MANAGUA/GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Two veterans of Cold War conflicts that ravaged Central America in the 1980s won elections in Nicaragua and Guatemala on Sunday, highlighting the heavy footprint the wars left on the region.

Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist revolutionary leader, won a second consecutive term as Nicaragua’s president by a landslide while hardline conservative and retired army general Otto Perez ended four years of leftist rule in Guatemala.

The victories for both Ortega and Perez had been widely expected, and underline the diverging paths the two largely agrarian nations have taken since the Cold War, whose ideological tensions forged a generation of politicians.

While Guatemala, supported initially by the United States, ruthlessly crushed leftist guerrillas in a 36-year civil war, Ortega’s left-wing Sandinista party survived a U.S.-backed rebellion in the 1980s only to be voted out in 1990.

The poorest country in Central America, Nicaragua has been relatively stable since then and it has progressed economically under Ortega, who rode out 16 years in opposition to recapture the presidency five years ago, resolving to combat poverty.

In wealthier Guatemala, wounds from the civil war still fester and its weak government has allowed brutal street gangs and Mexican drug cartels to run rampant. The country now boasts one of the highest murder rates in the Americas.

Slow progress has been made implementing Guatemala’s 1996 peace accords and rising violence has now brought an army man to power for the first time since democracy was returned in 1986, despite concerns about the army’s role in the conflict.

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – A retired right-wing general promising a crackdown on violent crime won Guatemala’s presidential election on Sunday and will be the first military man to take power since democracy was restored in 1986.

Otto Perez had 54.5 percent support with results in from 96 percent of polling stations while his rival, wealthy businessman Manuel Baldizon, trailed with 45.5 percent.

Guatemala’s electoral tribunal declared Perez the winner late on Sunday, and his supporters began celebrating.

It was a clear move to the right for Central America’s largest economy and came after leftist President Alvaro Colom failed to contain violent crime or protect the country from Mexican drug cartels using it as a key smuggling route.

Perez, 60, won the run-off election after promising that he would apply a “firm hand” by deploying troops on the streets and increasing the size of the police force.

Guatemala’s murder rate is about eight times that of the United States and many of the country’s 14.7 million people want a tougher stance on crime.

“There’s even extortion in the schools,” said housewife Elsa Guzman, 59. “I trust the army more. The army is not afraid to go out at night, but the police don’t even go out at night … that’s why we want a military man.”

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – A retired right-wing general promising to stamp out spiraling crime is favored to win power in Guatemala on Sunday, stirring up memories of its troubled years of military rule.

Supporters of the silver-haired Otto Perez, 60, believe he is the best candidate to tackle rising crime in the coffee- and sugar-exporting country, which has one of the highest murder rates in the Americas.

Although some fret about Perez’s military past and his role in a 36-year civil war, polls ahead of the presidential election on Sunday showed him well ahead of his centrist rival Manuel Baldizon, a businessman with a populist message to help the elderly and the poor.

Both Perez and Baldizon, 41, say they will boost security spending but Perez has made a promise of a “mano dura,” or “firm hand” against crime, his campaign slogan.

“Yes, we’re worried by his participation in the internal conflict, but now we’re worse off than ever. Just look at the violence,” said nurse Blanca Martinez, 48, speaking above the din of blaring campaign songs at Perez’s final rally.

Perez has pledged to cut the murder rate by half and expand the army and police force to fight incursions by brutal drug cartels from neighboring Mexico, as well as tackle the violent street gangs that wreak havoc in towns and cities.

He won 36 percent of the vote in a first round of voting in September, compared to Baldizon’s 23 percent.