The elections scheduled for next Sunday in Nicaragua are “completely a fake (false) ”and from them no“ legitimate result ”can be expected, said this Tuesday in Lima, Peru, the high representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.
In a meeting with foreign media in Peru, where he arrived on Monday on his first visit to Latin America since taking office, Borrell indicated that the situation in the Central American country is “one of the most serious currently” in the the entire continent and an even greater concern for Europe than the next local and regional elections that will take place in Venezuela.
“Nicaragua worries me more, that there are elections that are completely a fake. We are not going to send any electoral observation missions there because Mr. Ortega has already been in charge of imprisoning all the political opponents who were standing in the elections. We cannot expect this process to produce a legitimate result that we can consider, but quite the opposite, ”said Borrell.
The highest representative of the EU’s foreign policy thus referred to the presidential vote that will take place next Sunday in Nicaragua, considered illegitimate not only by the European bloc, but also by the United States, due to the arrest of up to seven candidates from the opposition.
Prepare more sanctions
In mid-October, the EU Foreign Ministers asked Borrell, to prepare a series of measures against the Government of Nicaragua, which could include more sanctions against senior Nicaraguan officials.
The European Foreign Ministers discussed the Nicaraguan situation at the request of Spain, whose Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares described the upcoming elections as “electoral fraud.”
“The minimum conditions are not met so that there can be a democratic, free, transparent and competitive electoral process,” said Albares, who added that for this reason, the European External Action Service, led by Borrell, is going to start working on a series of measures “that would include, if necessary, a third round of sanctions on a personal level, also in the environment of President Ortega.”
The EU has sanctioned 14 high-ranking officials of the regime, including the vice president and first lady, Rosario Murillo. Most of them already appear on other lists of sanctioned by the Governments of the United States, Canada, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, which point them out of acts of corruption and violations of the human rights of Nicaraguans.
Candidates imprisoned
In a press conference after the meeting of foreign ministers, Borrell commented that Ortega and Murillo have “guaranteed their victory (…) by imprisoning the opposition.”
Cristiana Chamorro, the candidate for the Nicaraguan presidency who was most likely to defeat the current president, Sandinista Daniel Ortega, was arrested for “treason against the fatherland” and alleged money laundering and has been under house arrest since last June and disqualified to participate in the elections at the request of the Public Ministry, led by former Sandinista guerrilla Ana Julia Guido.
In addition, they were also excluded from the competition due to arrests and legal investigations promoted by the regime of Ortega Arturo Cruz, a former Nicaraguan ambassador to the United States, arrested upon his return from a trip to Washington; Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, the journalist Miguel Mora, the peasant leader Medardo Mairena and Noel Vidaurre.
“The European Union will continue to insist on democracy, human rights, the rule of law, the release of political prisoners, the return of NGOs and human rights organizations and free elections, since those that are going to be held shortly now are false, organized by a dictatorship, “said Borrell in mid-October.
The diplomat also said that in Nicaragua there is “one of the worst dictatorships in the world.”
