This content was published on 05 June 2021 – 19:44
Managua, Jun 5 (EFE) .- The opposition candidate for the Presidency of Nicaragua Arturo Cruz was arrested this Saturday at the Augusto C. Sandino International Airport, when he was returning from a tour of the United States, reported the Public Ministry.
Cruz, presidential candidate for the opposition Citizen Alliance, “is being investigated by the National Police for having strong indications that he has attacked Nicaraguan society and the rights of the people,” the Public Ministry detailed in a statement.
The Public Ministry indicated that Cruz apparently attacked the “Law for the defense of the rights of the people and of independence, sovereignty and self-determination for peace,” which came into effect last December.
Said legislation prevents those who are considered “traitors to the Fatherland”, who face penalties of two to 20 years in prison, from opting for positions of popular election.
Hours before the Public Ministry statement, Cruz’s press team had denounced that the presidential candidate had been detained at the Managua airport for three hours.
Cruz is the second candidate for the presidency by the opposition to be disqualified from the general elections on November 7, in which President Daniel Ortega seeks his third consecutive reelection and the second with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president.
The first case was that of the director of the defunct Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation for Reconciliation and Democracy, Cristiana Chamorro, who is under house arrest.
Another seven opposition candidates have denounced persecution and police harassment, two of whom reported that they have a “house for a jail” even though they have no accusations against them.
INHIBITION LAW
According to the law allegedly violated by Cruz, Nicaraguans “who carry out acts that undermine independence, sovereignty, and self-determination, that incite foreign interference in internal affairs, request military interventions, organize with financing from foreign powers to carry out acts of terrorism and destabilization ”.
It also points out those who “propose and manage economic, commercial and financial operations blockades against the country and its institutions, those who demand, exalt and applaud the imposition of sanctions against the State of Nicaragua and its citizens, and all those who harm the supreme interests of the nation contemplated in the legal system ”.
Likewise, it condemns those who “lead or finance a coup d’état, who alter the constitutional order, who encourage or encourage terrorist acts.”
Cruz and other candidates for the Nicaraguan Presidency who consider Ortega a “dictator” had already warned of the possibility that the authorities would remove the candidates who represent “a risk” for reelection of the former Sandinista guerrilla.
Previously, the Supreme Electoral Council had stripped the Democratic Restoration Party (PRD) of legal personality, which had the support of one of the most important opposition groups, and the dissident Conservative Party.
On Electoral Eve he had also recommended that the contending political parties ensure that their candidates for the Presidency met the legal requirements to compete.
The November elections will be crucial for Nicaragua, as 42 years of Ortega’s almost absolute primacy over Nicaraguan politics will be at stake. EFE
© EFE 2021. The redistribution and redistribution of all or part of the contents of Efe’s services is expressly prohibited, without the prior and express consent of the EFE SA Agency.
–
