from the poor to make sure he won and he did.
During the first few months of his presidency, he kept his campaign promises of creating programs to eliminate hunger and illiteracy among the country's poor, keeping a free-trade agreement with the United States, and of making more jobs. After his first year in office, Ortega critics began to question him when he started restricting news coverage, journalist access to government reports. When it got closer to reelection again he removed the ban that had allowed a president to only serve one term. Ortega won reelection again but some claim there was election fraud.