EL UNIVERSAL

Venezuelan Government promises to aid presidential candidate for Sandinista Front Daniel Ortega, the favorite according to multiple opinion polls, continued fueling debate among major political parties just few days before presidential elections.
 
Ortega, who headed a leftwing government from 1985 to 1990, anticipated the electoral campaign that ended officially on Wednesday 1st. Last April 25th, he announced in Caracas an agreement entered into by Venezuela and some Nicaraguan mayoralties to purchase oil under preferential terms and conditions.

"I want him to win," President Hugo Chávez aired during that ceremony. His words sparked immediately criticism by the United States and Nicaraguan rightwing leaders.

Ten days later, and while finalizing the steps to organize Albanic, a joint venture set to receive and trade crude oil and by-products, Venezuela sent to Nicaragua the first shipment of 20,000 tons of fertilizer urea, at a cost of USD 2.2 million and given to an agricultural cooperative linked with political Sandinista Front party.

US Republican Representative Dan Burton, chairman of the International Relations Subcommittee, House of Representatives, arrived in Nicaragua the following week to warn that Washington was determined not to endorse "any external influence on the election."

"Some candidates are friends of those who share their points of view and have thousand million dollars," answered Burton when queried about the potential influence that Chávez, a stubborn adversary of US President George W. Bush, could exert on the electoral campaign.

His remarks were echoed by Thomas Shannon, US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. In Managua, Shannon condemned "the meddling putting money" in Ortega's campaign.

The United States reacted in this manner to the claims arisen in Nicaragua following the comments of Paul Trivelli, the talkative US ambassador who never hid his affinity for ex banker Eduardo Montealegre, the candidate of rightwing Alianza Liberal and ranking second in the intention to vote.

"The US' is interference indeed, our brother Hugo Chávez' is solidarity," Daniel Ortega fired back. Afterwards, his advisors recommended him to shut up, not to attend presidential debates and not to grant press interviews throughout his campaign.

In the 1980's, the United States backed more than 40,000 "contras" who rose up against the Sandinista revolution. They waged a war for almost 10 years, resulting in more than 50,000 casualties. While Chávez also did not talk again publicly about his Nicaraguan friends, the oil agreement came into force last October 7th, with the arrival of a tanker carrying 320,000 liters of diesel. In the absence of local buyers, the fuel had to be apportioned among mayoralties and transportation cooperatives.

A second shipment of 880,000 liters arrived two weeks later in Corinto port, on the Pacific Ocean. Unlike the prior shipment, Sandinistas rather saved it for after the election to prevent it from "igniting," a Sandinista deputy commented.

The Nicaraguan Government and other Ortega's rivals accused also Venezuela of funding his "mega-electioneering" of USD 6 million, according to independent reports.

"We are in the face of a Sandinista Front highly financed by Chávez' petrodollars," lamented Leonel Teller, the speaker of rightwing Liberal Party.

"When someone spends so much money is because somebody is giving it as a present. Therefore, the recipient gets a clear commitment to the donor," had said Herty Lewites, the deceased presidential candidate of dissident Movimiento Renovador Sandinista (MRS) who died of a heart attack in the middle of the electoral campaign.

Both Ortega and his capital city mayor Dionisio Marenco, now Vice-President of Albanic, claimed that the oil agreement with Caracas "will favor all of Nicaragua and represents a golden opportunity" to overcome the energy crisis in the nation.

In accordance with the agreement, Nicaraguan mayoralties can pay 60 percent of the oil value in a 60-day term upon receipt. The remaining 40 percent will be repaid over the next 23 years, with a two-year grace period and one-percent interest rate.  There is even the possibility of swapping the debt for agricultural goods.

After several weeks without speaking about it, Daniel Ortega announced that in the event of taking over, his first move would be to ask Chávez and Brazilian President Jose Inázio Lula da Silva to back large hydro-electrical and geothermal projects.

"We are the only ones who can solve the issue of blackouts, and we will do it right away with the cooperation of our Venezuelan fellows, with the Venezuelan oil, and with Brazilians' support and expertise," he asserted.

Economist Edmundo Jarquín, who succeeded Lewites as presidential candidate for MRS, expressed concern about the US reaction if a new government under Daniel Ortega were to ride on the Latin America "leftist wave."

"For us there is no good or band interference. Interference just cannot exist. We cannot let Nicaragua fall again into the center of such a geopolitical conflict as the one we underwent in the 1980's."

Translated by Conchita Delgado
cdelgado@eluniversal.com