Two ghosts from the Cold War returned to haunt Central America this weekend. Or so some believe.

In Nicaragua, Sunday’s re-election of Daniel Ortega as president has stirred memories of the country’s 1980s civil war, which pitted Mr Ortega’s Cuban-supported Sandanistas against the US-supported Contras. Meanwhile, in Guatemala, the election of Otto Pérez Molina, a retired general from the other side of the ideological divide, is a chilling reminder of the country’s 1960-1996 civil war, which saw over 200,000 people killed or disappeared. Read more