Nicaragua: while opponents assure that Ortega has transformed the country “into a big prison”, they advance with the preparations for the elections

The President of Nicaragua, Daniel ortega, is converting the country “in a big prison“, Bet on the imposition of a”total silence“Since Nicaraguans have lived”with fear“In the midst of the wave of arrests that have taken place In the run-up to the legislative elections on November 7, analysts and opposition leaders denounced this Monday.

“The regime’s bet is total silence, that we live in fear“Wrote the liberal-leaning political analyst Eliseo Nunez on Twitter, who has just left Nicaragua after denouncing being “Persecuted and threatened with prison and confiscation.”

For the legal representative of the opponent Citizens for Freedom Alliance, Carmela Rogers, known as Kitty monterrey, with the imprisonment of one of its members, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, last Friday night, “the regime continues to advance in this repressive escalation, which makes Nicaragua a big prison ”.

Nicaraguan police, who direct Francisco diaz, a brother-in-law of Ortega, keeps the opposition presidential candidates in detention Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro and Miguel Mora, whom he accuses of “treason”.

Also a former first lady, three other politicians, a business leader, a banker, a journalist and six leaders of a political movement founded by dissidents of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), in power, including two historic fighters and former comrades of the president’s struggle.

The cascade of arrests of several opposition leaders, which take place less than four and a half months before the elections in Nicaragua, where Ortega is seeking re-election for five years, It is a “new campaign of criminalization, hatred and violation of human rights”, according to the Citizens for Freedom Alliance (CxL).

For this alliance, the Sandinistas “they are wrong and should rectify“, Because, in his opinion,”They intend to drag Nicaragua into the horrors of the military dictatorships and communist regimes of the last century, persecuting journalists, assaulting the media, kidnapping opponents at midnight and keeping them in solitary confinement, without even the right to legal assistance and medical.”.

“It’s the same script failed of all the dictatorships which, for decades, caused pain and delay to their peoples, but ended up disappearing into the dumping ground of history ”, recalled Monterrey. “It is absurd that this regime, in the absence of popular support, bases its electoral strategy on the confinement of its opponents”He continued.

For Monterrey, “those who cling to power by violence are only walking into a dead end“,” For this reason, our appeal to the regime of Daniel Ortega and his supporters, whom we already know that they do not believe in democracy or human rights, it is a call to common sense and reason ”.

“May the excessive thirst for power not lead them to destroy a country of which they and their families are also a part,” he pleaded.

For the CxL Alliance, “This regime will be responsible if it does not provide the basic conditions for Nicaraguans to vote freely and choose those that offer better alternatives to the country.“Next November. “Equally responsible would be those who decide to abandon of this citizen struggle, knowing that it is the only valid and possible means of establishing a democratic system“He continued.

Nicaraguan electoral body calls for citizen verification of elections

the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) of Nicaragua on Monday launched a public appeal to citizen verification ahead of the elections in which President Daniel Ortega is seeking his third consecutive re-election.

The citizen verification is scheduled for July 24 and 25, according to the CSE, in the last registered voting centers and which are mainly located in public schools and universities.

“The activity consists of going to your polling center on July 24 and 25, to confirm whether or not you are on the electoral register of this site.“, Indicated the electoral authorities, who hope that it will develop” in a massive way “.

The CSE indicated that, in accordance with the law, the electoral register it will be closed 60 days before the elections, that is to say on September 7, and will be given to participating organizations 45 days before the elections, on the 22 of the same month.

In the 2016 elections, approximately 4.34 million of the 4.99 Nicaraguans over 16, they were allowed to vote, according to the voters list in that process. That year, the Supreme Electoral Council calculated the number of possible voters to be 3.8 million people, based on previous elections, however, there was a 31.8% abstention, for a total of 2.95 million participants, according to official statistics.

The opposition movements asserted, at the time, that the abstention rate in the 2016 legislative elections exceeded 70%, for 1.30 million voters.

These elections gave Ortega its Monday re-election consecutive with 1.8 million voters, according to the CSE count.

The ongoing electoral process has been stirred by the legal elimination of two opposition parties and the closure of five presidential candidates for the opposition, and two former vice-chancellors, two former Sandinista guerrillas historical dissidents, a business manager, a banker, a former deputy and former first lady, a former deputy, four opposition leaders, a journalist, two former NGO workers, and a driver from Christian Chamorro.

In the November elections, Ortega, who has dominated Nicaraguan politics for the past 42 years, He is seeking a third consecutive re-election for a fourth term followed by five years and a second with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice-president.

(With information from EFE)

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