The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, reappeared this Wednesday and justified the arrest of up to 19 opponents in recent weeks with five months to go before the presidential elections.
Ortega said that the detainees They are not candidates or politicians, but “criminals” who want to “overthrow the government.”
“The enemies of the revolution, the enemies of the people, are shouting, how poor, how is it possible that they are detained, that they are being processed, and launching campaigns against Nicaragua “, said Ortega during a public act.
” And some countries daring to attack Nicaragua (…) and ask for more sanctions. There they are on their knees asking for sanctions against the Yankee empire. They think that with sanctions they will subdue Nicaragua. Nicaragua has gone through more difficult times, much harder ”, added the president of 75 years, who will seek his fourth consecutive term in November.
In 2018, a wave of anti-government protests unleashed a state crackdown that left more than 300 dead. The violent government response led the United States to blacklist the main Nicaraguan officials.
In recent months, the Nicaraguan Congress has enacted regulations that facilitate the prosecution of people for receiving funding. foreign and for publishing “false” information.
The Law 1055, approved at the end of last year, allows presidential candidates to be excluded if they have spoken in favor of the United States sanctions.
On Wednesday, Ortega defended the recent arrests by ensuring that the justice of his country is not prosecuting “politicians” but “criminals” who were seeking a coup.
“It is absurd that we set them free. We are doing all this in accordance with the law. Here it is not a question that whoever has more (money) cannot be touched by the prosecution or the police because they belong to high society, ”said the former Marxist guerrilla, the leader alive with the longest time in power in the American continent.
Although the United States and other countries have been in favor of new sanctions against the ruling leadership, analysts assure that they could be counterproductive, by increasing poverty in the country of 6.5 million inhabitants , stoking migration and further destabilizing the region.
In recent weeks, the security forces have detained about twenty people, including five presidential candidates as well as businessmen and journalists and a banker.
All are accused of “inciting foreign interference” under a new law of the government of Ortega approved by Congress in December last year to defend the sovereignty of the country.
International condemnation
The law has been criticized as a means of silencing opponents and preventing the candidacies of Ortega’s rivals in the November elections.
Arrests have increased international condemnation.
At a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, 59 countries issued a statement in which they were “very concerned that recently passed laws unduly restrict political participation, freedom of expression, assembly and association. ”
The Human Rights Council of the Organizació n of American States (OAS) denounced this Wednesday a “new phase of repression” in Nicaragua and asked the Justice to protect politicians
In the midst of the complaints, however, Ortega said that they will not back down.
The president was one of the Sandinista leaders who helped overthrow an authoritarian regime and to seize power in of the population.
He ruled until 1990 and returned to power 2007.
To the 75 years he is expected to run for a new election in November.
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