Arrests of opposition leaders continue in Nicaragua and U.S. sanctions four Ortega advisors

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Nicaraguan authorities continued Wednesday the arrests of opposition leaders, including four aspirants to the Presidency of Nicaragua. At the same time, the United States sanctioned four advisors of President Daniel Ortega, including his daughter Camila Antonia Ortega Murillo.

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, asked Nicaragua to release the opposition leaders who have been detained in recent days and to restore their political rights.

The Spanish government also called for the “immediate release” of Nicaragua’s presidential election pre-candidates “detained, imprisoned or held” – Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Felix Maradiaga, and Juan Sebastian Chamorro – as well as “other opponents”.

NIGHTTIME POLICE RAID

On Tuesday, the Police imprisoned the aspirant Chamorro, the former head of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep) José Adán Aguerri and the activist Violeta Granera, and this Wednesday they did the same with the politician and former vice-minister of Foreign Affairs José Pallais.

After midday on Tuesday and after appearing before the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Maradiaga had already been arrested.

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According to the National Police, these five opponents were arrested on charges of “carrying out acts that undermine independence, sovereignty, and self-determination, inciting foreign interference in internal affairs, calling for military interventions” and other crimes, according to the National Police, headed by Francisco Diaz President Ortega’s father-in-law.

The first arrested, last week, was Cristiana Chamorro, daughter of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997) and the opposition figure most likely to win next November’s presidential elections, and the second was Arturo Cruz, ambassador to the United States for the Ortega government between 2007 and 2009.

WASHINGTON SANCTIONS ORTEGA’S DAUGHTER

Following these arrests, the US Treasury Department decided to sanction Ortega’s daughter, who directs the fashion event Nicaragua Diseña and the National Commission of Creative Economic, the Central Bank of Nicaragua, Ovidio Reyes; and the head of the Sandinista parliamentary group, Edwin Castro.

Also Brigadier General Julio Modesto Rodríguez Balladares, executive director of the Instituto de Previsión Social Militar (IPSM), the financial arm of the Nicaraguan Army.

As a result of the sanctions, all assets that those involved may have in the U.S. are frozen.

In addition, they are prohibited from making any financial transaction with U.S. citizens or involving any transit through U.S. power, which is intended to make it difficult for those sanctioned to access the international financial system based on the U.S. dollar.

Washington had previously sanctioned the country’s vice-president and first lady, Rosario Murillo, and three other sons: Rafael Antonio, Laureano, and Juan Carlos, all Ortega Murillo.

UN AND SPAIN CALL FOR THE RELEASE OF OPPOSITION LEADERS

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary-General said he was “very concerned about the recent arrests and detentions, as well as the invalidation of candidacies of opposition leaders in Nicaragua”, said his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric.

According to Dujarric, the head of the United Nations considers that these events “can seriously undermine confidence in the democratic process ahead of the general elections in November” and sees the need for a broad agreement so that there is a “credible and inclusive” participation in these elections.

For its part, the Spanish Executive also demanded an end to “the persecution of political and social actors and independent media” in the Central American country.

“Spain reiterates its deep concern over the latest events in Nicaragua that have led to the arrest of numerous electoral pre-candidates and political actors of the opposition,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

EMPLOYERS: REPRESSION NEVER SEEN BEFORE

Cosep, the main Nicaraguan employers’ association, warned that a “process of repression never seen before in the democratic history of Nicaragua” has been unleashed and demanded the “immediate release” of the opposition pre-candidates and that of its former president, who has been “arbitrarily detained under the protection of illegal processes and unconstitutional laws”.

“The Government, making use of the Justice System, has begun to dismantle the democratic regime established by our Constitution and the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the OAS, and by which the State is obliged to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms”, argued the employers’ association.

Nicaraguan poet and writer Gioconda Belli compared the arrest of opposition leaders to the so-called “night of the long knives”, which alludes to the murders that Adolf Hitler carried out in 1934 to purge his political adversaries in Germany.

The winner of the 2010 Latin American Literature Prize La Otra Orilla warned that the Nicaraguan people “will be the ones harmed when the sanctions fall and fire rains down from the civilized world against our poor country because of these illegalities and persecutions”.