The constitutional reforms proposed by the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, to further consolidate his power by extending their control over other parts of the government, obtained the final approval on Thursday after a unanimous vote in Congress.
The amendments extend the six -year presidential period, change the position of the vice president, the wife of the president Daniel Ortega, Rosario Murillo, 73, for that of “co -president” and increase the control of the Executive over the media, what which has been very criticized for the opposition and organizations such as the OAS and the UN.
They also empowers the presidency to “coordinate” the judicial and legislative functions, it allows you to order the army to intervene in support of the police and authorize security agents to temporarily occupy positions of the Executive Power when they are ordered.
With the new scheme, both Ortega and Murillo, the two “co -chants”, They can name an unlimited number of vice presidents, which has generated speculation that one or more of the eight children of the couple living in the country could be chosen for the position. Several of them already occupy positions in the government or help direct state media.
The reforms also establish that when any of the co -chants dies the other will assume the position without mediating elections in between.
Approved by the legislators of the ruler Sandinista front, who control the Congress, the latest reforms will enter into force once published in the Official Government Bulletin.
“These grotesque changes suppose the death sentence for the rule of law and basic freedoms in Nicaragua, destroying how little it remains of the controls and balances of the Executive Bran Reuters Reed Brody, a member of a United Nations Expert Group who has investigated human rights abuses in the country.
Ortega, 79, now supervises “a totally authoritarian regime,” added Brody, which includes powers to use the army in police tasks and deploy a police force called “voluntary” as additional security forces.
Ortega, former leftist rebel, came to power in 1979, when he overthrew together with other guerrillas to a family right -wing dynasty and for years he acted as one of the leading United States antagonists at the time of the Cold War.
He is currently in his fourth consecutive term as president, after returning to power in 2007.
“We have to go little by little making it clear that the Nicaraguan State is a revolutionary state, it hurts who hurts,” said the president of Parliament, the Sandinista deputy Gustavo Porras, on the reforms.
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