Ex-gun runner a Nicaraguan presidential favorite

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, March 21 (Reuters) - A convicted arms smuggler and high-ranking revolutionary who battled U.S.-backed Contra rebels in the Cold War could soon be Nicaragua's next president -- and even win an approving nod from Washington.

Herty Lewites, who last year broke away from longtime Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega to run his own candidacy after a three-decade friendship broke down in acrimony, is one of the favorites ahead of Nicaragua's election in November.

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Polls show a close race between Lewites, Ortega and pro-business candidate Eduardo Montealegre, with the three showing roughly the same level of support in recent months.

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"Ortega is corrupt. I am the one rescuing the most important values of the Sandinistas," he said in an interview at his headquarters in a wealthy suburb of the capital Managua.

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