Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
All the entries posted on October 02, 2006.
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Monday, October 2, 2006
Rumsfeld visits Nicaragua
More Nicaragua news: Donald Rumsfeld is in town, headlining the seventh annual conference of defense ministers of the Americas in Managua. It will be interesting to see whether he makes any comments about Nicaragua’s upcoming election and the possibility that Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega could return to power.
American officials like Ambassador Paul Trivelli and Congressman Dan Burton have come under fire in the Nicaraguan media for what is seen by many here as meddling in the country’s internal affairs. The U.S. is widely considered to be behind an effort to unite right-wing parties in Nicaragua to ensure that Ortega doesn’t win. Ortega leads the polls but not with enough support to avoid a second round of voting.
Permalink | | Categories: Central America
Nicaraguan pitcher captivates nation
I’m down in Nicaragua covering next month’s presidential election, so I figure that politics will be dominating the headlines. So, what’s the top story in this morning’s papers? The five-inning, rain-shortened no-hitter tossed by Boston Red Sox rookie Devern Hansack.
His performance brought screaming headlines and front-page pictures to Managua’s largest dailies, which complemented their coverage with features on Hansack’s family. Hansack is from a fascinating part of this baseball-mad country called the Autonomous Region of the South Atlantic, a largely empty, starkly beautiful area on the Caribbean coast.
The area is made up of a mix of descendants of African slaves and Miskito Indians, and English is the lingua franca along much of the coast. The region is highly inaccessible, except by boat and plane, and for many years was largely beyond the reach of the central government in Managua.
Part of the reason Hansack’s feat is a big story here is that it came out of nowhere – two weeks ago 28-year-old Hansack was playing double-a ball. But Nicaragua, where baseball is more popular than soccer, has also been starved for a big-time Major League Baseball star for years. It’s been awhile since favorite son Dennis Martinez dominated for the Expos, and current Nicaraguan star Vicente Padilla is not among baseball’s elite.
If Sunday’s outing wasn’t an aberration, Hansack could be the next big Nicaraguan star. And as a Boston Red Sox fan, for whom this season has been one giant disaster, I certainly hope so.
Permalink | | Categories: Central America