Elections adapted to the Ortega regime: the campaign in Nicaragua began with the opposition candidates imprisoned, without accredited observers and without political acts

Nicaragua officially launched the campaign for the presidential elections on November 7, with the free run for Daniel Ortega to run for a fourth consecutive term after the arrest of his main rivals.

Ortega, 75, in power since 2007 after two successive re-elections and changes in the law that prevented him from continuing, is at the head of the alliance “Nicaragua Triumph ”, led by the former left-wing guerrilla Front Sandinista for National Liberation (FSLN), and made up of around ten related movements. And as running mate, he is accompanied for the second time by his wife and vice-president Rosario Murillo, visible and operational face of the regime.

Contrary to the electoral tradition, this year only one of the contending political parties organized a rally, there were no caravans or marches, as the seven organizations committed the day before to develop their campaigns in an entirely digital way, to avoid the contagion of covid-19.

In the electoral fair the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), party of the regime, as well as the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC), the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN), the Nicaraguan Christian Way ( CCN) compete. ), the Alliance for the Republic (Apre), and Yatama (Children of Mother Earth, in Mikita language), the latter only on the Caribbean coast.

While the FSLN seeks to win with Ortega, the PLC does it with the deputy and former street vendor Walter Espinoza, the PLI with the deputy Mauricio Orue, ALN with the lawyer Marcelo Montiel, the CCN with the reverend and former Sandinista ally Guillermo Osorno, Apre with the young Gerson Gutiérrez Gasparín, and Yatama with the native deputy Brooklyn Rivera.

In the current electoral process, Nicaraguan authorities have arrested and charged more than 30 opposition leaders, including presidential candidates Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, Miguel Mora, Medardo Mairena and Noel Vidaurre.

Two other opposition politicians who have announced their intention to run for president, María Asunción Moreno and the former head of the “Contra” Luis Fley, left Nicaragua for security reasons.

For the moment, the authorities have not accredited any election observation body.

Opposition sectors, such as Blue and White National Unity, have called the upcoming elections a “farce” and called on the West to ignore their results.

“People are clearly convinced that there is going to be an electoral process here which is not transparent and that to some extent it is said that the Sandinista Front will win,” former diplomat and analyst Edgar said. Parrales.

Using old symbols

All of the charges against the opponents are based on recent laws passed by the ruling Parliament. Ortega assures that the detainees sought to generate “a wave of terrorism” during the elections, and also accuses Washington of financing them and of looking for an opposition candidate of their choice.

He also links the accusations to protests against his government in 2018, whose crackdown left more than 300 dead and thousands in exiles, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Recently, the Sandinistas restored gigantic party acronyms to a hill in Managua that they used in 1980, when they ruled the country for the first time, after their revolution triumphed in 1979 against Anastasio’s dictatorship. Somoza. The label was removed in 1990, when Ortega lost the election to Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.

Last Thursday, the foreign ministers of Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, France, the Dominican Republic, Chile, the United Kingdom and the United States issued a statement on the “rupture” democratic order in Nicaragua. “We unite in declaring to Ortega-Murillo that democracies will reject political repression, human rights violations and the dismantling of democracy,” said Brian Nichols, undersecretary for Western Hemisphere affairs. State Department.

The electoral campaign will end on November 3, when there are four days left for the legislative elections.

In Nicaragua, a Central American country of 6.5 million inhabitants, some 4.3 million are authorized to vote and elect president and vice-president, 90 national deputies and 20 others before the Central American Parliament (Parlacen).

The 155 political prisoners of Ortega

In addition to the seven detained opposition presidential candidates, there are dozens of senior officials from previous governments and former Sandinista guerrillas imprisoned by the Ortega regime.

Indeed, according to Mechanism for the recognition of political prisoners, an observatory whose data are approved by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), The number of people captured in the context of the socio-political crisis in Nicaragua, classified as political prisoners, rose to 155 in September,

Of the 155 political prisoners, 145 were captured following the April 2018 social outbreak, while ten had been in prison previously, said the Mechanism. Among the prisoners are ten women, two of them under the house versus prison regime..

Eight opponents of President Daniel Ortega’s regime were arrested between August 12 and September 23 of this year., two of whom have been released, while six remain in prison, according to the report.

The list indicates the 37 opposition leaders and independent professionals captured in the wave of arrests in connection with the November 7 elections, in which Ortega is seeking re-election.

According to Mechanism statistics, the number of political prisoners in Nicaragua increased by 51 compared to September 2020, while the list was 94.

The number of detainees could be higherSince the list only includes political prisoners whose permission has been obtained from their relatives for publication, the source said.

Currently, 12 political prisoners remain in maximum security cells, six in disciplinary cells and six in solitary confinement., he detailed.

The Mechanism stressed that the increase in political prisoners reflects that “the trend towards the detention and criminalization of political leaders and civil society continues. As well as against politically released people, many of whom have been forced into exile.”.

The report also collected complaints from human rights organizations on hypotheses ill-treatment and torture in prison, including the denial of rights such as “special permits in case of bereavement, psychological care, attention to symptoms of COVID-19, freedom of worship and adequate food”.

“The physical and mental health of this group of people imprisoned in different conditions is at greater risk due to unsanitary conditions, lack of ventilation and total isolation. Relatives of political prisoners have also denounced that during the visits, they are subjected to increased surveillance, searches and even threats, ”the report said.

The campaign is also growing with restrictive measures due to a rebound in COVID-19 infections, without permits for caravans, or crowds of more than 200 people at a rally. The measure contrasts with the authorities’ refusal to order quarantines during the pandemic, and to promote high-traffic recreational tourism activities.

“What’s strange about this case is that the Sandinista Front has been having massive pre-election events throughout this year (…) and now they’re starting to say no one is focusing” due to the pandemic , observed Parrales.

With information from the EFE

KEEP READING: