One of the world??¢â???¬â???¢s most famous novelists made it clear he has not changed his favorable opinion of the former Marxist regime in Nicaragua. Questioned by John Gizzi in a Washington Post ??¢â???¬?????Bookworld??¢â???¬ chatroom about his 1987 novel, The Jaguar Smile, which characterized the Sandanista regime in glowing terms, Salmon Rushdie replied: ??¢â???¬?????I haven??¢â???¬â???¢t changed my mind about the Sandanistas of those days, the mid-1980??¢â???¬â???¢s, and my mind was rather more critical than you suggest.??¢â???¬
Gizzi countered with quotes from Rushdie about former President Daniel Ortega and his fellow Sandanistas, including the author??¢â???¬â???¢s conclusion: ??¢â???¬?????They struck me as men of integrity and great pragmatism, with an astonishing lack of bitterness toward their opponents, past and present.??¢â???¬ Rushdie retorted that ??¢â???¬?????it was plain to me that this was not a purely Marxist-Leninist regime. Some of the Sandanista directorate were Marxists ??¢â???¬ ¦ others were businessmen and intellectuals. It would have been easy to make Nicaragua an ally of the U.S; the decision to smash it instead was one I opposed then and still do.??¢â???¬
