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I hear they are relatively stable now with a semi-functioning democracy. Do you know it is or not? I certainly hope so. If countries in Latin America can show that democracy means you can prosper then it would a great example. They are relatively stable, having had three elections in which the Sandinistas were rebuffed every time. However, bear in mind that everything communism touches turns to fecal matter (and it doesn't take long). With that in mind, Nicaragua's meager progress economically is to be compared with that of, say, Albania, or maybe Bulgaria. They need to overcome two persistent mentalities among the populace: peasant and socialist. That is, they need a middle class. For that, massive education is the key. That, and time. They are still very poor and have the unseemly gaps between rich and poor that communism so often successfully exploits. I hope they make it. Unfortunately, just as progress seemed most promising, hurricane Mitch hammered them back into the dark ages in 1998.