The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega arrested five opposition leaders during a major weekend round up, in what appears to be widespread detentions of anyone who might challenge his rule.
The four arrests Sunday and one Saturday suggest Ortega has moved beyond arresting potential rival candidates in the Nov. 7 elections, and has begun arresting any prominent member of the opposition. The arrests bring to 12 the number of opponents detained since June 2.
“It’s not just potential candidates any more, it’s political leaders,” former general and Sandinista dissident Hugo Torres told The Associated Press before he himself was arrested Sunday. “This is not a transition to dictatorship, it is a dictatorship in every way.”
Under a law passed in December, Ortega’s government has the power to unilaterally declare citizens “terrorists” or coup-mongers, classify them as “traitors to the homeland” and ban them from running as candidates.
The law punishes those “who lead or finance a coup ... encourage foreign interference, ask for military intervention ... propose or plan economic blockades, applaud and champion the imposition of sanctions against Nicaragua or its citizens.”
Those accused “will be traitors to the homeland, and for that reason may not run for public office.” Treason is punishable by prison terms of up to 15 years.
Torres said Ortega has now instituted a more suffocating dictatorship than Somoza, who faced opposition from the within the church, intellectual circles and universities.
“I think Ortega has outdone Somoza,” said Torres. “He has subordinated all the power to himself as Somoza never could. He has a bigger repressive apparatus than Somoza ever had.”
https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-nicaragua-religion-arrests-0e67d619db76deece2bc0decad6d64ddThe opposition leaders having been arrested since the beginning of the month and whose whereabouts are unknown are the following:
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Cristiana Chamorro, the editor of
La Prensa and the daughter of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro (leading opponent to the Somoza dictatorship murdered in 1978) and former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. The director of the recently closed down Violeta de Chamorro Foundation NGO dedicated to support press freedoms, Chamorro was a pre-candidate for next November presidential election. She has been arrested on 2 June.
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Arturo Cruz, the son of a leading opponent to Somoza dictatorship, a former Contra guerrilla under Edén Pastora and an ambassador to the United States under Daniel Ortega (2007-09). Also a presidential pre-candidate, he has been arrested on 5 June.
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Violeta Granera, a sociologist and human rights activist who became involved in the opposition broad front Blue White National Unity (UNAB) after having unsuccessfully ran for vice president in 2016 as the candidate of the center-right Independent Liberal Party (her candidacy was dismissed by the Supreme Court). She has been arrested on 8 June.
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Félix Maradiaga, an academic and former official in the ministry of defense under right-wing president Enrique Bolaños, who was considered as the front-runner candidate in the selection of the UNAB presidential candidate and the strongest opponent in face of Ortega. He also has been arrested on 8 June.
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Juan Sebastián Chamorro, an economist, a cousin of Cristiana Chamorro and a director of the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy opposition group who recently stepped down from that position to prepare his presidential pre-candidacy. He has been arrested on 8 June.
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José Adán Aguerri, a businessman, the leader of the Civic Alliance opposition group and until recently the president of the Private Enterprise Superior Council. Until few years ago a supporter of the Ortega administration, Adán has been arrested on 8 June.
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José Pallais, a deputy foreign minister in the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro administration, a former deputy for the conservative Constitutionalist Liberal Party and currently a prominent leader of the opposition National Coalition. He has been arrested on 9 June.
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Tamara Dávila, a prominent feminist and activist for the Renovation Democratic Union (Unamos), a left-wing party founded in 1995 as the Sandinista Renovation Party (MRS) as a split of the Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). She has been arrested on 12 June.
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Dora María Téllez ‘Comandante Dos’, a leading Sandinista military commander in the 1970s who took part in the 1978 assault on National Congress (during which pro-Somoza legislators were taken hostages), a health minister in the Ortega administration in the 1980s, a founder and leading member of the MRS/Unamos and a LGBT activist. She has been arrested on 13 June.
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Ana Margarita Vijil, a former president of the MRS and leading member of the Unamos. She has been arrested on 13 June.
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Suyen Barahona, the president of the Unamos. She has been arrested on 13 June.
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Hugo Torres, a retired general, a leading Sandinista commander who led in 1974 an operation against a Somoza minister’s house where a party was given, took the minister and the guests hostage and freed them in exchange of the release of prominent jailed Sandinista leaders including Daniel Ortega and currently the vice president of the Unamos. In a video recorded hours before his arrest, Torres said ‘Forty-six years ago, I risked my life to rescue Daniel Ortega and other political prisoners from jail, but that’s how life goes: those who once held their principles high have now betrayed them’. He has been arrested on 13 June.
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Víctor Hugo Tinoco, a former prominent Sandinista guerrilla, a deputy foreign minister in the Ortega first administration and a leading member of the Unamos. He has been arrested on 13 June.
