The United States has assured that the persecution of the opposition Daniel Ortega’s regime “is dragging Nicaragua into a dark new era”.

The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, deplored on Tuesday that the actions of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega “bring Nicaragua into a new dark era”.

On the occasion of the celebration of the independence day of the country of Central America, Blinken issued a statement expressing solidarity, although he lamented that the day should “be a time to celebrate freedom and the historic achievement of self-government.”

“Unfortunately, today in Nicaragua the freedom for which so many Nicaraguans have fought for so long enters a dark new era“Blinken warned about the bicentennial of independence, criticizing Ortega and his wife and vice-president of the country, Rosario Murillo, for “constantly undermining the foundations of democratic institutions”.

He also criticized the two leaders of “They corrupted the judicial system, attacked the free press and forced the dismantling of opposition parties that allegedly confronted them in the next elections.”

“They closed all space to political competition and public discourse, cruelly imprisoning in recent months more than 30 opposition leaders, students, journalists, business leaders, human rights activists and members of civil society ”continued the head of the American diplomacy, to salute the “brave Nicaraguan who risked their lives to lobby for a country guided by democratic principles ”.

The US government has imposed several rounds of economic sanctions and the restriction of visas to senior Nicaraguan officials and to Ortega’s direct parents, including her children.

Nicaragua is experiencing a socio-political crisis that erupted in 2018, when the Nicaraguans came out to protest against President Ortega, in power since 2007, and who will seek another re-election in the legislative elections next November.

In the context of the crisis, 328 dead, at least 103,000 exiles and hundreds of opponents imprisoned, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (Acnudh).

Some 4.7 million Nicaraguans are called to vote on November 7 in the general elections, in which in addition to the presidential formula, the 92 seats of the National Assembly and twenty others of the Central American Parliament are also at stake.

Part of the international community, The United States and the European Union questioned the legitimacy of these future presidential elections and denounced the authoritarian drift of the Ortega government. for his persecution of opposition leaders, journalists and civil society groups critical of his policies.

The US government has imposed several rounds of economic sanctions and the restriction of visas to senior Nicaraguan officials and direct relatives of Ortega, including her children.

Among the prisoners there are seven presidential candidates, while among the exiles is the 2017 Cervantes Prize and former Vice-President of Nicaragua in the first Sandinista government (1979-1990), Sergio Ramírez, a critic of Ortega whom the prosecutor’s office accuses of “involving acts which promote and incite hatred and violence”.

(With information from EFE and EuropaPress)

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