Middle East File: Ortega swings by Libya after panhandling mission to Moscow; Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua discuss cooperation at Tehran ALBA ag fair

Following President Daniel Ortega's first "post"-Cold War mission to Moscow last week, Nicaragua's head of state swung by old ally Libya on Friday evening, the second such trip to Tripoli that Ortega has made since re-assuming the presidency in January 2007. There the long-time leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front conferred with long-time Libyan strongman Muammar al-Qaddafi, "Leader and Guide of the Libyan Revolution" since 1969. In the 1980s Qaddafi visited Managua in a show of solidarity with the first Sandinista regime. Envio Digital, a publication of the University of Central America that promotes liberation theology, notes that between his electoral defeat in 1990 and electoral "victory" in 2006, Ortega made "annual" visits to Tripoli. Both dictators, in turn, are staunch Soviet allies. Today Ortega is slated to depart for another staunch Soviet ally, Iran, which he also visited last year on an aircraft provided by Qaddafi.

Not surprisingly, the MSM is absolutely silent on Ortega's second visit to Libya and Iran in as many years, which will coincide with an agricultural fair in Tehran sponsored by Latin America's socialist bloc, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). Only the Libyan state media and FSLN website are covering Ortega's sidetrips to Tripoli and Tehran. "In his meeting with the Libyan leader," reports La Voz del Sandinismo:

Ortega stressed the importance of integration and cooperation among the countries of Latin America and Africa to the total breakdown of the capitalist economic system. He also stressed the significance of the recent summit of presidents and heads of state of Latin America and the Caribbean held in Brazil, where he met Fidel Castro's dream of seeing united in a single bloc all those nations.

The summit to which Ortega refers took place last week and actually featured meetings of four international organizations, the First Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development, the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), the new Union of South American Nations (Unasur), and the Rio Group.

Both Russia and Iran are seeking closer ties with ALBA, which consists of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Honduras, and three Caribbean island states. The compatibility between Iran's Islamic revolution and the Red Axis in Latin America was revealed in November when Tehran and Caracas teamed up to found the "University of Civilizations," a postsecondary program inculcating socialist principles at Venezuela's Bolivarian University.

Pictured here at left: Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, a center-left politician but not left enough for Nicaragua's past and present communist dictator Ortega.

Meanwhile, Nicaragua's membership in ALBA has the potential to complicate Ortega's temporary presidency over the Central American Integration System (SICA), which he was handed on December 5. "We need to go further than integration, toward a unification of the Central American region and from there toward a unification of Latin America and the Caribbean. We are already advancing in this direction with initiatives such as ALBA, where Central American countries are participating," Ortega urged his Central American colleagues during the SICA summit in Honduras. Nicaragua's Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations, Manuel Coronel Kauz, also reveals the true intent behind regional integration ala ALBA:

Our experience in ALBA is what makes us want to continue in relations that we are creating with other countries in the world, both bilaterally and regionally. In ALBA, we have found an element of solidarity that doesn't normally exist in relations with other countries. This has an enormous effect on relations because it creates great confidence. ALBA has two projects: One project is to create a platform of solidarity between the countries of ALBA; and the other is to expand the group of countries so that we can create our own OAS [Organization of American States], our own organization, and not be in an organization where the [US] empire is managing all the decisions. What we want is to be our own leaders.

Kauz also revealed that the neo-Sandinista regime hopes that El Salvador will be the next Central American country to join ALBA, assuming that front-running Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front candidate Maurico Funes wins the presidential elections in March. In previous posts we reported on the possible presence of FMLNistas among the Sandinista thugs who terrorized Nicaragua's opposition after the contested results of the November 9 mayoral elections.

However, Guatemalan President Colom is not convinced that joining ALBA is the right policy for his country. During the SICA summit in Honduras he declared: "We have been categorical. We are in PetroCaribe but not in ALBA." Costa Rica has also declined to join ALBA. Incidentally, Petrocaribe is another Caracas-led initiative providing subsidized oil to the Caribbean Basin's impoverished countries so Colom's attempt to hold Chavez at arms length is destined for failure.