The elections in. Are characterized as a “parody” process Nicaragua, with President Daniel Ortega preparing for his fourth consecutive term before the polls open, as all his serious opponents have been taken into custody.
Nearly 30,000 troops will be in the polling stations to monitor the process, with the US and the European Union condemning Ortega’s impending election.
Blockchain in the media and trolls on the internet
The international media journalists were denied access to the territory and the government denied the presence of independent observers.
The country’s last remaining opposition newspaper, La Prensa, was attacked by police in mid-August and its director was jailed.
One week before the vote, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, said it had scrapped around a thousand Facebook and Instagram accounts operated by a Nicaraguan government “factory troll” to manipulate public opinion.
The accomplices and the message of abstention
Beheaded, with its leaders in custody or in exile, the opposition is preparing demonstrations in Costa Rica, Miami or Madrid and agreed to a single urging to the voters: “On Sunday, stay home.”
Nicaraguans are not fooled: The five candidates who have registered to face the head of state are accomplices, who have made compromises with the authorities.
Therefore only the abstention rate will be able to give an idea of the real support of Nicaraguan people to the “ballot” formed by Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Mourinho, the country’s vice president since 2017.
They are often compared to Frank and Claire Underwood, the ruthless “House of Cards” duo or nicknamed “Lord and Lady Macbeth”: 76-year-old Daniel Ortega and his 70-year-old wife form a couple ready for anything. absolute power exercised with an iron fist.
According to a Cid-Gallup poll, if they had the choice, 65% of the 4.4 million registered voters would have voted for an opposition candidate, compared to 19% who would have voted for the outgoing president.
In contrast, for the government-affiliated M&R polling institute, Daniel Ortega and the 90 parliamentary candidates ousted by the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) garnered 70% of the vote.
“There is no one to vote for. It is in the pocket of Daniel (Ortega) “, says a 46-year-old woman to a journalist of the French Agency. He asks not to be named: “We can not talk, otherwise they put you in jail.”
Chasing the opposition
Three years after the crackdown, which cost the lives of more than 300 protesters demanding the resignation of Daniel Ortega in the spring of 2018, and six months before the election, the opposition hunt is well under way: 39 political figures, businessmen, villagers, students and journalists arrested since June. Among them, the seven potential candidates who could pose a threat to the outgoing president.
Opposition favorite in the polls, the Christiana Chamorro, 67, the daughter of former President Violeta Chamorro (1990-1997), was the first to be arrested on June 2 and placed under house arrest.
Opposition groups accused of violating national unity in support of international sanctions against Nicaragua, for “betrayal of the homeland” or for “money laundering”, based on laws passed at the end of 2020 by the parliament, which is controlled by the government, as well as the judiciary and the electoral court.
Terror regime
THE fear dominates this small country of Central America with 6.5 million inhabitants, which is the poorest in the region and since the riots of 2018 is facing inflation, unemployment and the coronavirus pandemic, the extent of which the government denies.
After the demonstrations of spring 2018, more than 100,000 Nicaraguans have taken the road to exile, while still 150 oppositionists are behind bars, which Daniel Ortega has called “criminals” and “coup plotters” bought by Washington.
The hero who became a dictator
Hero of the revolution, Former rebel Daniel Ortega is now accused by his opponents of acting like dictator Anastasia Somosa, to the overthrow of which he had contributed in 1979.
For exiled Nicaraguan analyst Elvira Cuadra, the country’s isolation will hit international investment and funding, with social repercussions and increased immigration.
Moreover, in addition to the new sanctions adopted by the US and the EU, relations are strained with historical allies such as Mexico and Argentina. Cuba, Venezuela and Russia remain the mainstays of the Ortega and Mourinho governments.
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