Opinion

The political crisis in Nicaragua

photo_camera La crisis política en Nicaragua

Since 2018, Nicaragua has experienced one of the deepest socio-political crises in recent years, as a result of the continuation of the dictatorial and dynastic Ortega-Murillo regime, which has been characterised by corruption and the closure of all democratic spaces with the aim of retaining power at any cost, provoking discontent among the population.

This discontent led to peaceful protests that were violently repressed by the National Police and paramilitary forces, created by the regime to undermine the marches, using institutional resources.

The accumulated abuses of the regime led to a social detonation that began on 18 April 2018 and has continued to date.

This crisis has left more than 300 people killed, a large number injured, people deprived of their liberty and persecution of human rights defenders, journalists and the civilian population in general, according to the Nicaragua Country Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Similarly, state institutions have been at the service of the regime, such as the National Police, which together with the judiciary have opened criminal cases against citizens without any legal basis.

Society continues to demand through civic channels the democratisation of Nicaragua and free and transparent elections, to which the dictatorship responds with more violations of individual rights, imprisonment, siege, intimidation and selective assassinations of the population, causing citizen insecurity and an atmosphere of uncertainty in the country.

This crisis has also caused great economic losses for businesses, which are besieged by paramilitary groups of the regime, looting businesses and destroying private property.

The regime, through state terrorism, is promoting the invasion of private property, looting and hatred through its official media and generating a greater risk of an increase in organised crime, significantly deteriorating economic growth indicators.

By 2021, although there is a resolution from the Organisation of American States (OAS) that evidences that the nature of the Ortega-Murillo regime is illegal and illegitimate because it lacks real and democratic processes, it had reached some agreements with the regime to provide a solution to the crisis by holding elections.

Among the agreements reached with the regime to create conditions for fair elections were the modernisation of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE); the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression; the open registration of new political parties; updating of voting registers; international electoral observation; distribution of identity cards; the publication of results in real time and adequate procedures for the presentation of complaints.

However, the regime reneged on these agreements and reformed the electoral law to block opposition political parties, inhibit candidates and elect new magistrates to the CSE openly sympathetic to the dictatorship to guarantee electoral fraud.

Likewise, on 19 October 2020, Law 1040, the Law for the Regulation of Foreign Agents, was published, whose main objective is to establish regulatory frameworks applied to national and/or foreign natural and legal persons with the aim of blocking foreign funding to civil society organisations that have been openly critical of the regime.

Similarly, protests have been criminalised and the regime lives in a de facto police state, under constant siege of opposition groups by criminal gangs in complicity with the National Police and the Nicaraguan Army, both institutions being the only means of sustaining the regime through violence.

It is important to note that in addition to hindering political organisations, several opposition political parties have been stripped of their legal status and criminal investigations have been opened against presidential pre-candidates, such is the case of Mrs. Cristiana Chamorro, who has been charged with the alleged crime of money laundering and without any legal basis was sentenced to house arrest on Wednesday, June 2, 2021. It is important to note that Mrs. Chamorro is one of the most visible and credible leaders in Nicaragua.

Also, on Saturday, 5 June, opposition academic Arturo Cruz was arrested under the pretext of alleged interference and for infringing the alleged law on the Defence of Peoples' Rights, popularly known as the "guillotine law".

On the same day, opposition leader and presidential pre-candidate Félix Maradiaga was summoned to testify by the Public Prosecutor's Office in a trial for an unknown reason. It is important to note that Mr. Maradiaga, like other opposition leaders, is forbidden to leave his home and is being held by the police, although there is no open trial or sentence that declares him guilty to date.

In this context, the dictatorship has received constant economic sanctions from the international community; however, in the face of these measures, they have hardened their positions and closed to date the possibilities of a frank dialogue that would allow for a political solution to the crisis.

Irving Cordero. Academic Director of Fundación Libertad para Nicaragua/ The Diplomat