Nicaraguans Fight Over Who Owns a Powerful Hat (Time)

By TIM ROGERS - Time - 25 June 2008 - The ghosts of the past have an enduring power in Nicaragua, which is why the legendary nationalist guerrilla general Augusto Sandino has become the object of a political tug-of-war between the government and its naysayers. Sandino died in 1934, but his mantle — and iconic sombrero — has long been claimed by the Sandinista Front, which overthrew the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979. The Sandinistas, of course, are back in power under President Daniel Ortega, but a group of old-school Sandinista revolutionaries charge that Ortega has betrayed the movement's leftist principles — and they want Sandino (and his hat) back, to use as the symbol of their revived opposition movement.

Waving orange-and-yellow flags adorned with the famous outline of Sandino's iconic headgear — the most recognizable silhouette in Nicaragua — a group of left-wing protesters has taken to the streets, chanting old Sandinista slogans from the 1970s to rally others against what they claim is a return to dictatorship under Ortega. While the protest movement has grown quickly in recent weeks, fueled mostly by concerns over Nicaragua's deteriorating political and economic situation, it has also rekindled nostalgia for the old revolutionary symbols and songs that have since become propaganda tools for an unpopular government.

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