Daniel Ortega
Daniel Ortega
José Daniel Ortega Saavedrais a Nicaraguan politician who has been President of Nicaragua since 2007; previously he was leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as Coordinator of the Junta of National Reconstructionand then as President. A leader in the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front, his policies in government have seen the implementation of leftist reforms across Nicaragua...
NationalityNicaraguan
ProfessionWorld Leader
Date of Birth11 November 1945
CityLa Libertad, Nicaragua
CountryNicaragua
The people of Nicaragua were suffering oppression. This made us develop an awareness which eventually led us to commit ourselves to the struggle against the domination of the capitalists of our country in collusion with the U.S. government, i.e. imperialism.
We had explored the possibility of the French sending us Mirage, and the French were willing; and when this became known, the Americans reacted by announcing publicly that they would not allow those armaments to enter Nicaragua and that they would bomb the Nicaraguan ports.
There was a conviction that the socialist cause was a just one, and so wherever there were struggles against colonialism, imperialism and neocolonialism, the Soviet Union would support those struggles and those causes, in the form of economic and military help. The economic assistance that the Soviet Union gave Nicaragua was invaluable.