Ortega Remains Firmly in PowerTo maintain his government, Daniel Ortega, the Nicaragua president, is said to have clung to repression. Protests have been outlawed by

, is said to have clung to repression. Protests have been outlawed by the former Sandinista guerrilla government. The regime has also punished critics, jailed dissidents, and exiled thousands of Nicaraguans.

Many political detainees who the Sandinista Daniel Ortega-led government in Nicaragua views as traitors and destabilizers have been tortured and imprisoned in the gloomy cells of 

El Chipote, the notorious prison in Managua. 

The symbol of the severe persecution Ortega has inflicted on the Central American nation, to which the former rebel has clung in part to maintain his tyranny, is that prison, which has been branded as a centre for torture by international human rights organizations.

Daniel Ortega did not resemble a traditional military strongman when he first captured the world's attention in the 1980s. He was short in stature and wore large square glasses. Nonetheless, as the figurehead of Nicaragua's left-wing Sandinista revolution, he was given credit for toppling a dictator as well as the US-backed rebels who attempted to obstruct his ascent to lawful power.

With his fourth consecutive term as president as of today, four decades later, he is the longest-serving president in the Americas. 

He is still regarded as a true patriot by his fans, who address him as 'Comandante Daniel' with a mixture of respect and love. 

However, many of his former comrades are among his critics, who claim that he has abandoned his revolutionary goals and has turned into an authoritarian leader who resembles the dictator he dethroned.

When large-scale anti-government protests erupted in the nation's capital and other major cities in 2018

, Ortega unleashed harsh repression that started by drenching the demonstrators in blood, 

The pursuit of those regarded as mobilization leaders was then followed by conducting what were considered bogus trials against the dissidents. Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans have also departed the nation as a result of political persecution and a collapsing economy.

The protests started as a response to some social security measures that Ortega wanted to enact unilaterally. But they quickly grew into a broader cry of discontent that forced the administration to use parapolice groups and highly armed mobs to put a stop to the demonstrations.

," a wave of violent repression, after thousands of people fortified themselves in the nation's most significant cities, built barricades, and blocked roads. 

Caravans of trucks packed with heavily armed men — some carrying military weapons — stormed into rebel cities, smashed barricades, and shot civilians. 

Throughout those oppressive months, the regime was accused of committing crimes against humanity

Although Daniel Ortega decided to convene a conversation table with the opposition and with the support of the business community, those talks fell through because Ortega refused to concede to the opposition's demands, which included free and fair elections. 

The dictator ended the conversation and launched a vicious manhunt for anyone who had taken part.

 Peasant leaders, leaders of university movements that had seized control of public universities, and members of civil society organizations that spoke out against abuses of power were also targets of persecution.

Around 220 persons were held in the nation's prisons, mostly El Chipote, 

while political prisoners were gradually added to the population. They were found guilty of terrorism in a series of government-initiated trials widely seen as fraudulent. 

Vice President Rosario Murillo, Ortega's wife, has been blamed for the beginning of the severe repression in 2018. She assembled the Sandinista Front hosts and gave the order to attack the protestors, according to a series of emails leaked to the media. In one of those emails, she wrote, "

She made daily appearances in the administration's media to rage about the protestors, whom she called vampires, devils, and terrorists. We used the words dark, devilish, and satanic to describe how much malignancy, hate crime, and horrible thought and practice there was. "Because we are all moving together, governments, institutions, and our people, we have never seen what we are witnessing today, namely how we are liberating the country. Fighting, revolutionary, honest, hard-working people and freeing ourselves from evil," said Murillo.

Along with this, Ortega intensified his persecution against Catholics.

 The clerics had developed into a significant critics of the government. They had also taken part in the National Dialogue table, and many had cried out against the repression from the pulpit. 

In Masaya, Nicaragua's guerrilla heartland, Ortega ordered the siege of churches

 where parishioners had barricaded themselves inside. 

In a nearby parish, the dictatorship cut off the water, electricity, and food delivery, raising alarms about the new kind of repression. 

The same scenario transpired in Matagalpa, located in the north of the nation, where Bishop Rolando Lávarez had emerged as the most vocal opponent of the administration. Later, Lavarez was detained and put on trial. Various other clergymen were arrested, and several had to leave Nicaragua.

With the ratification of a law that limits their ability to operate in Nicaragua, the government has also punished civil society organizations. In 2018, the dictatorship commanded the closure of at least 209 organizations. In a 

 released in May 2022, the UN issued a dire warning. "

Among them are the key Nicaraguan human rights NGOs, including women's rights and the rights of indigenous peoples, as well as medical groups

Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans have been exiled by the regime's political brutality and strict punishment of dissenters

. Several people have made the decision to leave the nation since the protests began out of concern for a civil war, and they have crowded the Managua offices of the Immigration Directorate to apply for passports.

Thousands of exiles had to flee Nicaragua in a dramatic manner after that initial wave, with many doing so covertly and through blind spots at the borders with Honduras in the north and Costa Rica in the south. Some people paid to travel by sea. 

More than 200,000 Nicaraguans live abroad

, and according to a UNHCR report from last summer, Nicaraguans were the country with the second-highest number of asylum applications in 2021. 

Only surpassed by Afghans after the return of the Taliban to power.

An aircraft carrying 222 political prisoners from Nicaragua touched down in the US on February 10

. Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua, declared that all 222 passengers had had their citizenship revoked.

Experts praised the disclosures as a victory for international pressure and diplomacy, including those of the European Union and governments of Latin America in addition to the US.

 because he has, in a single motion, absolved himself of the most human aspect of his assault on democracy. The political rights and citizenship of the freed convicts were taken away, 

paving the way for Ortega and Murillo to maintain their hold on power.

Ortega’s Repression in Nicaragua

2 Comments