Well, even a broken clock is right twice a day, as the old saying goes.

Sen. Marco Rubio on Sunday blasted the Nicaraguan government for its lethal crackdown on protests, cautioning that “the possibility of a civil war in Nicaragua is real.”

The Florida Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that an escalation of the country’s months-long crisis “would trigger a migratory crisis. It would undermine our anti-drug efforts in the region. There is a direct national security interest for the United States in seeing democracy and stability in Nicaragua.”

Tens of thousands of protesters have convulsed the Central American nation since April. Led by students, protests have railed against social security overhauls and President Daniel Ortega’s increasingly authoritarian rule. Nearly 300 people have died.

The U.N. warned last week of human rights violations by the paramilitary forces Ortega has used against protesters.

The onetime leftist Sandinista revolutionary led Nicaragua in the 1980s after the toppling of the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship. Since returning to power in 2007, Ortega has consolidated power, done away with term limits and elevated his widely reviled wife, Rosario Murillo, to the vice presidency as a possible successor.

I’d agree that Nicaragua is increasingly moving towards the brink of civil war and that needs to be halted before all hell breaks loose - the last thing anyone needs is a destabilizing conflict in Central America and all that entails.

politico.com