Daniel Ortega registers a new period of prolonged absence from the public sphere in Nicaragua, completing this Thursday, February 17, a total of 37 days of not appearing in public events. His last appearance documented by the official media was on January 10, at his inauguration ceremony, when the presidential sash was self-imposed, as a result of the electoral farce of November 7, 2021.
Ortega’s wife, his vice president and spokeswoman has not yet announced when the dictator will appear publicly. However, Ortega uses a public act every February 21, in an act of homage for the anniversary of the death of Augusto C. Sandino. If Ortega reappears until this Monday, he would complete 41 days of absence, and thus exceed his record of 41 days of absence registered in 2021, when he disappeared from the public sphere between January 11 and February 21, 2021, reappearing after 40 days. , precisely to participate in the 87th anniversary of Sandino’s death.
Before January 10, Ortega had also accumulated a long period of absence, adding 29 days without public appearances in December 2021. Ortega then reappeared on December 7 in a family prayerr, as part of the Shouting festivities in honor of the Purísima Concepción de María, held at her residence and office in El Carmen. Before, Ortega had not been seen since on November 8 that he celebrated his “re-election” in the November 7 elections.
The 7N elections have been questioned nationally and internationally due to the wave of repression and imprisonment that presided over them, with more than 60 new political prisoners, including seven presidential candidates, who according to the polls could have widely defeated Ortega in an election. fair and transparent. However, the voting that took place without political competition, with the participation of collaborationist political parties, and without any transparency and freedom.
On that occasion, Ortega was shown in official media images wearing an Adidas sports outfit, which recalled the outfit that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro wore in his last years. In the images, he was sitting together with his wife, his vice president and spokesperson, Rosario Murillo, surrounded by various sons, daughters and daughters-in-law.
Ortega in search of another record, of absences
Throughout 2021, Ortega also had two other extended periods of absence, of 34 and 38 days respectively. All these periods in which Ortega has been absent, there have been crises such as the resurgence of covid-19 infections or the bloodiest days of the repressive escalation in the midst of the voting context, which registered a quarantine of political prisoners. among presidential candidates, human and civil rights activists, journalists, businessmen, and peasant and student leaders.
In 2022, Ortega has kept silent about other serious crises that shake the country, such as the start of the political trials against prisoners imprisoned in the Chipote and the first convictions of at least ten of these prisoners of conscience, whom he has called “traitors”, “coup plotters” and “sons of bitches of imperialism”.
In a report published by CONFIDENTIALlawyers and specialists in Criminal Law described as a “mockery” the trials that have been carried out against political prisoners for the multiple violations of the guarantees and rights of the accused, but also for the “quality” of the evidence “which borders on the parody”.
“The political prisoners have been sentenced with ridiculous evidence that proves nothing, other than the thirst for revenge of the regime towards them. They are evidence that in any real trial would fall in two seconds, what they are doing borders on parody, ”said a defender, who for security reasons was not cited in the analysis released by CONFIDENTIAL.
Another tragedy that occurred in the midst of this new absence of the dictator is the death of the former guerrilla, retired brigadier general and political prisoner on the orders of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, Hugo Torres Jimenez, whose death occurred on February 12, after more than two months in which the regime kept his whereabouts and health condition hidden.
Also in this period of time in which Ortega has remained cloistered, the regime radicalized the attack against higher education and NGOs, which has meant the confiscation of several universities and the cancellation of the legal status of various organizations and civil societies.
