Nicaragua’s Election

I must take exception to William Goodfellow’s mendacious account (“Others Await the Arias Cure,” Op-Ed Page, March 2) of the road to Nicaragua’s recent elections. It is so rife with error and untruth I’m not sure where to begin.

For instance, Goodfellow informs us that “standing for election before economic recovery turned out to be (President Daniel) Ortega’s biggest miscalculation.” Economic recovery? This is the same regime that drove the Nicaraguan economy into the ground with its 19th-Century Marxist theories.

Another salient deception is Goodfellow’s attempt to portray the Sandinista junta as being almost eager to hold elections, when in fact they had to be dragged into them kicking and screaming, while attempting to intimidate the opposition with their roving bands of thugs. It was not Sandinista integrity that guaranteed a fair election, but instead intense international scrutiny and the presence of Jimmy Carter and other independent election observers, coupled with the knowledge that the Soviet Union would no longer finance and arm their bankrupt revolution.

Let the battalion of Sandinista apologists camped out in Washington wail and moan over their heroes electoral thumping. Nicaragua, and the world, will be better off without K-mart Castros like Daniel Ortega who brutalize and impoverish their subjects.

MATTHEW J. CUNNINGHAM

Orange