The liberation hero who imprisons his opponents – NRK Urix – Foreign Documentary News

The people of Nicaragua are unlikely to vote in free elections.

That’s what UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday.

Five new opposition politicians arrested in Nicaragua
“The leader of the opposition in Nicaragua is under house arrest”
Another opposition politician arrested in Nicaragua

The headlines have been taken from the NTB news agency for the past three weeks.

Five presidential candidates and nine prominent critics of the Ortega regime were arrested.

– It’s a dictatorship

Figard Bey is one of the most prominent Norwegian scholars in Latin America and is concerned about what is happening:

– All the candidates trying to stand up are picked one by one, imprisoned and accused of completely meaningless things that no one believes in, he tells NRK.

– Today, the fifth candidate was probably the one who was put together with all kinds of hidden pretexts. He believes that the judiciary no longer works in the country, it is purely a dictatorship.

From hero to hero

They are the ones who still lovingly support Daniel Ortega.

Then there are those who see him as an authoritarian president resembling the dictator he helped overthrow: Anastasio Somoza DeBaile.

When Somoza was expelled from the presidential palace in 1979, his family ruled the country for 40 years.

Ortega was one of nine leaders of the Sandinista Liberation Front who helped overthrow the former president.

In 1985, he himself was elected president, and Nicaragua became a progressive country that many watched. He sat for five years, before losing what were a historic democratic election.

Since he returned to power after 16 years, things have deteriorated.

– In 2006, he may have been elected relatively democratically, but then the electoral establishment was gradually corrupted, says Bay.

He changed the constitution to be able to continue as president, and he secured close allies on the Supreme Court and the Electoral Court. He ignored all opposition.

– My best friend in Nicaragua says Ortega has become glass From Somoza, say goodbye.

bloody rebellion

Then the protests began.

They started in 2018 when Ortega wanted to reduce old-age pensions. Bye thinks this was used as an excuse to take to the streets. What they weren’t really happy with was the boss. And they were for a long time.

I started off peacefully.

– For a long time they seemed to be winning, says Bay.

Our demonstrators are entering into a negotiating position with Ortega. But then it turned around.

– Police deployed against protesters who eventually killed more than 300 youths. Lots disappeared. Many ended up in prison. Saying goodbye: many have gone into exile.

Report: Abuse is a strategy

A new report by Human Rights Watch documents that the regime has stepped up its use of violence.

The arrests and other abuses against critics appear to be part of a larger strategy to eliminate political competition, silence differences and pave the way for President Daniel Ortega’s re-election for a fourth term, the report concluded. “Critics Attack” According to NTB.

The news agency wrote that the regime and its supporters had cracked down on journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and others, many of whom were arbitrarily imprisoned.

Elections in November.

Is it possible that someone other than Ortega will continue?

It is possible that he chose an innocent runner, but there is no serious competitor for Ortega today. He replies that he simply puts them in prison.