Daniel Ortega: The marathon man of Nicaraguan politics

I had travelled to Nicaragua with a vague promise of an interview with a legendary figure of the Cold War era.

He is a hero of the left, whose name some say should have long faded into the past. But Daniel Ortega, the leader of the Sandinista revolution, and thorn in America's side, is still alive and kicking - 16 years after being voted out of office.

Back in Washington, Ortega's wife Rosario, the power behind the throne, had assured me that he wanted to talk to the BBC.

Now in Managua, though, the doubts set in. It was proving hard to nail down a time or a place.

I had been told that Mr Ortega would be holding a political meeting on Saturday night. Now we were informed that it would happen in the morning.

The venue - one of Managua's more exclusive hotels, seemed a bit odd, too. It is hardly the choice of a self-proclaimed champion of the poor and man of the people.

"El Comandante"

I had been hoping more for a mass rally near a Managuan slum.

But, yes, there in this conference room of a four star hotel with its own casino, was "El Comandante" - the commander of the Sandinista revolution.

The military fatigues have been dispensed with long ago. The Marxist rhetoric has softened. A few of his supporters wore Che Guevara T-shirts, but there was little else to suggest this was a revolutionaries' meeting.

And there was still no sign that I would be getting the interview.

The one constant from the era of the revolution seemed to be the Sandinista love of long political discourse.

More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/5305442.stm