Nicaragua blocks Spanish

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PHOTO: BRIAN SNYDER / REUTERS

According to CNN, the authoritarian Nicaraguan government has blocked the US broadcaster's Spanish-language channel.

»At CNN en Español we believe that a free press plays an important role in a healthy democracy.

Today the government of Nicaragua blocked our signal, denying Nicaraguans the information from our channel that they have trusted for over 25 years," moderator Fernando del Rincón said Thursday.

CNN will continue to inform people in the Central American country via its website and social networks.

The government of President Daniel Ortega has recently taken increasingly tough action against the opposition, government-critical media, civil society groups and the Catholic Church.

The authorities shut down numerous church and private radio and television stations and revoked the licenses of hundreds of non-governmental organizations.

More than 350 people have died in anti-government protests in recent years.

Numerous members of the opposition are in prison, and the press is being put under massive pressure.

country is becoming more and more isolated

In April, Nicaragua isolated itself further when it left the Organization of American States (OAS).

The OAS includes the majority of the countries of North and South America.

The organization's goals are to promote security on the continent, defend democracy and human rights, fight corruption and illegal trade, and promote trade.

Nicaragua's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had declared: "We will not be represented on any of the bodies of this diabolical instrument of evil called the OAS."

The government's authoritarianism is one of the key drivers of Nicaraguan migrant movements north.

Many of the people who end up at the US-Mexico border had left Nicaragua.

The US Republicans are currently trying once again to stir up the mood in the election campaign with the fate of the migrants from South and Central America.

jok/dpa