Humberto Mendez Prince/Staff Writer
For anyone who’s been following the presidential race, it’s no surprise that Senator Bernie Sanders has skeletons in his closet. After all, the resurfacing of Sanders’ controversial comments on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, along with letters addressed to notorious left-wing leader Daniel Ortega is all the media have been reporting in these past weeks. If young voters feel inclined to give him their vote because of a few social policies or because they don’t like President Trump, they should at least know the facts about his past.
Back in the 80’s during the Sandinista takeover in Nicaragua, Sanders was very vocal about his support of Ortega’s nationalist liberation forces. The notorious, 11-year armed conflict left behind thousands of Nicaraguan casualties, including farmers, natives and other citizens.
After the Sandinistas took over the territory, Sanders continued supporting the central American country, sustaining that the U.S. should not meddle in Nicaraguan affairs. He even took it upon himself to share correspondence with important figures of the communist regime. In his letters to the group, he sympathized with generals of the Nicaraguan armed forces, condemning the U.S. government’s decision to interfere with international policies.
Unhappy with then-President Ronald Reagan’s decisions on foreign policy, Sanders scheduled a trip to Nicaragua where he met Ortega. The decision to write to a communist group who called themselves revolutionaries was one thing, but to go to Nicaragua and pay a visit to the leader of this organization just exhibits Mr. Sander’s ideologies toward communist regimes and his hypothetical approach to the United States’ external relations if he were to win the presidency.
It’s not the first time Mr. Sanders has either expressed his support for communist regimes or simply abstained to comment concretely about a dictatorial regime.
Perhaps another factor that reinforced his political views was the trip he made to the Soviet Union for his honeymoon back in 1988. In the middle of it all, he met with a couple of government officials, shook hands with some Soviet figures of state and exchanged views about U.S. international policy with other political figures.
With all this in mind, it’s obvious that Sanders’ policies are heavily influenced by his past experiences in these countries; free housing, a free market and “eliminating” the external debt will bring an array of problems in the social and economic sector for Americans.
It’s gotten to the point where Sanders’ views are so tilted to the left that it’s almost absurd that he still considers himself a Democrat and not a passive communist.
Prior to his comments about Castro, Sanders’ popularity with the Hispanic community in Miami wasn’t particularly high, especially among Cubans and Venezuelans who think his ideals resemble the ones Communist leaders have implemented in their home-countries. The “60 minutes” interview debacle will only alienate Hispanic voters further.
If the Democratic Party wants to beat President Trump in the upcoming elections, Sanders unfortunately is not going to make the cut. His past allegations of communist affairs, his indifference toward conflicts in communist nations, his divisive policies and now the controversial comments on Castro’s regime make him the least suitable candidate to get the nomination.
Featured photo by Gage Skidmore on Flickr.
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