US calls arrests of opponents in Nicaragua “despicable campaign”

The United States classified as “despicable countryside” the wave of arrests against several opposition political leaders in Nicaragua, including seven presidential candidates for the elections in which autocrat Daniel Ortega, in power since 2007, will seek re-election next November.

On her Twitter account, the US Under Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Julie Chung, reacted strongly to the arrest of Nicaraguan opposition presidential candidate Noel Vidaurre and political commentator Jaime Arellano. investigation for alleged treason.

“The day when Nicaraguan voters confirm 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 they are just the victims of a despicable campaign to criminalize the peaceful opposition“from Nicaragua,” he noted.

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

“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, dThe Sandinista majority, last December.

This controversial law, promoted by the executive, it lists “traitors to the fatherland” and prohibits all dissidents from running for public office.

In the November elections, the favorite was Cristiana Chamorro, the daughter of former president Violeta Chamorro. The applicant was the first of those arrested in a wave intended to leave the election without alternative alternatives.

Besides Chamorro, candidates Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, Miguel Mora, Medardo Mairena and now Vidaurre have been arrested. investigation under the pretext of treason.

In addition, two former deputy foreign ministers, 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, she left her home two weeks ago after being summoned by the public prosecutor to an interview without specifying the cause, the crime or the injured party and it is not known where he is.

Likewise, former Contra leader Luis Fley, who was one of 11 opposition presidential candidates, He leaves Nicaragua and announces, from his exile, that for security reasons, he decides to withdraw his aspirations.

Ortega, a former Sandinista Front guerrilla who overthrew the bloodthirsty tyranny of the Somoza, ruled the country between 1979 and 1990 and returned to power in 2007, turning his regime into a classic dictatorship with the company as vice president of his wife, Rosario Murillo.

Managua and Washington. Agencies
MC