Jos Daniel Ortega Saavedra (Spanish pronunciation: [danjel otea]; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguan revolutionary and politician serving as President of Nicaragua since 2007. Previously, he was leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as coordinator of the Junta of National Reconstruction (19791985) and then as President of Nicaragua (19851990). After the retirement of Fidel Castro in 2008, Ortega is one of the longest-serving non-royal rulers in the world and the longest serving non-royal leader in the Americas.

In the 1984 Nicaraguan general election, Ortega won Nicaragua's presidential election as the FSLN's candidate. A MarxistLeninist, Ortega pursued a program of nationalization, land reform, wealth redistribution, and the Nicaraguan Literacy Campaign during his first period in office. A leader in the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Spanish: Frente Sandinista de Liberacin Nacional, FSLN), he implemented policies to achieve leftist reforms across Nicaragua. In later years, Ortega's previously left-wing radical politics moderated more and more, pursuing pro-business policies and even rapprochement with the Catholic Church, with the adoption of strong anti-abortion policies by his government in the 2000s, and adoption of strong religious rhetoric by the previously atheist Ortega.Marred by war and economic collapse, Ortega was defeated in the 1990 Nicaraguan general election by Violeta Chamorro. He continued to be an important figure in Nicaraguan opposition politics. Ortega was an unsuccessful candidate for president in 1996 and 2001 but won the 2006 Nicaraguan general election. In office, he made alliances with fellow Latin American socialists, such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez. Under Ortega's leadership, Nicaragua joined the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States reported that Ortega had engaged in a violent oppression campaign against protesters in response to the anti-Ortega 20182021 Nicaraguan protests. The violent crackdown during 2018 protests and subsequential decrease of civil liberties have led to massive waves of migration to Costa Rica, with over 30,000 Nicaraguans filing for asylum in that neighboring country.

The Sandinista National Liberation Front (Spanish: Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas [sandiˈnistas] in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the United States occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s.The FSLN overthrew Anastasio Somoza DeBayle in 1979, ending the Somoza dynasty, and established a revolutionary government in its place. Having seized power, the Sandinistas ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as part of a Junta of National Reconstruction. Following the resignation of centrist members from this Junta, the FSLN took exclusive power in March 1981. They instituted a policy of mass literacy, devoted significant resources to health care, and promoted gender equality but came under international criticism for human rights abuses, mass execution and oppression of indigenous peoples. A US-backed group, known as the Contras, was formed in 1981 to overthrow the Sandinista government and was funded and trained by the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1984 elections were held but were boycotted by some opposition parties. The FSLN won the majority of the votes, and those who opposed the Sandinistas won approximately a third of the seats. The civil war between the Contras and the government continued until 1989. After revising the constitution in 1987, and after years of fighting the Contras, the FSLN lost the 1990 election to Violeta Barrios de Chamorro but retained a plurality of seats in the legislature.

The FSLN is now Nicaragua's sole leading party. In the 2006 Nicaraguan general election, former FSLN President Daniel Ortega was reelected President of Nicaragua with 38.7% of the vote to 29% for his leading rival, bringing in the country's second Sandinista government after 17 years of other parties winning elections. Ortega and the FSLN were reelected in the presidential elections of 2011, 2016, and 2021.