After imprisoning dozens of opponents, Daniel Ortega confirmed he will go for his third re-election in Nicaragua

The Sovereign’s Congress Front Sandinista (FSLN, left) from Nicaragua unanimously approved on Monday the candidacy for the presidential re-election of Daniel ortega, for fourth consecutive term in the November elections with his wife, the vice-president Rosario Murillo.

“We have our formula, our candidates elected in this congress unanimously”, Ortega and Murillo, announced the Sandinista activist Gustavo Porras placeholder image, during the FSLN congress.

The presidential couple was ratified by the 2,932 members present at the Sandinista Congress, the highest consultative body of the FSLN, in a virtual session held in Managua, a few hours after the deadline for registering candidates before the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE).

Ortega, 75, who has governed Nicaragua for 2007 after two successive re-elections that the opposition described as “fraudulent», Will seek to settle in power until 2027, with Murillo, 70 years old and who has supported him as vice-president since 2017.

Ortega and Murillo’s candidacy for re-election was launched after police arrest seven possible candidates for the presidency of the opposition, between them Christian Chamorro, daughter of the former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997) and who was the favorite in the polls to face Ortega. The Sandinista regime has imprisoned around 30 people in recent months.

The Sandinista congress also validated the appointment of the 92 owner deputies Yes substitutes of the FSLN for the National Assembly and 20 for the Central American Parliament.

A former guerrilla and a former beauty queen will be one of the formulas of opposition

The former guerrilla of the so-called “Against” Oscar Sobalvarro and former beauty queen Bérénice Quezada were recorded on Monday before Nicaragua’s main electoral body as the presidential formula of the opposition bloc Alianza Ciudadanos por la Libertad (CxL, right) for the November 7 elections.

The two candidates were the first to formalize their registration with the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) in the company of the legal representative of the group, Kitty Monterrey.

“We are carrying out an activity on the electoral calendar which is the registration of candidates”Sobalvarro said as he left the CSE headquarters in Managua, guarded by police officers amid the tension derived from the conflicting political situation between the regime of Daniel Ortega and the opposition.

Sobalvarro, 68 years old and says “commander RubénHe is a former leader of the late counterrevolution that the United States funded against the Sandinista revolution in the 1980s. He is also the first vice-president of CxL.

The Sobalvarro-Quezada formula was surprisingly chosen by this force on July 28, after the regime ordered police to arrest most of its top presidential candidates, accusing them of “undermining sovereignty” and other crimes.

Sobalvarro demanded the cessation of “seat and the repression“Against opponents so that the electoral campaign runs smoothly.

For his part, Quezada, a 27-year-old model with no political training who won the Miss Nicaragua contest in 2017, he demanded that the dictatorship release “political prisoners”.

“In Nicaragua, the conditions are set by the people by going to vote as they did.“In the anti-government protests in 2018. “I want Nicaragua to be free”said Quezada, a graduate in tourism administration.

CxL presidential candidates arrested include academic and former ambassador to the United States Arturo cruz, the Economist Juan Sebastian Chamorro and the curator Christmas Vidaurre.

He is also under house arrest Christian Chamorro, daughter of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997), who presented herself as a potential candidate to face Ortega in her eventual candidacy for re-election.

The CxL and the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC), the second largest parliamentary force, are the two main groups of the opposition right. that they will run against the ruling Sandinista Front (FSLN, left).

The FSLN will decide on Monday the possible appointment of Ortega, a 75-year-old former guerrilla who ruled between 1979 Yes 1990, then return to power in 2007 and managed to be re-elected twice in a row.

Nicaragua, from 6.5 million inhabitants, will elect in November the president, the vice-president, 92 national deputies and 20 deputies of the Central American Parliament.

However, the international community, led by the United States and the European Union (EU), He repudiated the persecution against the opposition and demanded from the Ortega dictatorship conditions for the holding of free and transparent elections.

This Monday the European Union imposed sanctions on eight relatives of Ortega, including his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo. Blue and White National Unity opposition said this EU action shows that there is “concern” about the November elections.

“The fact that these sanctions are pronounced a few hours after the registration of the candidatures (for the presidency) which have the approval of the Ortega Murillo regime, is an unequivocal message on the conditions in Nicaragua, and that for the EU ‘casts a haunting image for the next election’ ”, said the National Unit, in a statement.

Murillo and Juan Carlos Ortega Murillo, one of his sons with Ortega, as well as six other people, were sanctioned for having been involved in “serious human rights violations”, according to the EU.

The electoral process in Nicaragua, which would reach its peak on November 7, was noted as not very transparent, due to the establishment of laws that restrict the participation of opponents, the cancellation of election observation, the appointment of Sandinista arbitrators, the elimination of opposition parties, as well as the imprisonment of dissident leaders and leaders, including seven presidential candidates.

According to the opposition organization, “The Council of the EU shares the concerns” referring to the elections.

Besides Murillo and one of his sons, the EU has sanctioned the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Alba Luz Ramos; to the President of the National Assembly, Gustavo Porras Cortés; to the Attorney General, Ana Julia Guido; to the presidential adviser for economic affairs Bayardo arce; and senior officials of the National Police Fidel Domínguez and Juan Valle Valle.

Nicaraguan activist Bianca Jagger publicly thanked the decision taken by the EU. “Thank you very much to the governments of the European Union for sanctioning Rosario Murillo and seven senior officials of the criminal regime Ortega Murillo,” he said on his Twitter account.

“Today, the Council takes a step forward and extends the list of sanctions to those responsible for human rights violations in Nicaragua, including Rosario Murillo. This is the way. There is still a lot of impunity in Nicaragua, “replied the MEP. Soraya Rodriguez.

That same Monday, in a common thread referring to “political prisoners,” the Acting Under-Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department, Julie chung, asserted that “the United States and the international community have observed with concern how the Ortega-Murillo regime it has increasingly denied human rights to Nicaraguans, ignoring calls to create the conditions for free and fair elections. “

(With information from AFP and EFE)

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