Nicaragua: Last surviving founder of Sandinistas, Tomas Borge, dies

The last-surviving founder of Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), Tomás Borge, has died at the age of 81.

Costa Rica's Tico Times attributed his death to complications arising from chest surgery for lung disease, adding that he had been hospitalized in the Nicaraguan capital Managua since Apr. 6. 

The newspaper says Borge's death on Monday was announced by the wife of president Daniel Ortega and government spokeswoman, Rosario Murillo, who simultaneously told local Radio Ya and other radio stations: "With deep sorrow we are announcing the end of an earthly and fruitful life for the revolutionary commander."

More from GlobalPost: Daniel Ortega's cult of personality

"(Borge) is one of the dead who never die . . . He will always be with us in the Sandinista Front," she said in what was described as an emotional address.

Reuters says that Borge was a former guerilla fighter and considered one of the hardliners in Ortega's leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s.  After the 1979 revolution that toppled the US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza, he served as interior minister.

More from GlobalPost: What does it mean to be a leftist in Latin America?

In 1961 Borge founded the National Sandinista Liberation Front with Carlos Fonseca Amador and others, The Washington Post explains, saying that it was named after Augusto Cesar Sandino, who fought against U.S. military intervention in Nicaragua in the 1930s. Ortega joined the FSLN later and went on to become its leader.

The Guardian says that Borge was jailed twice under Somoza's regime, but has himself been accused of human rights violations, particularly by Miskito Indians on the Caribbean coast who say he orchestrated the displacement and killing of Miskitos suspected of anti-Sandinista activities.