The Organization of American States (SAO) condemned Nicaragua in a decision that last Sunday’s presidential election in the Central American country was neither free nor transparent nor fair, so the Organization of American States says President Daniel Ortega has no democratic mandate.
At the SAO General Assembly, the local government of Guatemala on Friday backed 25 member states condemning the presidential elections in Nicaragua, seven countries, including neighboring Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, abstained, and only Nicaragua voted against.
“The Nicaraguan government has severely weakened democratic institutions,” the resolution said, calling on the Nicaraguan leadership to release all political prisoners, including opposition presidential candidates. The SAO asked the organization’s permanent council to prepare a report by November 30 on “appropriate steps” that could be taken in the current situation.
Daniel Ortega won his fourth, five-year term as head of state, with more than 75 percent of support, after Nicaraguan authorities jailed seven potential opposition presidential candidates in the run-up to the elections.
Daniel Ortega (pictured right)
Photo: Cesar Perez/AFP
The United States had previously described Nicaragua’s presidential elections as “anti-democratic”, and the European Union said it did not consider the elections legitimate.
The SAO may impose additional sanctions on Nicaraguan state leaders, many of whom are already subject to US criminal sanctions.
The Nicaraguan opposition welcomed the SAO’s decision. Pointing to the colors of the Nicaraguan flag on his behalf, Alexa Zamora, the leader of the opposition group Blue and White Unity, said the organization could suspend international development loans, which he said the “dictator” would benefit from.
The 75-year-old Ortega, who ruled Nicaragua as head of state from 1985 to 1990, has brought state institutions under tight control and restricted freedom of assembly and expression since taking power in 2007.
US President Joe Biden said of the Nicaraguan president that Ortega exercises power in the same way that the Somoza family did four years ago, against which Ortega himself fought with the Sandinistas.
In 1979, the far-left Sandinista movement, named after former resistance to Augusto Cesar Sandino, put an end to the revolution of Anastasio Somoza’s dictatorship in Nicaragua. (MTI)
