Nicaragua and USA back to future

The USA has “told Nicaragua to destroy Soviet-era anti-aircraft missiles,” it says here.

Over a decade and a half since the end of the Soviet-era, it’s interesting that Nicaragua’s arsenal of over one thousand SAM-7 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles should all of a sudden become such a red-button issue with the US State Department.

Perhaps not so strange, however, is that this renewed chest thumping should coincide with the recent re-election of Daniel Ortega as Nicaragua’s president. Ortega was, of course, the US’s Soviet-era bogeyman who led the Sandinista government in Nicaragua through the latter half of the 1980s.

The US has, since the September 11 2001 attacks, been pressing past Nicaraguan governments to destroy this arsenal, fearing that some of these could fall into the hands of terrorists. Hundreds have already been destroyed since 2004.

Ortega maintains, however, that the remaining missiles are required to balance the superior air power of Honduras and El Salvador.

And dare one suggest that Ortega also has regard for the stupendously superior air power of his historical foe, the USA ... ?