Herty Lewites

Herty Lewites Rodríguez (December 24, 1939 – July 2, 2006) was a Nicaraguan politician of Jewish descent.

Lewites was born in the San Felipe barrio of Jinotepe, the son of a Jewish immigrant from Poland. He joined the struggle against the Somoza dictatorship in 1958 and went into exile in Brazil in 1960. Herty's brother, Israel Lewites, died in the attack on the Masaya barracks in October 1977 by the Tercerista Sandinista Front. Instead of fighting, Herty was apparently involved in financial matters and arms smuggling for the revolutionary movement.

During the period of Sandinista rule in the 1980s, Lewites was an ally of the powerful Ortega brothers. As Minister of Tourism, he promoted state development projects, such as the Montelimar beach resort in 1986 and the Olof Palme Convention Center in Managua. After leaving government, he built the "Hertylandia" private amusement park.

Lewites was elected to Congress on the FSLN ticket in 1990, the year Daniel Ortega lost the presidency. He aligned himself with Sergio Ramírez's Sandinista Renewal Movement (Movimiento Renovador Sandinista or "MRS") against the faction of Secretary General Ortega in 1994. He ran for mayor of Managua, the capital, in 1996 on his own "Sol" ticket, splitting the Sandinista vote to throw the election to the Liberal candidate. With the support of the FSLN "Business Bloc" led by Bayardo Arce, Lewites rejoined the mainline FSLN in 1998 and, with Ortega's blessing, won the Managua mayorship as a Sandinista in 2000.

Lewites opened Nicaragua's only amusement park, Hertylandia (named after himself), between Jinotepe and San Marcos.

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