Debate amid Nicaragua unrest: Was the revolution fulfilled, or betrayed?

Andrea, a 20-year-old student, slides her bright pink Sandinista Youth membership card across the table in a crowded café in central Managua on a recent afternoon. It features the face of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, and is emblazoned with the word “militant” in bright-yellow capital letters. Her picture, name, and address are on the back.

The card showed up in the mail unsolicited five years ago, but she was happy to claim membership. Growing up, she was taught about President Ortega’s role in the toppling of a dictator and his Sandinista movement's fight for equality and freedom. She was raised “a diehard loyalist” of Ortega, but, these days, she’s not sure what to do with her card.

When an independent youth movement – students angered by