The Times of London has a don’t-miss article about Daniel Ortega’s signature movement now turning on him, as they see the Nicaraguan leader moving away from populist and toward dictator as their impoverished country pays the price:

“Carlos Fernando Chamorro, a former editor of the Sandinista party newspaper Barricada, is one of many one-time allies who accuse Mr Ortega of pillaging public funds, oppressing critics and stealing elections as, they say, he comes to resemble the dictators he once despised.

Mr Chamorro, a leading journalist, says that he was accused of being a drug trafficker and a robber of peasant lands, and last year the Government launched a money-laundering inquiry against him even though prosecutors admitted that they had no evidence.

‘It is a message … that those who try and enter on to this ground of investigation of power will find serious consequences,’ he told The Times. ‘Ortega is a revolutionary leader who became a traditional caudillo.’

Other dissidents have been accused of being traitors and CIA agents — a dangerous label in a country still menaced by the memory of the US-backed Contras. Enrique Sáenz, the president of the breakaway Sandinista Renovation Movement, has seen his car set alight by Ortega supporters, and party buildings attacked. ‘They treat us like enemies,’ he told The Times.”