Former “Contra” leader registers as candidate for Presidency of Nicaragua

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Former Nicaraguan Resistance leader Oscar Sobalvarro registered this Monday before the Electoral Power his presidential candidacy for the opposition Citizens for Liberty Alliance (CxL) for the November 7 elections. President Daniel Ortega will seek reelection.

Sobalvarro, known by the pseudonym of “Comandante Rubén” during the civil war of the 1980s, which confronted the Sandinistas with the “Contra”, registered his candidacy with the former beauty queen of Nicaragua 2017, Berenice Quezada, as his running mate for Vice President.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Nicaragua

The CxL Alliance, which defines itself as center-right, also registered its candidates for deputies to the National Assembly (national and departmental) and deputies to the Central American Parliament (Parlacen), totaling 220, between incumbents and alternates, half of them women and the other half men, according to the Electoral Law.

“ENOUGH OF SIEGE AND REPRESSION!”

Upon leaving the Electoral Council, Sobalvarro told journalists that “it is necessary that the electoral environment” be developed “in a calm, respectful, and free manner”.

“All the siege, the repression that the country has lived through is already too much. Nicaraguans deserve a chance to live in peace, in harmony,” he demanded.

In the framework of the electoral process, Nicaraguan authorities have arrested opposition presidential aspirants Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, Miguel Mora, Medardo Mairena, and Noel Vidaurre, who are being investigated for alleged treason.

The National Police, headed by Francisco Díaz, an in-law of Ortega, have also apprehended a former foreign minister, two former deputy foreign ministers, two historic dissident Sandinista ex-guerrillas, a business leader, a banker, a former first lady, and five opposition leaders.

In addition, two student leaders, two peasant leaders, a lawyer and human rights defender, a political scientist and specialist in political and electoral systems, a journalist, a commentator, two former NGO workers, and a host of Cristiana Chamorro.

Two other opposition presidential hopefuls, Maria Asuncion Moreno and former “Contra” leader Luis Fley left Nicaragua for security reasons.

“We hope that this electoral process will take place in an atmosphere of respect, of non-aggression,” noted Sobalvarro, who was the chief negotiator of the “Contra”, an official of the Government of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997) and alternate deputy in the period 2007-2012.

“THE CONDITIONS ARE SET BY THE PEOPLE”.

“In Nicaragua, the conditions have never been. The conditions are set by the people, and how do they set them, by going out to vote,” said Quezada, Miss Nicaragua 2017. The young woman called on Nicaraguans to vote on November 7 to demonstrate that “we do not want more dictatorships”.

In her opinion, Nicaraguans defined themselves politically after the popular revolt that broke out in April 2018 over controversial social security reforms and then turned into a demand for President Ortega’s resignation because he responded with force. “From 2018 to now, Nicaragua drew a line; everyone decided where they want to be,” she said.

According to the electoral calendar, the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and the rest of the political parties have a deadline this Monday to officially register the candidacies for president and vice president of the Republic and deputies.

Ortega, who returned to power in 2007, will seek his fifth consecutive term.

So far, besides Ortega and Sobalvarro, the tourist businessman Milton Arcia for the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) has made public his aspiration to the presidency.

Nicaragua will hold elections on November 7 to elect a new president, vice-president, 90 deputies to the National Assembly (Parliament), and 20 to Parlacen.

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