June 24, 2021–Ahead of elections scheduled for November, the Nicaraguan government is arresting opposition leaders and potential presidential candidates who pose political opposition to their current leader, President Daniel Ortega.
Locals say the current repression dates back to the government’s crackdown on political speech after the uprising against the president in 2018. Lesther Aleman, a university student leader, suggested that the current round-up of opposition leaders is to prevent any challenge to the election in November.
“The strategy is to demoralize Nicaraguans, to delegitimize the electoral process to the point that the majority of people will abstain because there is no opposition. That is Ortega’s goal,” Aleman told a reporter with Al Jazeera. “That way he can win his fourth consecutive election without even having to resort to outright fraud, since he has cleared the road of all challenges.”
Recounting the 2018 Killings And Arrests
In April 2018, hundreds of Nicaraguan civilians were killed during an uprising against President Ortega by the police. The police also arrested hundreds of other protestors who participated. Over one-hundred thousand individuals fled in response to the President’s actions towards the protestors.
Recent Increase in Human Rights Violations
Ortega’s repressive actions towards political opposition have increased greatly over the past month.
In response, the Organization of American States passed a resolution last week condemning Nicaragua for the “arrest, harassment, and arbitrary restrictions placed on presidential candidates, political parties, and independent media.” The OAS expressed “grave concerns” and said the actions call into question the legitimacy of the upcoming November elections.
Nicaragua: ‘Interference By the Washington Consensus’
Nicaraguan ambassador to the OAS, Luis Alvarado, flatly rejected the resolution, calling it an “interference against Nicaragua and its internal election process.” He blamed the United States for manipulating the OAS in “its war of aggression against Nicaragua.”
“We denounce the embarrassing behavior of this commission and that of other human rights bodies as mercenaries serving and obeying the guidance of the US government and some European countries,” Alvarado said.
US Sanctions Against Ortega’s Daughter
Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department placed financial sanctions against four Nicaraguans, including Camila Antonia Ortega Murillo, the daughter of President Ortega and head of an economic department.
“As those sanctions demonstrate, there are costs for those who carry out repressive acts on behalf of President Ortega and Vice President Murillo,” said Ned Price, a U.S. State Department spokesman earlier this week. “The United States will continue to use all diplomatic and economic tools at our disposal to support Nicaraguans’ calls for greater freedom, for greater accountability, as well as for free and fair elections.”
Congress passed a law in 2018 providing Treasury authority to sanction Nicaraguan individuals and entities in response to human rights violations.
EU Sanctions Against Six Individuals Through October
Meanwhile, the European Union has sanctions already in place against six Nicaraguan individuals. The measures ban business dealings and travel for those named. It targets the government’s directors of the national police, presidential advisers, and the head of the infamous “El Chipote” detention center.
The details of the impending sanctions are currently unknown.
Additional reporting on this story by Patti Mohr
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