The Nicaraguan dictatorship is among the “most oppressive in the world”along with North Korea, Sudan and Somalia. The country is sinking into economic and democratic backwardness, suffering crimes against humanity and devastated by an unprecedented wave of forced migration.
In the face of so many outrages, it is urgent that the United States assume its “political role” by increasing sanctions, penalties and unceasing support for civic groups; and the national opposition must take action, “the time for denunciation has passed,” it must act by joining with opponents from other countries on equal terms, proposes Nicaraguan researcher Manuel Orozco.
Related news: Sandinista dictatorship is one of the most oppressive in the world
Consulted by Article 66Orozco, a researcher at the international organization Inter-American Dialogue, based in Washington, United States, warns the Nicaraguan opposition in general that they must take action because the stage of “just denunciation” has been overcome, and above all understand that they must correctly size up the “monster” that the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship embodies, in order to carry out the required “blow.”
“As long as the type of regime we are dealing with is not quantified, a proportional blow cannot be delivered, which is why it is important to have the precision to know what monster we are dealing with. The time for denunciation has already passed,” warns the political scientist, who was denationalized by the dictatorship, accusing him of being one of the ideologues of the social protests of 2018.
In a recent investigation carried out by Orozco and published in the specialized English magazine The Economist, the researcher details that, according to the “range of dictatorial radicalization” that takes into account aspects such as widespread corruption and limits on citizen participation by applying total control, in the worst style of the Taliban or North Korea, the dictatorship imposed by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo is among the most radical and oppressive in the world.
The Sandinista regime maintains a secret trial against the retired major Eddie Gonzalez Valdiviaaccused and arrested after facing off with gunfire against members of the Police and paramilitaries, who arrived at his house in a neighborhood of Estelí (North) to capture him, for denouncing the detention and exile of his sister, the journalist Nohelia González Valdivia.
Related news: Former military man Eddie González, in the clutches of Ortega: without a lawyer and tried in secret
González’s actions will be severely punished. According to the digital media Despacho 505, the trial is being conducted by Judge Alma Irías Pino, head of the Estelí District Criminal Court, and began on August 5. González Valdivia, 65, has not been allowed to appoint a defense attorney of his choice and everything is set for him to receive a guilty verdict, the source said.
The court source told the media outlet that “the judicial process is being conducted in secret and that is why the minutes of the hearings as well as the notifications and letters issued by the judges are being hidden.”
Ericka Judith Martínez Sandoval, 34, from the capital, was murdered on the afternoon of August 21 in the chapel of the Doctor Alejandro Bolaños Military School Hospital in Managua, allegedly at the hands of her ex-partner, identified as Giovanni Alexander Fonseca Mendieta.
According to reports from official media, Fonseca Mendieta arrived at the victim’s workplace, forced her into the hospital chapel and stabbed her twelve times in different parts of the body. According to the publication, soldiers surrounded the place and entered in an attempt to prevent the crime, but it had already been committed.
Related news: Woman was murdered by her partner in the chapel of the Military Hospital of Managua
Ericka Judith Martínez Sandoval, relatives told Channel 10, reported the subject for violence in February of this year and he currently had a restraining order, but he always harassed and threatened her, telling her that “if she wasn’t his, she wouldn’t be anyone else’s.”
The Nicaraguan government will force churches and religious entities to pay income tax and ordered the closure of 151 NGOs, in a tightening of control over these organizations unprecedented since the 2018 protests.
The mass closure brings to some 5,300 the number of organizations shut down by the government since the 2018 protests against it, which Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo say were supported by NGOs and the Catholic Church, dozens of whose clerics have been imprisoned and expelled from the country.
With the reforms to the Law on the Control of Non-Profit Organizations and under the Law on the Regulation of Foreign Agents, tax changes were included and now churches must pay taxes of up to 30% of their annual income, depending on the amount reported at the end of the year.
Related news: Corporate sweep: Ortega wipes out AMCHAM and 150 other private sector associations
Church expert Martha Patricia Molina, exiled in the United States, said on her account on social network X that the government is seeking
“financially strangle the Church so that it collapses under its own weight.”
As for the corporate sweep, according to the publication signed by the Minister of the Interior, María Coronel Kinloch, the entities destroyed “did not report their financial statements for a period of between 01 and 31 years.” Among those companies that are disqualified from today is the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM).
Amcham is a non-governmental, independent, non-profit organization that has been operating in Nicaragua for 49 years. “It works to promote bilateral trade and investment between the United States and Nicaragua,” its website details.
The Interior Ministry alleges that the entity did not report its financial statements between 2022-2023 and that its board of directors had expired since January 26, 2024.
Other cancelled NGOs are linked to trade with countries in the region, Nicaraguan cattle ranchers, tourism, textiles, footwear, transportation, and producers of rice, sugar, coffee and beer.
