Repression of the Ortega Government Increases with the Arrest of Sandinista Critics

Over the weekend, the Nicaraguan police made six more arrests of government opponents. Despite international recommendations urging President Daniel Ortega to release four presidential election pre-candidates who were detained in recent weeks, ahead of the 7 November elections.

Among those arrested are several Sandinista dissidents such as former guerrillas Dora María Téllez and Hugo Torres, activists Ana Margarita Vigil and Tamara Dávila, and the president of UNAMOS, Suyen Barahona. The latest to be arrested by the Nicaraguan government was the former deputy foreign minister, Víctor Hugo Tinoco, accused of "inciting foreign interference in internal affairs" and "calling for military intervention" in Nicaragua, according to a press release from the Nicaraguan police.

Prior to his arrest, Víctor Hugo Tinoco made a recording of a message: "This is a struggle that has to go on, that will not stop", published by the newspaper La Prensa.

The Nicaraguan authorities confirmed in a statement that the detained dissidents were under investigation "for carrying out acts that undermine independence, sovereignty and self-determination" and for "demanding, exalting and applauding the imposition of sanctions against the State of Nicaragua and its citizens, and harming the supreme interests of the nation".

Cristian Tinoco, daughter of opposition leader Víctor Hugo, denounced through the Facebook platform that her father was actually "kidnapped by people who were not from the National Police", but were civilians who put her father in a van without official recognition when he was in a shopping centre in Managua. "Nicaragua is living in a dictatorship. We ask the international community for help. This can no longer be allowed. It is an outrage," he said. 

Following the latest arrest, the UNAMOS party issued a statement: "We denounce this new act carried out in a few hours against our party, in the context of the frantic escalation of repression by Ortega's regime. UNAMOS reiterates that it remains firm in the struggle for democracy and a Nicaragua with peace and justice", according to the newspaper 100% noticias.

On Wednesday, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro demanded the release of the detainees and expressed concern about the arrests, pointing directly to the president as the main culprit: "Further proof of the true nature of Ortega's dictatorship", via his official Twitter account.

The OAS said on its website that the extraordinary virtual session on 15 June was convened by the representations of Canada, which chairs the OAS Permanent Council, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, the United States, Paraguay and Peru, to address "the situation in Nicaragua" in order to "unequivocally condemn the arrest, harassment and arbitrary restrictions imposed on potential presidential candidates, political parties and independent media, and to call for the immediate release of potential candidates and all political prisoners", according to DW.

Julie Chung, acting undersecretary for the Western Hemisphere at the US State Department, said on her social networking site Twitter that "the Ortega-Murillo terror campaign continues this weekend with more arbitrary arrests". He also pointed out the need for the OAS to send "a clear signal" at the meeting to be held on 15 June for an end to the repression in Nicaragua.  

Likewise, this Sunday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed, through the social network Twitter, its concern over the new arrests of opponents in Nicaragua, emphasising the "illegal and arbitrary search" of their homes. It also demanded "the State of Nicaragua to immediately release the detained persons, and to cease attacks on public freedoms, particularly the exercise of political rights in the country".

Counting the latest arrests, 13 leaders have been detained, four of them presidential hopefuls. Repression returned to the Latin American country on 2 June with the arrest of Cristiana Chamorro, daughter of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who is under investigation for alleged money laundering, and the subsequent arrest of candidates Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro for "attacking society and the rights of the people", according to the media El Confidencial.

The figure rises to 15 including the prisoners Walter Gómez and Marcos Fletes, former workers of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation.

This new escalation reopens the door to the political repression that the country had left behind after the mass protests of 2018 against the Ortega government and to which the forces of law and order responded with violence, ending with a total of 300 dead and hundreds arrested.

Nicaragua faces this tense political situation with five months to go before the country's elections, where current president Daniel Ortega will seek to renew his candidacy.

Latin America Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra.