As part of the electoral process, the authorities have arrested 39 opposition leaders, including seven who aspired to compete with Daniel Ortega.
Former guerrilla Daniel Ortega, who governs without counterweights in Nicaragua, seeks his fifth term, fourth consecutive and second term in next Sunday’s elections together with his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, supported in Russia, Venezuela and Cuba and confronted with the United States and the European Union (EU).
Also with their main rivals arrested, with thousands of Nicaraguans fleeing the country for security or economic reasons, with the support of Cuba, Taiwan and Venezuela, and confronted with the Catholic Church and the main Nicaraguan bosses’ leadership, in addition to permanent harassment of media and journalists who have had to leave the country.
These are six keys to the controversial elections in Nicaragua.
Power control
Ortega, about to turn 76, returned to power in 2007 with 38% of the votes after winning an election against two liberal factions that were divided.
The process of concentration of power began in 1999 with the so-called “Alemán-Ortega Pact,” an agreement between former President Arnoldo Alemán (1997-2002) and the Sandinista leader, through which a two-party system was established.
In this context, the Electoral Law is changed so that a party can come to power only by exceeding 35% of the votes and the National Assembly, controlled by the Sandinistas, eliminates Article 147 of the Constitution that prohibited immediate reelection to office for President and enables indefinite presidential reelection.
End of the free press
The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) warned during the 77th General Assembly that the Ortega government “has consolidated its totalitarian policies and has managed to impose a climate of terror in the face of the general elections.”
In its report, the IAPA noted that Ortega and Murillo have continued “with the attacks on journalists and the media,” among which it mentioned police siege, appointments to the Public Ministry and accusations, and arbitrary arrests.
The main Nicaraguan newspaper, La Prensa, ceases to be published due to lack of paper withheld by the Government of Daniel Ortega
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) this year included Ortega on its list of “predators of press freedom.”
The opposition
The Sandinista government has applied the policy of the carrot and the stick with the opposition, with which it has beheaded any shadow or counterweight, according to the Nicaraguan sociologist Manuel Ortega Hegg.
Nicaraguan Prosecutor’s Office Accuses Seven Opponents of Conspiracy; among them, three candidates for the presidency
“Ortega was in charge of decomposing and disrupting the opposition, using all kinds of legal and illegal instruments, turning it into a collaborationist or” zancuda “opposition or hostages of power,” the researcher and writer also told Efe.
As part of the electoral process, the authorities have arrested 39 opposition leaders and independent professionals, including seven who aspired to compete with Ortega for the head of state. Those who will compete are seen as collaborators of Sandinismo rather than opponents, according to those excluded.
The role of the Catholic Church
Ortega began his campaign on October 4, calling the Nicaraguan bishops “terrorists” who acted as mediators of a national dialogue seeking a peaceful solution to the crisis that the country has been experiencing since 2018.
The Sandinista leader has described them as “coup plotters”, accused of being accomplices of internal forces and international groups that, in his opinion, are acting in Nicaragua to overthrow him.
Relations between the Sandinistas and the Catholic Church in Nicaragua have been marked by friction and mistrust in the last 42 years.
Representatives of the Catholic Church say that in Nicaragua there are no conditions for democratic elections
In a country where the majority of the population profess the Catholic faith, the Episcopal Conference has left it up to the conscience of every Nicaraguan to vote or not to vote in elections.
The voice of entrepreneurs
At the start of the campaign, Ortega invited businessmen, with whom the Executive maintained a consensus alliance until April 2018, to resume the agreements.
Two weeks later, the Nicaraguan authorities arrested business leaders Michael Healy and Álvaro Vargas, president and vice president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep), respectively, critics of the Executive.
Cosep, Nicaragua’s main employers’ association, appointed businessman César Zamora, defender of the alliance with the Government, as its new president.
“If big capital wants to join us in this effort, welcome you,” said Sandinista deputy Wálmaro Gutiérrez, confirming that Ortega will call for a new dialogue after the elections.
The businessmen, critical of the Executive after the protests of April 2018, have kept silent about that call.
External support: Cuba, Russia and Venezuela
“Who supports Ortega from abroad?” They asked the writer and former vice president of Nicaragua, Sergio Ramírez Mercado, who had to go into exile after the persecution against him in the country.
“Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Turkey are their allies (…) There is a Russian bunker in Nicaragua where spy communication systems operate. Cuban and Venezuelan collaboration in intelligence matters is also present,” said Ramírez , who was vice president of Ortega from 1985 to 1990.
On October 25, in the presence of a Russian delegation, Ortega highlighted the cooperation that Russia has provided to his government since it returned to power in 2007, including “an invaluable contribution in the field of defense.”
Meanwhile, the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), led by Cuba and Venezuela, have closed ranks with Ortega, whose relatives in Nicaragua, including his wife and four of his children, have received sanctions from Canada. , US, EU, and UK.
The process has been questioned by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union. (I)
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