EYES ON ORTEGA - NY Post

REMEMBER the Dictator in Designer Glasses? That's what Daniel Ortega was called in 1985 after Page Six reported on the Nicaraguan strongman's shopping spree at Cohen's Fashion Optical at 60th and Lex. The Marxist Sandinista leader, here for the annual U.N. circus, arrived at the shop in a caravan of 12 limos and spent $3,385 on bullet-proof glasses with special polybicarbonate lenses, plus two pairs for his wife and three for his daughter. More than a year later, his wife was still dealing with the aftermath of the spending spree. In an interview with Vanity Fair, she said, "I had no idea how much a pair of glasses could cost. I had never been shopping in New York before." Now that Ortega has been re-elected president of Nicaragua, we look forward to chronicling his future consumerism.