Ortega on brink of power in Nicaragua, thanks to former enemies

LEON, Nicaragua — If you want to be a friend of Daniel Ortega, the once and perhaps future president of Nicaragua, it helps if you were once his enemy. An intimidating nom de guerre doesn't hurt.

"The Godfather," "Commander Bull's-Eye" and "the Alligator": To a man, they either fought in or backed the contra war that sought to overthrow Ortega's revolutionary Sandinista government in the 1980s. Now all three are working to get him elected president, 16 years after Nicaraguans voted the hero of the Central American left out of office.

"In the battle between realism and idealism, realism has won out," Jaime "the Godfather" Morales Carazo said, explaining why he and many other conservatives have joined the Sandinista camp.

Once the contras' top political negotiator, Morales lost his palatial home in Managua, the capital, when the Sandinistas expropriated it and gave it to Ortega, who still lives there. Morales now is Ortega's running mate in Sunday's presidential election.

Across Nicaragua, pictures of the graying Morales occupy billboards alongside portraits of Ortega, a 60-year-old with thinning black hair who bears a diminishing resemblance to the youthful rebel he once was. The Ortega-Morales ticket leads in all polls.

No one worries much anymore about communism or a Reaganesque counterrevolution. Instead, people wonder what Ortega stands for and if there's anyone he won't make a deal with.

"Ortega has turned his movement into a buffet lunch, and everyone is invited: conservatives and radicals, Sandinistas and anti-Sandinistas, pro-Americans and anti-Americans," said Emilio Alvarez Montalvan, a conservative former foreign minister.

Most observers in Nicaragua agree an economic crisis that has forced thousands of Nicaraguans to emigrate is feeding Ortega's lead in the polls. On the campaign trail, he's portrayed himself as the antidote to the conservative economic ideas backed by the country's past three presidents.

"We've had 16 years of these democratic governments, and what have they given us?" Ortega asked in Leon, 50 miles northwest of Managua. "They've turned us into beggars."

Unemployment is about 17 percent, and since 1990, 500,000 Nicaraguans have left in search of work in the United States and nearby countries.