Nicaraguan revolutionary Daniel Ortega’s first day as president was spent signing a socialist trade pact with allies Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba, and planning a meeting with Iran’s hard-line president, actions sure to irritate the U.S. government. Before taking office, Ortega assured Washington that he would maintain ties and remain part of the regional Central American Free Trade Agreement. But none of those promises were evident Thursday, during which he agreed to join Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA, designed to serve as a counterweight to a U.S. proposed, hemisphere-wide trade deal. Full Story