Presidents of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel; from Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and from Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, and missions from China, Iran and Russia attended.
The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, was sworn in on Monday his fifth, fourth consecutive and second term together with his wife Rosario Murillo as vice president, before the head of the National Assembly, the official Gustavo Porras.
The oath was carried out in an official ceremony held in the Plaza de la Revolución, in Managua, in the presence of the presidents of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel; from Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and from Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, and other international representatives, including China, Iran and Russia.
“Yes, I swear,” Ortega responded to the oath read by Porras, who later placed the presidential sash.
During part of his speech, Ortega recognized Hernández’s “courage” in attending his inauguration ceremony.
“You want courage to be present here in Nicaragua,” said Ortega, who also charged against the United States and the European Union (EU), which this Monday approved new sanctions against those close to the president and Nicaraguan institutions.
The inauguration ceremony was also attended by former Salvadoran and Nicaraguan nationalized presidents Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sánchez Cerén, as well as former Guatemalan president Vinicio Cerezo.
The Ortega government confirmed hours before the presence of delegates from Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, Honduras, Belize, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Angola, Turkey, Belarus, Egypt, Malaysia and Yemen.
Mexico ruled out sending its foreign minister to the event. President Andrés López Obrador said he will be represented by a chargé d’affaires.
The inauguration came amid new sanctions and pressure from the United States and the European Union, but with the support of China and Russia.
The assumption of the former Sandinista guerrilla occurs despite the fact that several Latin American countries through the Organization of American States (OAS) have ignored the legitimacy of the elections and demanded the release of the imprisoned opponents, says AFP.
Ortega has accused the US and the EU of “interference” and “disrespect for sovereignty,” and in November he asked to initiate the country’s withdrawal from the OAS.
Relations with allies
Manuel Orozco, analyst and member of the Inter-American Dialogue, told AFP that Ortega and Murillo inaugurate their mandate “not without challenges” due to international pressure, citizen discontent, a seriously deteriorated socioeconomic situation, and strong dissent between their government base and the Sandinista elite.
Ortega tries to balance those challenges by approaching Russia and China, but without making internal political changes, preserving the repressive apparatus and keeping political prisoners as a transaction card, Orozco pointed out.
In this context, Ortega resumed diplomatic relations with China on December 9, after undoing the ties that the country maintained for more than 30 years with Taiwan and recognizing the principle of “one China.”
The reestablishment of relations with Beijing was accompanied by a donation of thousands of vaccines and, three weeks later, the opening of the Asian country’s embassy in Managua.
He also strengthened his ties with Moscow, which has provided him with extensive cooperation, from wheat, anticovid vaccines and buses to renew collective transport to a satellite station.
Prisoners will weigh on their mandate
The release of some 160 imprisoned opponents will weigh on the decisions Ortega makes at the beginning of his fourth term, according to Orozco and the Sandinista poet and dissident, Gioconda Belli.
More than 40 opponents, journalists and critics of the government were detained between June and December 2021, including seven potential rivals of Ortega in the November elections.
This group is joined by another 120 people who are imprisoned for participating in the 2018 protests, whose repression left 355 dead and more than 100,000 exiles, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The government considers the detainees to be “criminals” who organized for a coup with the help of the United States.
Orozco estimates that “it will be difficult (for the government) not to open up” to the demands of the international community to free the opponents, while Belli believes that “it would be an important gesture nationally and internationally”, although “I doubt it will.”
The former Sandinista guerrilla ruled the country for the first time in the 1980s after helping the FSLN overthrow dictator Anastasio Somoza with a revolution in 1979.
Since he returned to power 15 years ago, the opposition has accused him of “nepotism” and of establishing a “dictatorship.”
Protests in exile
Dozens of Nicaraguan citizens came out to protest in the capitals of Costa Rica and Spain, to reject the new mandate.
With banners and candles, and many of them dressed in the blue and white of the Nicaraguan flag, the exiles gathered in the Plaza de la Democracia, in the capital of Costa Rica, a place that has become the meeting point of the Nicaraguans for this type of activity.
Costa Rica, a neighbor of Nicaragua, is one of the main places for Nicaraguan exile, along with other nations such as the United States.
Meanwhile, in Madrid the slogans of “Since 2018, Ortega is not our president”, were heard.
“The illegitimate Daniel Ortega today is taking a position on elections that have not been recognized by the majority of the international community,” he told Efe the lawyer and member of the opposition organization SOS Nicaragua Madrid, Rayid Alvarado.
Summoned under the slogan “Illegitimate Ortega”, the participants chanted “this embassy does not represent us”, “murderers”, “Ortega and Somoza are the same thing”. (I)
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