Blame The Clash. Thanks to them recording an album called Sandinista! I became aware of the Nicaraguan revolution. In the eighties, I considered what happened in that country as the definitive response to the argument that all revolutions inevitably led to Stalinism. That in itself was an important step in my developing political awareness. I followed developments in the country avidly.

But sustained US efforts at destabilising the government led to economic hardship, and the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional lost popularity. In 1989, they lost the elections, and left power. Now former president Daniel Ortega seems set to hold the office once again.

This time, though, he is not the candidate of the FSLN alone. He has also been endorsed by the Partido Liberal Nacionalista. That’s right, the party of the dictator Anastasio Somoza, the dictator the Sandinista revolution overthrew. PLN chief Jaime Morales was two decades ago one of the leaders of the Contras.

What’s going on here, the article I've linked to doesn’t really explain. But that spinning sound you can here probably emanates from the tomb of Joe Strummer.