What kind of pragmatism?
There remains the even more critical task of defining Ortega’s relations with the United States. Washington did everything possible to avoid the election of Ortega, and now has received his triumph with hostility. Those who advise Bush on Nicaraguan affairs belong to the generation of politicians who handled the Contra war under the Reagan administration, and they have remained locked in their vision of the 1980s in such a way that reconciliation will not be at all easy. By the same token, neither Ortega’s old anti-imperialist discourse nor his close relations with Chávez – who is likely to become a frequent guest in Nicaragua – will be of much use to him in this respect. Ortega always argued against the free-trade agreement with the United States and in favour of Alternativa Bolivariana por Nuestra América (Alba), Chávez’s project for Latin American economic integration. But Alba is barely a proposal, with no defined mechanisms and few partners, while the free-trade treaty with the US
