United States: “In Nicaragua, there is a despicable campaign to criminalize peaceful opposition”

The United States on Saturday called the wave of arrests against several opposition political leaders in Nicaragua, including seven presidential candidates, a “despicable campaign” for the elections during which the president of the country, the Sandinista Daniel Ortega, in power since 2007, will seek a new re-election.

On her Twitter account, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the US Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Julie Chung, reacted the arrest of Nicaraguan opposition presidential candidate Noel Vidaurre and political commentator Jaime Arellano, placed in police custody this Saturday to be investigated for alleged treason.

“The day Nicaraguan voters are co

Confirming their registration (citizen verification of the electoral list), “President Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo”, arrest two other political opponents “, criticized the American official.

“Presidential candidate Noel Vidaurre and journalist Jaime Arellano are just the victims of a despicable campaign to criminalize the peaceful opposition” in Nicaragua, he said.

Nicaraguan police, led by Francisco Díaz, a brother-in-law of Ortega, said they had opened an investigation against Vidaurre, the opposition presidential candidate Citizens for Freedom Alliance (CxL), and against Arellano, and that “both remain in their houses of residence, in police custody”.

CATALOG AS “TRAITORS TO THE COUNTRY”

Vidaurre and Arellano are the subject of an investigation by the National Police, which cited the law for the defense of the rights of the people to independence, sovereignty and self-determination for peace, urgently approved by the National Assembly, with a Sandinista majority, last December.

This controversial law, promoted by the Executive, lists “traitors to the country” and disqualifies them from running for public office.

As part of the electoral process, The Nicaraguan regime has arrested opposition presidential candidates Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, Miguel Mora, Medardo Mairena and now Vidaurre, who are under investigation for alleged treason.

In addition, two former vice-chancellors, two former Sandinista dissident guerrillas, a business leader, a banker, a former first lady, five opposition leaders, two student leaders, two peasant leaders, a journalist, two former NGO workers and a driver from Cristiana Chamorro.

Meanwhile, law professor and constitutional lawyer María Asunción Moreno, whom the opposition Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy nominated as a presidential candidate, left her home two weeks ago after being summoned by the public prosecutor for an interview without specifying the cause. , felony, or injured and is reported missing.

While the former Contra leader Luis Fley, who was one of the 11 opposition presidential candidates, left Nicaragua and announced, from his exile, that for security reasons he decided to withdraw his aspirations.

The arrests of opposition leaders take place in preparation for the legislative elections of November 7 in which Ortega, a former Sandinista guerrilla who returned to power in 2007 after having presided over the country between 1979 and 1990 and reigning alongside his wife since 2017 , Vice President Rosario Murillo will stand for re-election for an additional five years.

With information from the EFE

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