Daniel Ortega is quite the little tyrant. The source of the latest irritation from Managua is Ortega’s attempt to ban two minor political parties, dissident break-away factions of the Sandinista Party, and bar them from participating in November’s municipal elections. At first he faced a hunger strike by a former guerrilla and heroine of the Sandinista Revolution Dora María Téllez. Now he faces Facebook Protests. Via the Miami Herald:
A new brand of subversive is being born in a country with a history of traditional guerrilla movements: clean-cut youths who wear Hollister shirts and conspire on Facebook.
The cyber-revolution was inspired by a hunger strike launched this month by 1970s rebel leader Dora María Téllez, of Nicaragua’s old-school revolutionary left, to protest what she calls the ”dictatorial intentions” of President Daniel Ortega’s government. At issue is a ruling by the Supreme Electoral Council to eliminate two minority political parties in the November municipal elections.
A small and unlikely group of students from well-to-do Managua families showed their solidarity through the simple gesture of forming a Facebook group called ”We Support Dora María Téllez.” Within a week, more than 1,200 people had joined the Internet group, and the movement began to show signs of transcending the confines of cyberspace in a nation where citizens can vote at age 16.
The Facebook group posted daily Internet messages calling on its members to show up for nightly demonstrations at Téllez’s protest camp at the main traffic roundabout in downtown Managua.
A bit of a hypocrite, Daniel, or just another tyrant?