Few delegations are confirmed to attend Daniel Ortega’s inauguration after his re-election in last November’s elections, considered “illegitimate” by a large part of the international community.
A bittersweet celebration. Daniel Ortega, president of Nicaragua, will be sworn in as president of the Central American country on Monday, January 10, amidst isolation from the international community that accuses him of holding “illegitimate” elections and locking up his opponents to win his third consecutive reelection.
With this inauguration, Ortega has 26 years in power and will become the Nicaraguan president with the longest time in the presidential chair, surpassing even the dictator Anastasio Somoza, whom the Sandinista guerrilla defeated in 1979.
Ortega will assume her fifth five-year term, the fourth consecutive and the second along with his wife Rosario Murillo as vice president of the country. They will do it on a stage with delegations from few international allies, since recent events have isolated it from the international community. The Organization of American States, OAS, the European Union, the United States and 40 other countries have considered “illegitimate” the elections where Ortega was re-elected along with his wife.
According to Urnas Abiertas, an independent organization that followed up on the disputed elections, only 18.5 percent of the 4.9 million called to vote participated, although the Supreme Electoral Council of Nicaragua affirms that the turnout was 65 percent of the population, and that Ortega won with 75.87% of the votes against his opponents, faces little known in the country.
Since June 2021, the president has arrested 36 opposition leaders, including 7 presidential candidates, accusing them of crimes such as money laundering or treason, which generated a wave of economic sanctions against various officials of his government by countries like Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. After the elections, his government was congratulated by allies such as Bolivia, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Palestine, Russia, Syria, Venezuela and Vietnam.
The delegations that will accompany Ortega in his appointment
For this Monday, delegations from China, North Korea, Iran, Russia and Syria confirmed their attendance, according to the Nicaraguan government. Likewise, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, Turkey, Venezuela and Vietnam will also send an official representation to the inauguration, which until now has not confirmed the attendance of any president.
“Next January 10 throughout the country, in each neighborhood, in each region, in each home, first of all, neighborhood, municipality, district, region, neighborhood and community, we will be meeting, connecting to the central act and from the Plaza de la Revolución, is going to take the oath of all of us “, declared Rosario Murillo.
“We are awaiting the confirmation of the person who will attend on behalf of Argentina. Someone from the government level will attend, but he could not confirm who the person will be,” Daniel Capitanich, Argentina’s ambassador in Managua, told reporters. But the next day the Argentine newspaper ‘El Clarín’, citing a source from the Foreign Ministry, denied the ambassador, assuring that he would be the only assistant.
According to Murillo, the Chinese delegation will be represented by Cao Jianming, vice president of the Standing Committee of the People’s National Assembly, as special envoy of President Xi Jinping.
Nicaragua recently broke relations with Taiwan, one of its main donors, to align itself with China and this would be the first official visit after the restoration of diplomatic relations. According to the official communication, the rest will be representatives of political parties, social movements, activists and journalists from different countries of the world.
The presence of leaders at Ortega’s inauguration has decreased considerably since the first time he held the public act. In 1985 it was three leaders who accompanied him, among them Fidel Castro of Cuba. In 2007 figures such as Álvaro Uribe from Colombia, Hugo Chávez from Venezuela and Felipe Calderón from Mexico were some of the 13 state leaders who attended.
But as Ortega has established himself in power, fewer presidents have accompanied him. In 2012 only nine attended and in 2017 there were six. For this Monday, several diplomats await the assistance of Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, if so, he would be the only head of state supporting the re-election of the 76-year-old Nicaraguan leader.
Opponents reject Ortega’s oath
This Sunday the National Assembly swore in office the deputies who were elected in the elections last November. Brenda Rocha, president of the Supreme Electoral Council, swore them in in a televised act for the legislative period 2022-2026, while in countries such as Spain, Panama and Costa Rica, dozens of dissenters demonstrated to reject Ortega’s inauguration.
“The dictatorship has not given any message of flexibility in its dictatorial and dynastic course, and rather has hardened its position in recent weeks,” declared opposition organizations such as the Blue and White National Unity, UNAB, the Peasant Movement, Articulation of Social Movement.
Opponents demand the release of 170 political prisoners, the return of international human rights organizations, the return of the media confiscated by the government since 2018 and the assistance of international guarantors from organizations such as the OAS, the EU and the United Nations, among other things.
The relatives of the political prisoners issued a statement denouncing the terrible conditions of the detainees, including businessmen, ex-guerrillas, leaders of political parties and social movements.
“Their causes are not yet reflected in the Judicial Power system with the aim of making them invisible and maintaining their defenselessness. They have not yet been allowed to meet with their technical defenses and interrogations continue to be carried out in the absence of their lawyers. All the petitions presented by their lawyers. their lawyers are denied or not resolved, “the communication cites.
Several of the detainees are elderly people with chronic conditions. Cases such as that of José Pallais, a former Chancellor of the Republic, who according to his relatives has lost more than 90 pounds of weight and suffers constant fainting spells.
While the 70-year-old opponent Violeta Granera lost her teeth in prison, “it is difficult for her to eat and she has red spots on her face due to lack of sun,” say relatives. Although other younger people such as the lawyer Roger Reyes, who is kept in an isolation cell, suffers from psychosis temporarily and is losing his memory, according to his wife.
In this context, Ortega’s supporters will gather in the popular Plaza de la Revolución to celebrate the continuity of the president in charge of Nicaragua for another five years. Although for some it will be a celebration, for others, it is a sentence to silence or exile.
With EFE
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