The president of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, lamented the social, political and economic crisis that has persisted in Nicaragua since April 2018; when civic protests began in the country that triggered an excessive repression against citizens who oppose the administration of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Alvarado assured that since then the democratic institutions have been “eroded and destroyed,” and therefore the Central American country “no longer has any trace of democracy.”
The Costa Rican president, who was in visit in Spain, He stated that the crisis in Nicaragua “from the perspective of democracy is unacceptable, as is the situation experienced by political prisoners, which is what they are.”
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He stressed that the Ortega-Murillo regime increased the repression in 2021, prior to the election day of November 7, imprisoning seven candidates for the Presidency and more than 40 opposition leaders. “We have the entire Nicaraguan opposition jailed before last year’s elections, elections that were not transparent,” he said.
In addition, he called on the international community to promote a process of dialogue, “clean and transparent elections” in Nicaragua, “always with the leadership of Nicaraguans themselves.”
«It is the duty of democracies to be forceful and categorical in saying, from a principled perspective, what is correct and what is not; because in the long run that’s what you would tell a friend. The real solutions are in the hands of the citizens (…) the countries can only accompany the process », he stressed.
Faced with the social, political and economic crisis that persists in Nicaragua, the president of Costa Rica stressed that “those who have to take the baton of transformation are the Nicaraguans themselves.”
The Ortega Murillo dictatorship has increased repression and political persecution against the people of Nicaragua. He currently holds more than 170 political prisoners, has outlawed around 140 non-governmental organizations, and continues to force thousands of nationals to leave the country.
Costa Rica continues to host thousands of Nicaraguans. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the number of Nicaraguan refugees and asylum seekers in Tico territory has doubled and reached 150,000 in the last eight months (a period marked by elections in which the opposition was persecuted).
