According to the most recent edition of the English language Nica Times of June 18, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega told Cuba's state television during an April 2009 visit that "he envied the communist island's single-party political system and dislikes democracy because it 'brings about division.' "
"Multi-party systems are nothing more than a form of disintegrating a nation and dividing the people, " Ortega reportedly told the TV station.
This came as part of a report by Nica Times staff writer Tim Rogers which claims that Sandinista government officials are coopting members of the opposition Liberal Constitutional Party, including the mayor of Granada, with funding for municipal governments.
The mayor, Eugolio Mejia, has denied that his alliance with the Sandinistas is "political" but that the city of Granada needs money, and since "I have to ask whoever has the money...that's the central government."
The report further claimed that "in Ciudad Sandino. . .the Sandinistas used the police and a questionable city council ruling to stage a virtual coup against dissident mayor Roberto Somoza, a Sandinista who refused to toe the party line." The report did not provide further details of that incident.
Meanwhile, the outgoing Canadian ambassador to Costa Rica told the Tico Times that passport thefts are increasing with 124 reported thefts of Canadian passports in the first three months of 2010, about a 20% increase over last year.
Tico Times staff writer Mike McDonald also wrote that "the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica replaces more lost or stolen passports than any other U.S. Embassy in the world." The embassy reportedly processed 1569 such cases in 2009.
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