Nicaragua has signed contracts with Iran worth hundreds of millions of pounds in defiance of warnings from the United States.

President Daniel Ortega brushed aside Washington's concerns by agreeing to trade bananas, coffee and meat in exchange for Iranian help with infrastructure projects.

Mr Ortega and Iran's energy minister, Hamid Chitchian, signed the accords in Nicaragua's capital, Managua, on Saturday, cementing Tehran's toehold in what the US considers its backyard.

In return for Nicaraguan agricultural goods, Iran is to help fund a farm equipment factory, 4,000 tractors, five milk-processing plants, a health clinic, 10,000 houses and a deep-water port.

In November Iran is also expected to choose a site for a £59m hydroelectric power station, with another three plants potentially to follow. As the head of a small, impoverished central American state lacking military might, and with his approval ratings slumping, Mr Ortega hardly poses a strategic threat to the US.
However, the Sandinista leader has shown a willingness to defy and irritate the superpower. He has upgraded ties with Cuba and North Korea, and in June visited Iran, Algeria, Libya and Cuba in a jet lent by Libya's Muammar Gadafy.

The Iranian deal was the boldest move yet. Just last week the US ambassador to Nicaragua, Paul Trivelli, made a typically blunt warning: "Iran can be a dangerous partner."

The Bush administration has labelled Tehran part of an "axis of evil" and expressed alarm over its nuclear programme and alleged support for Shia militias in Iraq.

Mr Ortega was also in Washington's bad books in the 1980s when he led a Marxist Sandinista government and fought a civil war against Contra rebels, who were sponsored by the US government under Ronald Reagan. A clandestine programme in which US administration officials sold weapons to Iran and illegally used the profits to fund the rebels became known as the Iran-Contra scandal.

Two decades later the Iranian link is boosting, not undermining, the Sandinistas. Mr Ortega badly needs the help. Ousted from power in 1990, he made an electoral comeback last year after ditching Marxism and embracing moderation.

However, his electoral honeymoon has evaporated amid continuing poverty, joblessness and electricity blackouts, with 57% of Nicaraguans complaining that he has failed to keep campaign promises, according to a June opinion poll. The Iran projects address some of those concerns.

Venezuela's radical left-wing president, Hugo Chávez, opened Latin America to Iran by signing multiple accords with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, including bilateral deals on oil, tractors and bicycles.

"The Chávez-Ahmadinejad relationship is what drives Iran's role in Latin America, which is fundamentally geopolitical rather than economic," said Michael Shifter, of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue thinktank.

Mr Chávez has billed the accords as an "axis of unity" against the US, which he terms the "empire", and has encouraged allies such as Mr Ortega to follow suit.
Nicaragua defies US with Iran trade deal | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

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The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. United State Constitution, Art. I Sec. 9 Par. 2

"Dissent is the Highest form of Patriotism" -- Howard Zinn

I say bravo. One man stands against the dictator, Bush. Why should the USA dictate trade between Iran and anyone, or Nicaragua and anyone. Why should we have a trade embargo against Cuba, Rediculous bullshit, I say.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

If it talks like a communist, walks like a communist and smells like a communist ... Golly, Gee ... it must be a communist.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

............If it talks like an asshole, walks like an asshole, and smells like an asshole, ... Golly Gee ... it must be an asshole

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

The US is concerned for two reasons only:

1.) the goods that are now bound for Iran would have been bound for the US,taking food and other items away from US consumers ( less food to go around ).

2.) The US corperations that run our government won't make any money if they can't be the ones to deliver the goods to market.

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Buds,Buds, and more Buds: Purps + White Russian

Number one isn't much of a problem, the United States has some of the best agriculture in the world.... We can grow the food that we need to go around.

It all boils down to number two.

__________________
The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. United State Constitution, Art. I Sec. 9 Par. 2

"Dissent is the Highest form of Patriotism" -- Howard Zinn