The former Sandinista guerrilla, in power since 2007, takes office with the support of Russia and China, but with sanctions from the United States and the EU
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega began his fifth, fourth consecutive term on Monday, clouded with lights and shadows. The 76-year-old former Sandinista guerrilla, who has ruled since 2007, was sworn in with his wife, Rosario Murillo, in a ceremony that took place in the Plaza de la Revolución, in Managua, one day after the new National Assembly was installed, where the ruling party controls 75 of the 91 seats. The event received the support of Russia and China, although delegates from Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Laos, Angola, Turkey, Belarus, Turkey and Egypt were also present.
The leader will be able to remain in office until January 2027 and thus serve two consecutive decades in power, an unprecedented case in the recent history of Nicaragua and in today’s Latin America. Ortega won last November in an election that did not have the participation of his main political rivals because in the previous months the authorities dissolved three parties and arrested more than 40 opposition leaders, including seven presidential candidates, including the independent Cristiana Chamorro, the favorite according to the polls.
170 political prisoners
Some events that led to the rejection of the opposition and part of the international community calling the elections “fraudulent.” Since April 2018, when a popular revolt broke out against the Ortega government, which forcibly neutralized them and left hundreds of deaths and detainees and thousands in exile, both the United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on relatives of the president. Yesterday they extended the coup to seven other people and three entities from the Sandinista leader’s circle, including two of his sons.
Meanwhile, the opposition called on the international community for “coordinated actions” to pressure Ortega and thus make him stop “acting with impunity” in a country “kidnapped and silenced,” said Victoria Cárdenas, wife of the opposition Juan Sebastián Chamorro. In addition, he asked that the world not be “indifferent” to the “serious” situation in Nicaragua and unity to be able to free the “more than 170 political prisoners” in the territory.
On the other hand, Nicaraguan exiles held a vigil to express their rejection of the new mandate of the former Sandinista guerrilla. Under the slogan ‘Illegitimate Ortega’, and with banners and candles, many protesters dressed in the blue and white of their national flag, in the Plaza de la Democracia, in the capital of Costa Rica, one of the main places for Nicaraguan exile .
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