Opinion

Ortega tightens his dictatorship in Nicaragua

photo_camera Atalayar_Daniel Ortega

Every day we encounter unacceptable totalitarian attitudes on the part of dictators who have usurped control of all the powers of the state and use them as they please with the greatest possible brazenness and without any scruples whatsoever. The dictatorship of the Sandinista Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo is nothing new. For several years they have been using the tools at their disposal of a supposedly democratic state, such as elections, to consolidate their power, benefit from all kinds of business, repress opposition sectors and now, they are implementing a pre-emptive liquidation of their possible adversaries for the presidential elections next November. It is useless for the organisation implicated in the alleged money laundering by Cristiana Chamorro to deny the facts and prove that the money was used for its intended purpose without any kind of diversion.

The judges put in place by the president's Sandinista environment decided to disqualify the candidate who had the best chance of beating Daniel Ortega, and, as if that were not enough, decided to place her under incommunicado house arrest. Ortega took a good note in 1999 when Cristiana's mother, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, won the elections, to everyone's surprise, and promised not to let it happen again. In those years, the majority of the Nicaraguan population showed their disappointment with the Sandinistas' management of the country after overthrowing the dictator Somoza. Corruption, inefficiency, repression and the enormous economic, social and employment precariousness, compared to the wealth and houses of the Sandinista leaders, were the reasons for the electoral reversal.

Now, the situation is very similar. Misery, unemployment, coronavirus, inequality, corruption and nepotism of a family that has no political ethics or modesty to take over the judiciary, the Supreme Electoral Council and control of the Armed Forces in order to remove those who could cast electoral shadow over it.

The call for new parties was already controversial when the registration of new parties was extended with the clear intention of dividing the anti-Sandinista vote.
Cristiana Chamorro is not the only one affected. Academic and candidate Arturo Cruz was arrested on Saturday when he returned to Managua after a tour around the United States. Other candidates, Félix Madariaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro, were arrested on Tuesday without cause or condition. Some experts indicate that Daniel Ortega intends to use these arrests and the persecution and harassment of other candidates to force the lifting of international economic sanctions imposed by the United States on his family and several members of his entourage. Washington, together with the UN, the OAS and the EU, has demanded the release of those arrested and a fair electoral process. Washington's decision has been to impose more sanctions on a regime that is only sustained by the control of the levers of power and corruption, aligned with the Bolivarian current favoured for years by Cuba and Venezuela, and whose networks include Nicaragua, Bolivia, Argentina, Mexico, and Peru if the victory of the communist Castillo is confirmed. They are also trying to destabilise Chile and Colombia.

The Bolivarian dictators have the support of Russia and Iran. This is a very worrying situation for the well-being of Latin Americans and for everyone in general, and specifically for Spanish companies with interests in these countries.