Nicaragua. Farce elections reconfirm Ortega

The Sandinista party of Nicaragua’s president Daniel Ortega won 75% in yesterday’s elections in the Central American country, according to the first official figures. A foregone conclusion, as well as the confirmation of a fourth term for Ortega and his wife, vice-president Rosario Murillo, in a vote that the international community considers a “farce”. In a very harsh statement, US President Joe Biden accuses the President of Nicaragua and his wife of having become “autocrats like the Somoza family that Ortega and his Sandinistas fought 40 years ago”. The EU asks Ortega to “restore sovereignty to the people” and threatens new sanctions. Former hero of the Sandinista revolution, which drove out the dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, Ortega has long since turned into an autocrat. The elections lost all semblance of democracy on June 2 when the main opposition presidential candidate, Cristina Chamorro, was placed under house arrest for an alleged money laundering affair. In the following days the possible presidential candidates arrested became seven, to which were added activists, journalists, entrepreneurs, dissident politicians. Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, a 70-year-old journalist brother of Cristiana, had only to mention on television that he could stand as a candidate to be arrested three hours later. Several parties were barred from participating in the vote. No wonder the journalists of the international press did not obtain a visa to enter the country and follow the elections.Leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, Ortega returned president in 2007 and has since strengthened his power, placing his faithful in the Supreme Court , the Attorney General and the National Electoral Commission. A 2014 constitutional reform abolished all limits on presidential terms and in 2017 his wife became vice president. In 2018, the orderly repression after the mass demonstrations against the government caused 300 deaths and hundreds of arrests. Over 100,000 people fled abroad. Yesterday’s vote is considered a farce by the international community. Carlos Alvarado, president of neighboring Costa Rica, immediately tweeted that he “did not recognize the elections in Nicaragua” and called for the release of political prisoners. The White House has released a statement whose title already says it all: “Statements by President Biden on the sham elections in Nicaragua”. In addition to making a comparison between Ortega and Somoza, Biden speaks of “pantomime of elections, not free, not fair and certainly not democratic”. “We ask the Ortega-Murillo regime to take immediate steps to restore democracy” and free all political prisoners, “until then – it reads – the United States, in close coordination with the international community, will use all diplomatic and economic tools. available to support the people of Nicaragua “. The elections in Nicaragua “took place without democratic guarantees and its results lack legitimacy”, declared the EU representative for foreign policy Josep Borrell, calling for the release of political prisoners and the restitution of “sovereignty” to the people. The EU has already placed 14 Nicaraguan leaders on its blacklist, but now it could take other actions. “The EU has carefully avoided any measures that could potentially increase the difficulties of the people of Nicaragua and has consistently targeted only those responsible for anti-democratic developments in Nicaragua. In this spirit we intend to consider all the tools at our disposal to adopt other measures, including how many may go beyond individual restrictions, “Borrell’s statement reads.