The U.S. Embassy in Managua removed all nonessential personnel and family members from Nicaragua on Monday after five days of violent clashes between antigovernment protestors and dictator Daniel Ortega’s enforcers. The trouble may not be over.
Mr. Ortega is the Sandinista revolutionary who first came to power in 1979 with Soviet and Cuban backing. During more than a decade of rule, he and his comrades grabbed millions of dollars in private property and homes. This cleanup—known as “the piñata”—by self-described champions...