Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, on a tour of Latin America, stopped in Nicaragua April 23, where President Daniel Ortega expressed his support for Tehran's nuclear program. "All countries should be allowed to access peaceful nuclear technology and this right is not just for some countries," Ortega said. "What my country is against is using nuclear energy for military purposes, like the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II." Without explicitly saying that the phrase came from Ortega, Iran's Press TV said the Nicaraguan leader called for lifting the state of "nuclear apartheid." (Press TV, April 23)

Preparing for a meeting with International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials April 30, Ortega said the line of credit Nicaragua is now seeking will be its last. "Within five years Nicaragua will be free from the fund," he pledged. "It is a blessing to be free of the fund, and for the fund it will be a relief to rid itself of a government that defends the interests of the poor." (Reuters, April 23)

We wish Danny the best in breaking free from the IMF, but we do wish he wouldn't confuse the issue with support for Iran's tyrannical regime or its supposed "right" to nuclear power. Nuclear development should appropriately be viewed not as a "right", but as a bad idea.

See our last posts on Iran, Nicaragua and Central America.