The deposed opposition mayor of Santa María de Pantasma, Oscar Gadea, maintained this Sunday, July 3, through a brief audio message, that the justification of the Nicaraguan Institute for Municipal Development (INIFOM) for dismissing him was that his party Ciudadanos por la Libertad (CxL) does not have legal status.
Gadea reported that Daniel Ortega’s executive appointed new authorities, after take by force the municipality with riot police and parading the technical staff of the institution to assure them that they will leave them and only fire those elected. In the images, broadcast after the occupation, Sandinista sympathizers could be seen waving the government party’s flag.
The deposed official added that the new mayor, appointed by Ortega, is Carmen Obando, her deputy mayor is Melvin Zelaya, and Lourdes González is the new secretary of the Municipal Council. These politicians served as Sandinista councilors until this new appointment.
The threat that the mayors of CxL could be taken over by Ortega was made by INIFOM four days later in August 2021, when the Supreme Electoral Council stripped this opposition organization of its legal status, as part of the repressive escalation, with which Ortega was re-elected after eliminating electoral competition in the November 7 ballot
“There was no need for riot gear”
Gadea assured that he feels “calm”, hours after the Ortega regime orchestrated a lightning intervention against the municipality of Pantasma, while national attention was focused on the effects caused by storm Bonnie in the south of the country.
The intervened mayor’s office is one of the bastions of the weakened opposition in Nicaragua and has a historical past against Sandinismo. It is located in the so-called Contra corridor.
“If they have notified us that they have to hand over, we would have peacefully handed over. There was no need for police or riot police,” Gadea said.
The municipal takeover occurred a week after an interview with Gadea was published CONFIDENTIAL Y This weekin which he expressed that there was a persistent fear among local officials that the FSLN would take over the institution.
The capture military manual of Pantasma also occurred when there were four months left for the municipal votes. The former president of CxL, Kitty Monterrey, said on June 28 to CONFIDENTIAL that this process will be a mere formality for the FSLN to take over all the mayor’s offices in Nicaragua.
“One speaks of elections when there is competition. In this case, there isn’t. You have one against the other in a normal election, but here there are only one, which is the Sandinista Front and its allies, and the opposition is not there,” said Monterrey from exile.
CxL also lamented this Saturday, July 2, the seizure of the Mayor’s Office of Pantasma and demanded the cessation of harassment of citizens, as well as respect for the integrity of municipal authorities and officials, through a message on their social network accounts. .
The Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation condemned the “dictatorial decision of Ortega and his accomplice Rosario Murillo” in a post on its Twitter account. The prestigious activist denounced the regime’s violence.
?? He denounced and condemned the violent takeover of the Santa Maria de #pant by the repressive apparatus of the dictator Daniel Ortega and his accomplice Rosario Murillo https://t.co/srlJFyskC5
— Bianca Jagger Nicaraguan by the grace of God ?? (@BiancaJagger) July 3, 2022
For its part, the independent organization Urnas Abiertas warned about the absence of conditions for legitimate and complete elections, after the municipal coup against Mayor Oscar Gadea. The FSLN currently controls the 90 percent of the municipalities in Nicaragua. With Santa María de Pantasma, CxL ruled in five mayorships. The others are Cuá, San Sebastián de Yalí, in Jinotega; He lives in Nueva Segovia and El Almendro in Río San Juan.
