Nicaraguan exiles see vote as step on Ortega’s road to dictatorship

Many Nicaraguans, including the ruling couple's estranged daughter, see unhappy parallels with the fight against Somoza half a century ago

As her childhood home was used to plot one of the 20th century's most storied revolutions, Zoilamerica Ortega Murillo told playmates she was Guatemalan - lest the neighbours detect the very Nicaraguan conspiracy unfolding next door.

The little friends I used to play ball with came in to drink water once and wandered into the room where the guns were kept," said the 54-year-old sociologist as she stood outside the peach-coloured villa where she lived as a nine-year-old girl.