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Nicaragua's democracy is crumbling into a dictatorship

2021-06-17T00:45:22.041Z


President Daniel Ortega has used the indisputable power of the police and the courts to repress his political opposition.


Uncertainty grows over the elections in Nicaragua 3:34

Mexico City (CNN) -

Nicaragua's already fragile democracy is rapidly retreating into dictatorship.

President Daniel Ortega has spent the past week using the indisputable power of the country's police and courts to suppress his political opposition with brutal efficiency.

At least 12 opposition leaders have been arrested and charged with vague violations of so-called 'national security', which, according to human rights groups, is a clear sign that the country's strong leader is doing his best. to eliminate dissent and crush any competition ahead of the upcoming November 7 general election, a vote in which he hopes to secure his fourth consecutive term as president.

Four of the detained opposition figures are presidential candidates, accused of crimes that will likely disqualify them from running against Ortega.

It all began with the arrest of prominent presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, who had been investigated since last month on allegations that she mishandled a nonprofit organization defending the free press that she led, according to a statement from the office of the Nicaraguan prosecutor.

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  • Nicaraguan presidential candidates Félix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro sent to prison for 90 days

Chamorro and Maradiaga arrested in Nicaragua 1:31

Just a day after announcing his candidacy for the presidency as an independent, authorities raided his home.

She was arrested on charges that include "abusive handling, ideological falsehood in competition with the crime of laundering money, property and assets, to the detriment of the State of Nicaragua", without prosecutors so far presenting serious evidence to support her nebulous claims.

Chamorro Barrios denies all the accusations.

Chamorro Barrios comes from one of the most prominent families in Nicaragua and was considered to have a good chance of beating Ortega in November.

His mother, Violeta Barrios, defeated him in the 1990 presidential elections.

The gaze of Ortega's political witch hunt was turned a few days later to Arturo Cruz, another presidential hopeful who was detained at the international airport in the capital, Managua, after returning from a trip to the United States.

And over the next four days, five other prominent opposition leaders were detained, including Juan Sebastián Chamorro García, Cristiana Chamorro Barrios' cousin, who was also running for president for another party.

More opposition leaders were arrested over the weekend, including Tamara Dávila, who leads a coalition of opposition groups known as the Blue and White National Unity;

Suyen Barahona, president of the Unamos party, founded by the Sandinistas;

Hugo Torres Jiménez, vice president of Unamos;

Dora María Téllez;

founder of Unamos, and Ana Margarita Vigil, activist of Unamos.

The most recent detainee was former Vice Chancellor Víctor Hugo Tinoco.

Almagro affirms that Nicaragua is experiencing a dictatorship 1:08

Most are being investigated for the same charges: acting "against the independence, sovereignty and self-determination" of the country, according to press releases from the Prosecutor's Office.

"This is the product of Daniel Ortega's fear and terror of transparent and competitive elections," Juan Sebastián said in an interview with Carmen Aristegui, from CNN en Español, a few days before his arrest.

The Ortega government did not respond to CNN's request for comment.

But for those closely monitoring Nicaragua, the events of the past week have not been surprising.

Many feel that they have been slow to arrive.

The 2018 protests, the turning point for Nicaragua and the Ortega regime

President Ortega, along with his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, have been undermining Nicaraguan democracy for years, according to critics and human rights groups.

They centralized the executive branch, followed by the weakening of its democratic institutions.

People loyal to Ortega and the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) were elected to head the Supreme Court, the Attorney General's Office, and even the Supreme Electoral Council.

The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) questioned the results of the 2008 municipal elections and the 2016 presidential elections were not monitored by international observers.

But the real turning point came in 2018, when the Ortega government approved changes to the country's social security programs in an attempt to stem growing deficits within the program.

Contributions from workers and employers would have increased, but the amount that retired workers would receive in their pensions would have decreased.

  • International organizations express concern about human rights in Nicaragua three years after the start of the protests against the Government

A reform that sparks protests in Nicaragua (2018 video) 2:27

People of all ages took to the streets to demonstrate in mass protests.

The government was forced to withdraw its proposal, but did little to quell the anger of Nicaraguans, many of whom took the moment to express broader anger at the Ortega government.

The protests turned into broader demands, including Ortega's resignation.

Instead of working with opposition groups and protesters to find a peaceful solution, the Ortega government took the opposite approach: intense and deadly repressions, violating human rights while armed pro-government groups arbitrarily detained hundreds of people participating in the protests. .

In some cases, vigilante groups erected "obstacles to prevent the wounded from accessing emergency medical care as a form of retaliation for their participation in the protests," the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) said in a report published that year. .

Churches were attacked if protesters were thought to seek protection inside, denounced by the country's Catholic Church.

Government "shot to kill" protesters

Universities became ground zero when pro-government forces attacked students who had taken refuge in defiance of the government, killing at least two people in a deadly incident, human rights group Cenidht reported.

According to various human rights groups, at least 325 people were killed during civil unrest when Ortega's security forces used deadly force against protesters.

According to an Amnesty International report, published a month after the protests began, the government used a policy of violent repression against its people, a "shoot to kill" strategy.

The Ortega government denied those charges.

According to his "official" statistics, at least 195 people died, an inconsistency that remains to this day.

Months after the protests began, the government was able to temporarily calm the storm by working to negotiate agreements with various civil groups - the Catholic Church serving as its mediator - all with the intention of meeting some of the demands and ending the riots.

But negotiations would stall with Ortega refusing to bow to his main point: a call for early elections.

The government finally agreed to allow international organizations to enter the country to investigate the deaths of hundreds of protesters and release some of the prisoners on what the IACHR called "unfounded and disproportionate charges."

What did Daniel Ortega reveal in an interview with CNN?

(2018 Video) 5:02

With Ortega strengthening his power in all state entities - judicial, Supreme Court, military, media - excessive force against any dissent continued.

The protests became a justification for enacting a series of new laws that continued to suppress any form of dissent, creating fear across the country.

Protests against the government were subsequently banned.

Waving the country's flag in public or wearing its colors, a key symbol of the 2018 demonstrations, was criminalized.

More than 100 university students who participated in the demonstrations were expelled from the universities and health workers who had assisted the injured lost their jobs, according to the IACHR.

Anyone who speaks out against the government publicly could be considered a traitor to the nation.

Independent news stations also became targets.

Some were robbed and shut down.

The journalists were jailed or forced into exile.

The protest movement against Ortega began to wane until it was extinguished, but the systematic repression is still alive.

Independent media and journalists continue to be harassed.

Some political parties have been dissolved.

International suggestions put forward to guarantee free and fair elections have been ignored.

"Here, the one who raises his voice is marked or singled out as a traitor to the country," said Juan, a Nicaraguan who supported the protests and disagrees with the Ortega government.

He asked CNN not to use his real name to speak out against the government without fear of retaliation.

"They would consider me a traitor to the country," he said when asked what would happen if the government knew that he was speaking to foreign journalists.

"They can invent a crime and put me in jail who knows how many years."

Juan spoke to CNN from inside his car outside of work, as he was afraid to express his true opinions in front of others.

He said there are always people around who could report anti-government sentiment to the authorities.

Their fears of persecution are well founded.

Human rights groups say so-called "traitors" are often tortured at the hands of the country's notoriously ruthless security forces.

The government did not respond to CNN's request for comment on the torture allegations.

Hundreds of protesters and activists are believed to remain in detention, according to Cenidh in a report published in February, and more than 108,000 Nicaraguans have fled the country since 2018, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Almagro affirms that Nicaragua is experiencing a dictatorship 1:08

Is Nicaragua an international pariah?

Ortega's latest offensive has generated international condemnation.

"What we have in Nicaragua at this stage is a facade of democracy," said José Miguel Vivanco, director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch.

"There is very little space today in Nicaragua for dissent and the free work of the media and civil society."

In a statement last month, the spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Marta Hurtado, expressed concern that the chances of free and fair elections in November are "diminishing as a result of the measures taken by the authorities against political parties, candidates and independent journalists, who further restrict civic and democratic space.

On Wednesday, the US government announced sanctions against four senior Ortega government officials, including his daughter, saying they were "complicit in the regime's repression."

During a call Thursday from the US State Department with journalists, Acting Deputy Secretary of the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs Julie Chung said Ortega had "the opportunity to fulfill his commitment to allow free and fair elections." but instead, he was playing another game.

«They fear losing, they fear the free, fair and transparent system.

They fear losing their grip on power.

As such, that fear of democracy, I think, has contributed to unleashing these kinds of actions, repressive actions, because they don't have confidence in their own ability to get people to support them, ”Chung said.

He urged the international community to join the efforts of the United States and support the people of Nicaragua.

"Ultimately, if Ortega continues down this path, he will further consolidate his status as an international pariah," Chung added.

For ordinary Nicaraguans like Juan, there is a fear that Nicaragua is "rapidly becoming the second Venezuela."

"Democracy does not exist or has not existed in Nicaragua for a long time," he said.

When it comes to voting in the November elections, Juan is divided.

"Participating in these elections under these current conditions means that we are validating these elections, but if we do not vote, we are also going against our legal mandate to exercise our right to vote."

Daniel Ortega Nicaragua

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-06-17

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