By Diego Oré

(Reuters) – Daniel Ortega’s defeat to Violeta Chamorro in Nicaragua’s 1990 presidential elections left a lasting impression on the leftist leader. His opponents claim he now wants to keep power, despite having struggled for 16 years to win the presidency.

The past years have proven this to be true. The former Marxist guerrilla used the police and paramilitary force to subdue the protestors in April 2018.

The crackdown resulted in more than 300 deaths and thousands of injuries.

Ortega and Rosario Murillo were again able to hold power for three more years. They imprisoned many of their opponents including seven potential presidential candidates.

American and European Union officials have stated that they are not expecting Sunday’s free and fair election.

Tiziano Brda, an analyst with the International Crisis Group think-tank said: “Daniel Ortega & Rosario Murillo have set out to dispel any doubts as to their power.”

Murillo is the same government spokesperson and did not reply to a Reuters inquiry for comment.

Ortega is expected to continue as Nicaragua’s leader, even though he has been in power twice since 2007, when he was elected president.

Murillo was his constant companion, whom he wed in 2005 and who became Vice President in 2017. This poet, aged 70 years old, is now one of the most prominent and well-known figures in Nicaragua. Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest nation in America.

Murillo, who is rarely seen in public with Ortega, has been the face and voice of the government. Murillo appears on television and radio stations controlled by her family daily to promote the government’s achievements and criticize political opponents. Both women do not talk about the reasons they want to be reelected.

CROSSED PATHS

Ortega was born November 11, 1945. His family is middle-class and opposed to dictator AnastasioSomoza’s regime.

He left university in 1963 to join the Sandinista National Liberation Front, a leftist group. Ortega, then 22, was arrested for bank robbery in 1967. He spent seven years behind bars before being released by the Somoza government in exchange for his time in prison.

Murillo comes from Nicaragua’s elite. She was born in 1951 into a family that grew cotton. Her maternal line includes General Augusto Sandino of Nicaragua, who is a revolutionary from Nicaragua and gave his name as the FSLN.

Murillo, aged 18, joined FSLN to fight Somoza after studying in Britain.

In Managua, Murillo not only read poetry but also concealed guerrilla fighters. Murillo was temporarily imprisoned under the Somoza regime. She then fled to Costa Rica, where she fell in love with Ortega.

Ortega and Murillo went back to Managua in 1979 to aid the Sandinistas to overthrow Somoza. Somoza was the last dictatorial family-dynasty that had been U.S.-supported. Since then, the couple has had seven children.

Fabian Medina (author of “Prisoner198” a biography about Ortega) said, “They are both different, but they complement each other.”

Ortega is passive and introverted. His years spent in jail and fighting in the Sandinista Front’s guerrilla wars have backed him. But, Ortega has zero compassion for others. Murillo, who is outgoing, impetuous and vindictive, has inexhaustible energie.

Murillo, a well-known hippie who wears extravagantly floral outfits in a hippie style, and uses religious language to support her beliefs, will succeed Ortega. Diplomats and analysts have been claiming for years that Ortega has suffered from poor health.

LEFTIST HERO

Ortega was the head of the junta that governed Nicaragua following the overthrow of Somoza in 1981. This was his first real experience with power. The country had its first democratic elections for almost 50 years in 1984, which Ortega won with a huge margin. International observers deemed the election credible and free.

Washington was against a Marxist government and supported the funding of the right-wing “Contras,” armed rebels trying to take over the FSLN. The Sandinistas and Ortega became heroes of the left. Many people saw them as plucky David fighting against the U.S. Goliath.

However, the Contra war along with Washington’s economic embargo against Nicaraguan and Sandinistas’ mismanagement decimated the economy. Ortega lost his popularity which led to Ortega’s defeat at the 1990 Presidential elections. The presidency was not further contested.

In 1998, Ortega suffered a serious blow to her reputation when Zoilamerica Ortega Murillo (Murillo’s daughter) accused Ortega, a former wife, of sexually abusing Murillo since Ortega was just 11. Murillo called Murillo’s daughter “madwoman”, “liar” or “traitor.” Ortega has not spoken out publicly about this subject.

Ortega avoided the scandal, and was again elected president in 2006. Many people who knew Ortega and the couple said that something had changed.

Zoilamerica said earlier in the year that they could not survive without political power.