Nicaragua’s Ortega moves to abolish elections

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega on Sunday said his country is moving toward not holding a presidential election next year, appearing to maintain his shared control over the country with his co-president and wife, Rosario Murillo.

Ortega said at a government rally marking the 47th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution’s takeover of the country that there “won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” according to a translation of the rally from Reuters.

“The days when parties backed by the Yankees and the Somocistas would return to power are over –— never again,” Ortega continued, referring to the U.S. and the followers of the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza.

Ortega has held on to power since returning to the presidency in 2007, after he had been voted out of office in 1990. His latest election victory, in 2021 was widely disputed, prompting a crackdown on political opponents and dissenting voices.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Ortega’s remark “lays bare their true authoritarian nature.”

“Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have abandoned even the pretense of popular consent,” Rubio said in a statement. “The Nicaraguan people have the right to choose their own leaders through democratic elections. The United States calls on the international community to join forces to demonstrate to the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship that it cannot expect to maintain business as usual with other nations when it is thwarting the basic tenets of our democratic hemisphere.”

Last year, Ortega consolidated power through several constitutional reforms, including one allowing Murillo to serve as his co-president and by extending presidential terms to six years.

The U.S. is one of many countries that have long accused Nicaragua’s left-wing leader of being a dictator. The U.N. Human Rights Council accused the Ortega and Murillo government of turning the country into an “authoritarian state” that regularly violates human rights.

Félix Maradiaga, a 2021 presidential candidate arrested by the Ortega-Murillo government, told The New York Times that Ortega “buried Nicaraguan democracy a long time ago.”

“As long as Daniel Ortega controls the Nicaraguan state, Nicaragua cannot have free elections,” he told the outlet.

Laura Kelly contributed reporting.

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