Let his wife become the “co-chair” of the election farce

With Seven opposition presidential candidates in prison or house arrestNicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega, 75, didn’t have much to fear in Sunday’s election.

But during a campaign rally in Managua on Sunday, he made harsh new accusations against the opposition.

“They are demons who don’t want peace,” Ortega said. French news agency.

Dictator comparison

However, internationally, it is Ortega who gets the hardest way.

“farce” and “a .” Choose mime “He was neither free nor fair,” US President Joe Biden said shortly after polls closed.

He said Ortega and his wife-in-law Rosario Murillo “now despotic Nicaragua, without distinction from the Somoza family that Ortega and the Sandinistas fought four decades ago.”

The Sandinista Front (FSLN) overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979.

Preliminary results of the Electoral Council of Nicaragua awarding Ortega the victory, with 75 percent of support among those voters who exercised the right to vote.

– 1 out of 5 voted

Election observers from Urnas Apiertas estimated the turnout at 18.5 percent, down by half from 2016 and by a third in 2011, according to the organization.

Broadcasts from South Ossetia He is among the few international observers who approved the elections. This pro-regime Prikada wrote that these stand out “Good organization”.

She wrote that neighboring Costa Rica is among those who do not recognize the elections trusted – A website in Nicaragua that was subjected to unorganized raids by the police.

While Carlos Fernando Chamorro, editor of Confidencial, sought refuge in Costa Rica, editor Miguel Mora appears on the TV channel «100% Noticias» Imprisonment of a presidential candidate.

Before the elections, more than 30 opposition leaders and civilians were imprisoned, according to Spain Country, accused, among other things, of “money laundering” and undermining.

According to El País, media outlets Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, French Le Monde, BBC and TV España were denied entry to cover the election.

100,000 fled the country

It has tightened its grip on Ortega since he became president again in 2007, after a presidency in the 1980s. Shortly before this year’s election, he promoted his wife, Rosario Murillo, from vice president to co-chair.

They and their sons control the electoral and judicial system and the various media outlets. For them, the election winner was important, in order to maintain a semblance of legitimacy.

– They need it, to preserve the empire they have in Nicaragua, says Marcela Prado (38), who fled to Norway in the fall of 2018, to Dagbladet.

Dagbladet’s interview attracts attention: – Confession of the Nicaraguan Police Chief

She is one of more than 100,000 Nicaraguans who fled after riots began among students in the spring of 2018, who according to Country Still in exile.

At least 325 people were killed when police and paramilitary forces crushed an uprising targeting a corruption-rife regime.

– I ran away because I received threats against my family and against myself, says Prado, who says she was granted political asylum in Norway.

– Totally rotten

For some, Daniel Ortega’s development is more disappointing than others.

Vigard Bey was the only Norwegian to be in Managua on July 19, 1979, when Ortega, as one of nine FSLN leaders, ousted dictator Anastasio Somoza.

At that time, Bey had high hopes for democratic development.

“It is the latest example of corrupting power and corrupting absolute power completely,” says Bey, who has met Ortega several times.

He describes him as “not very charismatic”, with an “unconstrained will to power”.

How much do you take into account that Ortega’s wife has now been appointed “co-president”?

– It is an expression that a pair of dictators seize all power.

– He can sit for a long time

It was the war against the US-funded Contras in the 1980s, Bey asserts, that paved the way for the authoritarianism of the Sandinista National Liberation Front.

– That war destroyed Nicaragua’s economy and made Nicaragua a surviving society. Bay says it gave authoritarian and anti-democratic forces an edge.

In 1990, Ortega voluntarily resigned after an electoral defeat, but returned in 2007.

When he soon assumes his fourth presidency, which will last for five years, he will have, according to the press He held power longer than any head of the dictatorial Somoza family, which dominated between 1937 and 1979.

Farewell, you fear that the Ortega family will keep it for a long time.

They have complete control over the armed forces, the police, politics, and the economy. As long as the “big men” in Ortega’s private business world are allowed to carry on — and allowed to maintain their interests — it’s very hard to get anything done with Ortega, says Vigard-Bye.