The Sandinistas' iconic red and black bands encircle trees and poles all along the roads of Nicaragua. The party, known as #2, for its position on the ballot, is currently Nicaragua's ruling party while President Daniel Ortega remains in office. When riding along any road in the country, the red and black Sandinista stripes pop along constantly.
The party was founded in the early 1960s, as a Marxist-Leninist alternative to the long reign of the Samoza family. The Sandinistas presented themselves as a revolutionary alternative to what they characterized as oppression by the Samoza regime.
As I wandered with two of my sons through Nicaragua's cemetery in Granada, passing long rows of graves of so many young men and teenaged boys who died in forced military service for the Sandinistas' cause in a fight in the 1980s between Granada and Leon, it's hard not to wonder about what kind of mark the Sandinistas really make.
