TheUS Embassy in Nicaragua has sent out a press release announcing that, since December 2006, the cable company Estesa has been carrying Voice of America TV programming on channel 71. The same company already carries Telesur, the TV channel backed by President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, a close ally of Fidel Castro. The new President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, has pledged to maintain close relations with both the US and the leftist governments of Cuba and Venezuela. In the 1980’s, the US backed a guerilla war against Orrtega’s Sandinista government, but is now a major investment partner in Nicaragua.
