Police in Nicaragua have arrested a seventh presidential candidate ahead of the November 7 elections. Noel Fedori was placed under house arrest and charged with “undermining the sovereignty” of the country.
Center-right Feduri says he is now one of the latest victims of a wave of arrests in which 28 opposition members have been jailed since the beginning of last month. They are accused of undermining the country’s “sovereignty and independence”, on the basis of a controversial law that critics say is aimed at silencing opponents of President Daniel Ortega.
Politicians are not the only ones who suffer. Critical journalists and opposition supporters are also repressed. Their freedoms are systematically taken away and the demonstrations are crushed by the security services. Several people were killed and dozens wounded.
One of his arrested opponents, Christiana Chamorro, was given a good chance of winning the election. Without serious opponents, the 75-year-old is expected to start his fourth term since 2007 after the poll.
The former leftist revolutionary managed to put an end to the US-backed dictatorship with his Sandinista movement in the late 1970s. After the revolution, he was first elected president in 1984, which he wanted to reform on the Cuban model.
But in 1990, the Nicaraguans chose a different candidate. Ortega was not re-elected president until 2007. Since then, his government has increasingly resembled a dictatorship. But Ortega claims that “criminals” want to overthrow him with American support.
The arrest of opponents sparked a wave of international criticism, with Washington calling for Ortega to be treated as a dictator. As well as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Organization of American States Ortega called on the opponents to release them immediately To ensure fair and free elections before November.
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