The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, assured on Saturday night, April 30, that the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), founded in 1961 and in power since 2007, “is now remaining” in the hands of young people. .
“The flag of the homeland, of sovereignty, of the working people is now remaining in their hands,” Ortega said during an official act on the occasion of International Workers’ Day, held at the Olof Palme Convention Center in Managua.
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Ortega is a 76-year-old former guerrilla fighter who has spent more than half his life as the undisputed leader of the FSLN, a party for which he has been its only presidential candidate in the elections of 1984, 1990, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 and in 2021.
The FSLN, which was born as a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla movement, has participated in eight national elections in its 61-year history, the first in 1984, five years after overthrowing the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza Debayle through arms.
The Sandinista leader insisted that “in your hands (of the youth) that flag is remaining, little by little you are taking it,” and asked the militancy that in this transition “there must be harmony and not confrontation,” this in reference to the defection of many of its members, who have decided to denounce the abuses committed by their regime.
“The relief is coming in harmony, it is taking place in harmony and not in confrontation, because whoever feeds the confrontation, then threatens the unity of the Sandinista family, the Nicaraguan family and the country,” he said.
“Dear young people: you know, that is the challenge we have, to walk together, from children to the elderly, all together walking towards new victories,” he concluded.
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The so-called historical Sandinista militants have publicly demanded greater spaces for participation, both in the Government and in popularly elected positions.
Ortega, who returned to power 15 years and three months ago after coordinating a Government Junta from 1979 to 1985 and presiding over the country for the first time from 1985 to 1990, was re-elected for the fifth time, fourth in a row and second along with his wife , Rosario Murillo, as vice president, in the questioned elections of November 7, 2021, with her main opponents in prison and accused of “treason against the country.”
The international community and political opposition groups in Nicaragua have branded Ortega’s votes as “farces” and “pantomime”, where there was no real competition.
The former guerrilla is the Nicaraguan politician who has presented himself as a presidential candidate the most times, with eight, and also the head of state with the longest time in power in Nicaragua, with 26 years and three months (including the six years that he coordinated the Board of Government), surpassing Anastasio Somoza García (16 years and 9 months) and José Santos Zelaya (16 years and 6 months).
