Sandinistas Jettison Their Anti-Yankee Anthem

With a victory in upcoming presidential elections at least a possibility, leftist Sandinistas are scrapping a party anthem that vows to “fight against the Yankee, enemies of humanity.”

It is being replaced by Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy,” which Beethoven set to music in his Ninth Symphony.

The change was made official Friday night by Daniel Ortega, the Sandinistas’ secretary-general and presidential candidate in the Oct. 20 elections. Ortega is gaining in the polls but still trails the conservative former mayor of Managua, Arnoldo Aleman.

The song swap is the latest sign that the Sandinistas are trying to change their pro-Marxist image.

The United States had a trade embargo against the Sandinista-run government for most of the 1980s, accusing it of spreading insurrection in Central America.

The anti-Yankee hymn opened and closed Sandinista gatherings in the 1970s and 1980s.

Many Sandinistas contended that the phrase referred only to some conservative U.S. politicians, and not Americans in general.

“That hymn belonged to another era,” Ortega said. “Now our hymn is ‘Ode to Joy,’ because it is the hymn that corresponds to the stage we are living in.”