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On Wednesday afternoon, law enforcement captured a man suspected in a shooting incident near the White House. Police took 21-year-old Oscar Ortega into custody at a hotel near Indiana, Pa. Using information provided by the Secret Service, Pennsylvania State Police made the arrest at 12:35 p.m. [..]

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MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla leader, looks likely to win re-election on Sunday after heavy social spending won him strong support among the country's poor. Ortega has overseen a period of economic progress in his five years in power, backed by financial aid from his socialist ally in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez.

Back in February, weeks before NATO launched its Libyan bombing campaign but after the Tripoli regime had slaughtered hundreds of civilians, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega phoned Muammar Qaddafi multiple times to express his support. Speaking publicly, Ortega declared that the bloodstained despot was “waging a great battle.” Then, in late March, with the NATO war well underway, Qaddafi tapped former Nicaraguan foreign minister Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann (who served under Ortega’s Sandinista dictatorship during the 1980s) to be Libya’s new ambassador to the United Nations. So it wasn’t terribly surprising last month when WikiLeaks released a pair of U.S. diplomatic cables...

Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi is well known now for the abuses he has inflicted on his own people during more than four decades of brutal rule in Libya, but few remember the vast campaign of carnage and terrorism he orchestrated across West Africa and Europe when he was at the height of his powers. Nor are his more recent alliance with Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and his long-standing relationship with Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua -- both of whom are busy trampling their constitutions and moving toward dictatorship -- well understood. And the fact that all three governments support the Revolutionary Armed...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Nicaragua's leftist President Daniel Ortega says he has telephoned Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to express his solidarity. Ortega says he has called several times this week because Gadhafi "is again waging a great battle" to defend the unity of his nation. Human rights groups say more than 200 people have died as Libyan security forces crack down on protesters. Ortega has long been an ally of the Libyan leader, based in part on a shared distrust of the United States. Ortega says that "it's at difficult times that loyalty and resolve are put to the test."

21st Century SocialismThe attempt to destroy democracy in Latin America.  The Obama administration started out on the wrong foot in world affairs. It used techniques better suited for domestic political campaigns — popularity contests — in its foreign policy. In our own hemisphere, the result was confusion for our allies and our enemies alike. The overriding objective of U.S. policy — in Latin America and elsewhere — should be to advance U.S. national interests, not to curry favor with foreign leaders. If we can be liked while advancing our interests, so much the better. But when we try to befriend...

Will the Obama administration ever start standing up to the Latin axis of caudillos? Nicaragua invaded Costa Rica last month -- yet the State Department is all but AWOL. State is taking a carefully worded, almost neutral stand in the dispute between Costa Rica -- our ally, and the world's most pacifist country -- and Nicaragua, a key player in Hugo Chavez's group of Latin strongmen. Last month, Nicaragua sent troops into a jungle area at the mouth of the San Juan River, which has long been determined by mediators to be on Costa Rica's side of the border.

With the world distracted by currency fights, European debt problems, and other economic challenges, Nicaragua has quietly invaded and occupied the sovereign territory of Costa Rica. It is an act of naked aggression that deserves to be condemned and resisted by governments everywhere, yet most Americans have probably read little or nothing about it. Here’s a brief synopsis of what happened. At the direction of their government, Nicaraguans were dredging the San Juan River, which forms a section of their southern border with Costa Rica. They were doing so in a manner that was damaging many Costa Rican properties, which...

War arsenal seized in Boquete   la prensa This massive confiscation of weapons shows that the region continues to be a bridge for the transfer of weapons.   A ton and a half of military weapons was confiscated yesterday morning in what is being considered the largest seizure executed in the country.  The bust took place in the El Francés sector of the district of Boquete, where police uncovered the weapons in a private residence, whose occupant is a sociology professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí.  Experts estimate that the arsenal, which may have originated from Central America, is...

With U.S. policymakers distracted by the situation in Honduras, Nicaragua continues to move toward authoritarianism. On October 19, a Nicaraguan Supreme Court panel overturned a constitutional provision limiting presidents to two non-consecutive terms in office. The ruling will allow incumbent Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega--the Sandinista party leader, former Soviet client, vociferous critic of the United States, and current Hugo Chávez acolyte--to run for another term in 2011. If there were any doubts that Nicaraguan democracy is slowly being extinguished, this latest development should remove them. The Nicaraguan Supreme Court is composed of 16 members. Thanks to a political deal made...

Around 50,000 people took to the streets of the Nicaraguan capital Managua to protest against President Daniel Ortega's plans to seek reelection. Last month, the Supreme Court revoked a constitutional clause prohibiting presidential candidates running for office consecutively and banning presidents from serving more than two terms. The ruling allows the Daniel Ortega to run for a third term in office in the 2011 elections. After a popular revolution overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, Mr Ortega joined a five-member junta of national reconciliation. He won the 1984 elections and served as president from January 1985 until 1990. He lost...

Little attention has been paid recently to Nicaragua. "Only right," you may well respond. "After all, that tiny, troubled country in Central America became only relatively important when the Marxist Sandinistas took over in 1979 -- becoming temporarily the 'second Cuba' in the hemisphere." But recently, despite the dearth of news coverage, Nicaragua has become pivotal again. Recent events there confirm that there is indeed a new pattern emerging in the hemisphere that is certainly cause for alarm.

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega (R) and his wife Rosario Murillo gesture during a meeting in Managua October 20, 2009. REUTERS/Cesar Perez/Nicaragua Presidency/Handout WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday expressed concern about a Nicaraguan court ruling that opens the way for leftist President Daniel Ortega to seek re-election in the 2011 election. Nicaragua's Supreme Court on Monday issued a ruling that helped to clear the way for Ortega to run for another term, following a petition from him and a group of mayors last week. The country's electoral court said it would comply with the ruling. The U.S. State...

"Obama doesn't know what he's doing!" snapped Honduran foreign minister Enrique Ortez this July, 4. "He doesn't know anything about anything!" continued Ortez. "He probably can't even find Tegucigalpa on a map."   The U.S. was then (as now) denouncing the democratic Honduran government's actions to uphold their constitution and thwart a Chavez/Castro satrap hell-bent on converting their nation into a client narco-state for Hugo Chavez. Honduras' Supreme Court voted unanimously to oust Zelaya, and her legislature voted the 125- 5 for same. The five contrarian legislators belong to Honduras' Communist party, long known for dutifully carrying water for papa Fidel....

A few weeks ago, at a public celebration to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista revolution, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega moved one step closer to creating an autocracy. Speaking to a large crowd, Ortega called for changing the Nicaraguan constitution to allow his own reelection. Under current law, Nicaraguan presidents are prohibited from serving consecutive terms and are limited to two five-year terms overall. In order to be "just and fair," said Ortega, whose term ends in 2012, the country should amend its constitution to let presidents seek reelection. His timing was impeccable. The ongoing political crisis in...

It's good, occasionally, to take a trip down memory lane. It helps to put things into perspective. Hugo Chavez ought never to have been elected president. By rights, he ought to be growing old in a jail cell somewhere. Well, it's been seventeen years, maybe he’d be in a half-way house by now. As an army officer in 1992, he led a military revolt against the legal, constitutional government of Venezuela, and attempted to overthrow the democratically elected president of the time, Carlos Andres Perez. He gambled that once the shooting started, the minister of defense and the rest of...

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA -- While the second round of dialogue (regarding Honduras) ended without an accord in Costa Rica, the deposed president of Honduras, Manual Zelaya, announced he has begun organizing resistance to the new Honduran government after the failure of negotiations in San Joe, while the mediator of the crisis (Oscar Arias) asked for more time to avoid a civil war in Honduras. "As of now, we have begun to do everything to organize the internal resistance so I can return to the county," Zelaya said in a press conference in Managua. The former president made these declaration just hours...

MANAGUA, July 19 (Reuters) - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former guerrilla fighter, said on Sunday his country should extend presidential term limits after neighboring Honduras toppled its leftist president in a coup over the same issue. Ortega, a U.S. foe during the Cold War, first ruled Nicaragua after taking power in a 1979 Marxist revolution.

Edén Pastora threatened to attack Honduras According to the former military, the Honduran conflict could only be resolved by guns. 18.07.09 - Updated: 18.07.09 06:56 pm - Writing: redaccion@elheraldo.hn Tegucigalpa, Honduras . Former Nicaraguan guerrilla Eden Pastora, threatened to take up arms if there is no agreement in Costa Rica on the return of Manuel Zelaya as president. Pastora, a former Sandinista commander, is known for having led the command that took the National Palace, in the late 70s, during the Somoza dictatorship. See the biography of Eden Pastora According to El Universal of Venezuela, "Commander Zero," he told the...