Two opposition leaders have been arrested in Nicaragua who want to run against President Daniel Ortega in the elections in early November. Four potential challengers to Ortega are now imprisoned.
Félix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro, arrested yesterday, are suspected of crimes against the state. They are said to have planned ‘terrorist and disruptive actions’, financed by foreign countries.
Chamorro is a descendant of a prominent Nicaraguan family and a cousin of Cristiana Chamorro, who last week was arrested. She has been placed under house arrest.
Last weekend, former ambassador to the United States Arturo Cruz Sequeira was also arrested. He will remain in custody for at least three months, a judge has ruled.
Left-wing Ortega has been in power in the Central American country since 2007, having previously served as president from 1985 to 1990. In 2018, major social protests broke out against his regime, which he knocked down with a heavy hand.
America demands release
A director of human rights organization Human Rights Watch says that he’s never seen anything like it in 30 years. “Ortega wants to be like Stroesnner,” he wrote on Twitter. Alfredo Stroessner was dictator in Paraguay between 1954 and 1989.
Also according to the US, the arrests confirm that Ortega is a dictator “and that the international community has no choice but to treat him as such”. The US and also the EU have told senior members of the regime sanctions imposed.
The top American diplomat for Latin America Julie Chung demands that all detainees be released immediately.
–
