The Nicaraguan Parliament, dominated by the ruling Sandinista Front, approved on Friday a constitutional reform that subjects the powers of the State to the Executive, increases control of the media, extends the presidential term to six years and creates the positions of co-president and co-president. .
The reform package, sent to Congress on Tuesday by President Daniel Ortega with “urgency”, was approved in the first legislature with the vote of the majority Sandinista party.
According to the Nicaraguan Constitution, reforms to the Magna Carta must be approved in two legislative periods before they come into force. The current legislature ends in December and the next one begins on January 10, 2025, when the reform would be fully approved, estimated the president of Parliament, Gustavo Porras.
The opposition has said that the initiative legalizes “the absolute power” of Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, and the Organization of American States (OAS) has accused the presidential couple of trying to “increase their absolute control of the State and perpetuate themselves.” in power”.
Another relevant change is the creation of the figures of “co-president” and “co-president”, as well as the increase from five to six years of the presidential term and of the deputies of the National Assembly. Ortega, 79, has said several times that Murillo enjoys the same power as him at the head of the Executive.
The reform also establishes that “the State will ensure that the media are not subjected to foreign interests and spread false news.” Since 2020, a “Cybercrime Law” has been in force in the country, which punishes the dissemination of “fake news” with sentences of up to 10 years in prison.
In addition to defining the State as “revolutionary,” the reform empowers the Presidency to “order the intervention of the Army in support of the National Police, when the stability of the Republic requires it,” and authorizes police and military personnel to “occupy positions temporarily in the Executive sphere”.
It also formally creates the Voluntary Police, which arose in response to the social protests of 2018, which resulted in more than 300 deaths, according to human rights organizations, and was composed mainly of former military personnel who fought during the Sandinista revolution (1979-1990).
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