South America, of course. Here is the first sentence of a news (not comment) article reporting Daniel Ortega’s victory in Nicaragua’s presidential elections: “The former revolutionary and friend of communist dictator Fidel Castro and Venezuelan populist Hugo Chavez won Sunday’s presidential elections.” As I mentioned before, no such discussion of politics in this newspaper can be complete without the demonising of Castro. The article is so hilariously prejudiced it is worth quoting at some length:

Yesterday in Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, the worst nightmare of those who dream of the defeat of populists came true… The elections were won by a man who is the personification of demagoguery, opportunism and pandering to anything that might yield votes and popularity.

Yes, the parallells with Poland are striking, though unmentioned.

The article (signed by “MAS”) describes the Sandanistas’ contributions to Nicaragua after their overthrow of Somoza in 1979: universal education and social care and the nationalisation and dividing up of private fortunes. Pretty awful, eh? Damned populists. The Sandinistas in some mysterious, unexplained way “?ci?gn?li” (brought upon themselves) the hostility of the USA who armed terrorists to fight in a “civil war.” Ortega, we are told, was president from 1984 to 1990, after which the country turned to the right and became plunged in corruption. Sandanistas (who were out of power, remember) were, it says here, enthusiastic participants in the sleaze.

See here for some explanation of just why Nicaragua is so poor.

Also in today’s GW is an article about the US vice-ambassador’s outrageous interference in national Polish politics. Giertych (minister of education) had the temerity to propose a debate on the civilian casualties in Iraq. This caused unease in Washington and, the American said, if it had happened in France or Germany the minister would have been sacked.

Conspicuous by its absence from the newspaper’s report on Ortega’s victory is mention of the following:

In Managua, U.S. Embassy spokesperson Kristin Stewart threatened economic sanctions in the event of an Ortega victory. She was joined by four Republican congressmen threatening Nicaraguan voters with a cut off of remittances from the United States. Rep. Tancredo, (R-CO) issued his threat in a letter to Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the U.S. while Rep. Rohrabacher, (R-CA) wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking him “to prepare in accordance with U.S. law, contingency plans to block any further money remittances from being sent to Nicaragua in the event that the FSLN enters government.” Rep. Royce, (R-CA) and Rep. Hoekstra (R-MI) wrote a similar letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The BBC also mentions the US threats to the people of Nicaragua.