Nicaragua's leftist President-elect Daniel Ortega promised on Wednesday the United States and business leaders scared of his Marxist revolutionary past that he will not push for radical economic reforms. Ortega, who led Nicaragua through a bitter civil war with U.S.-backed Contra rebels in the 1980s, returned to power in Sunday's presidential election, 16 years after voters threw out his left-wing Sandinista government. Washington worries Ortega will join a bloc of radical leaders in Latin America headed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and some in Nicaragua fear he could spark a new confrontation with the United States. | "I am not contemplating dramatic, radical changes in the economy, which has stabilized in recent years," he said. |
In the 1980s, the Sandinistas confiscated many businesses and lands. Combined with the fierce Contra rebellion and a U.S. economic blockade, the policies plunged coffee producer Nicaragua into chaos and wrecked ambitious anti-poverty plans.