Joe Biden describes the elections in Nicaragua as “pantomime”, in which Daniel Ortega would have been reelected

US President Joe Biden called the Nicaraguan elections a “pantomime” this Sunday and threatened to use “all diplomatic and economic tools” at his disposal to hold Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega accountable.

“What Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, orchestrated today was a pantomime election that was neither free nor fair, and certainly not democratic,” Biden said in a statement distributed by the White House.

The president announced that Washington, in coordination with other members of the international community, “will use all the diplomatic and economic tools” at its disposal to help the people of Nicaragua and hold Ortega, Murillo and those who “facilitate their abuses” accountable.

Opposition highlighted absenteeism

Nicaraguan organizations celebrated this Sunday that the people stayed home and did not go out to vote, as a sign of rejection for the reelection of Sandinista Daniel Ortega, in power since 2007.

The communications coordinator of the Blue and White National Unit, Olama Hurtado, told Efe who classify the event as “a complete success for the Nicaraguan people because they stayed at home and responded to the call. People today demonstrated their resounding rejection of the regime ”.

“Democracy in Nicaragua is hijacked, we have not been able to have democratic, free and transparent elections as we would have liked, and that is why the people chose to stay at home and that is how we resist. It is a form of civic resistance and rejection of the dictatorship, ”said Hurtado.

Opponents are using the hashtags #YoNoBotoMiVoto, #YoNoVoto or #NicaraguaNoVota, among others, with which they urge Nicaraguans not to leave their homes, keep the doors closed and the streets empty, because they consider that “there is no one to vote for ”And that, so far, qualify it as a success.

“From early on we have been monitoring everything that has happened there. We know that state vehicles are being used to transfer people, it is known that they are intimidating people and the elderly to vote and there are armed paramilitaries in the voting centers and other incidences of violence and discrimination on election day, ”he said. the Nicaraguan activist.

The movement also called on international organizations and states to offer their total ignorance of the elections because all political parties have been manipulated by the Government of Daniel Ortega.