New York Daily News

Blaz will chill with social org

- Jillian Jorgensen

MAYOR DE BLASIO planned to kick it with his comrades Friday night — attending a reunion of a group whose humanitari­an work helped the Sandinista­s in Nicaragua.

Hizzoner will attend a staff reunion for the Quixote Center in Maryland — a left-wing social justice group founded by Catholic leaders.

De Blasio worked for the organizati­on in the late ’80s, and, like its leaders, was deeply critical of the U.S. involvemen­t in Nicaragua, where it propped up the Contras in their fight against the leftwing Sandinista­s. He later traveled to Nicaragua in 1988, and was involved in the Nicaragua Solidarity Network, which raised money for the Sandinista party.

“The Mayor remains committed to the highest ideals of the Sandinista­s, such as expanded access to education and health care. He is not blind to their faults,” Seth Stein, a de Blasio spokesman, told the News.

De Blasio’s support for the Sandinista s became a flash point in his 2013 bid for mayor. But he defended his work with the Quixote Center, saying at the time that the U.S. action there was wrong.

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