In other news, the Bush administration is again being accused of interfering in Nicaragua’s national elections. Last week, State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack urged Nicaraguans to vote against presidential frontrunner Daniel Ortega, whom he called: “a former dictator.” Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Paul Trivelli convened a meeting of Nicaraguan politicians to form a coalition against Ortega’s candidacy. Ortega has been one of the leading figures of Nicaragua’s Sandinista movement. In the 1980s, the Sandinistas were the target of a decade-long economic and covert military warfare campaign after they overthrew the US-backed Somoza dictatorship. In previous elections, the US has funded Ortega’s opponents and accused his party of links to terrorism. Ortega was in Venezuela Tuesday where he spoke alongside Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: “Today the winds of hope, winds of joy, winds of victory, blow through Latin America and the Caribbean towards the building of a truly democratic Latin America.” Nicaragua’s presidential elections are scheduled for November.