The US calls for the "immediate" release of the Nicaraguan opposition leader Cristiana Chamorro

The United States on Friday asked the Nicaraguan government to "immediately release" opposition leader Cristiana Chamorro, who since last Wednesday has been under police surveillance and house arrest.

According to the State Department, the Daniel Ortega regime has detained the opposition leader under "fabricated charges", which amounts to "an abuse of her rights" and represents "an assault on democratic values", as well as a clear attempt to thwart "free and fair elections."

More information

• Cristiana Chamorro, the daughter of the former president who stood up to Ortega

• Ortega deals another blow to critics in Nicaragua and imposes house arrest on Cristiana Chamorro

• The Ortega regime blocks the candidacy of Cristiana Chamorro for the presidency of Nicaragua

"The Ortega regime must immediately release the opposition leader Cristiana Chamorro," said State Department spokesman Ned Price in a statement.

For Washington, Chamorro's arrest comes amid "continuous attacks against presidential candidates in favor of democracy and against the independent press."

Cristiana Chamorro made her presidential hope public last January, but "the Ortega regime is determined to prohibit Chamorro from participating in the November elections," according to Price.

Chamorro, 67, aims to be the answer to an orphaned electorate of a figure capable of uniting a divided opposition in the face of the general elections, in which Ortega intends to be reelected for the third consecutive time.

Along with Chamorro, the US State Department has requested that the two colleagues from the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation for Reconciliation and Democracy detained by the regime be released.

His arrests on false charges are "an assault on democratic values," assures US diplomacy.

Instead of applying electoral reforms before the May deadline established by the Organization of American States (OAS), the Government of Managua has implemented "even more restrictions and reduced electoral transparency," according to the State Department. .

In this regard, Washington recalls that Ortega “unfoundedly canceled” in May the legal status of two opposition political parties with the ultimate goal of preventing a possible nomination of Cristiana Chamorro.

US diplomacy concludes its petition to Ortega saying that "the current conditions of repression and exclusion are not consistent with credible elections."

"The region and the international community must stand alongside the Nicaraguan people to support their right to freely choose their government," concludes the State Department.

A journalist by profession -current vice president of the newspaper

La Prensa-

, Chamorro intends to follow in the footsteps of her mother, former president Violeta Chamorro, who in 1990 won the elections, contrary to what the polls said, to the Sandinista Front of Daniel Ortega.

Cristiana Chamorro's father, journalist Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, was shot dead in 1978 by the Anastasio Somoza dictatorship.

The candidacy of Cristiana Chamorro has excited Nicaraguans, judging by the repeated polls that place her as the favorite among the rest of the opposition candidates (21% according to the CID-Gallup results published days before her arrest).

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