Social activists who participated in the forum “Nicaragua at the Summit of the Americas” exposed the political and social reality that the country faces under the police state imposed by the Daniel Ortega regime and affirmed that the municipal elections of November 6, 2022 will be equal to the 2021 general vote: “a process without political competition, under the shadow of repression and without transparency”.
The forum, held as a parallel event to the IX Summit of the Americas taking place in Los Angeles, was chaired by Amaru Ruiz Alemán, from the Local Network; the peasant leader Francisca Ramírez; Ligia Gómez, from the organization Urnas Abiertas; and Alex Aguirre, from the youth sector of the Blue and White Unit.
At the event, the activists exposed the serious crisis of human rights and civil liberties that Nicaragua is experiencing due to the repression of the regime and affirmed that they hope that their voice will be heard by the Latin American leaders and leaders present at the Summit.
“Daniel Ortega’s period is not the result of popular will”
Gómez detailed the process of demolition of the key democratic institutions for the realization of legitimate and transparent popular elections. Open Ballot Boxes established that the 2021 voting process had an abstention rate of 81.5%, the largest in the electoral history of Nicaragua. The Supreme Electoral Council, controlled by Ortega operators, established abstention at 35%.
“Daniel Ortega’s new presidential term is not the result of popular will. It is the result of an illegitimate voting system that reinforced coercive measures against society, conditioning the preferences of voters,” said Gómez.
“We warn that the conditions for the 2022 municipal elections are established so that the same irregularities, electoral crimes and human rights violations that occurred in the 2021 elections are repeated,” he added.
Ruiz, who also represents the Focal Point of the Citizen Forum of the Americas in Nicaragua, remarked that the police state of the regime has not been able to silence the persistent demand for the freedom of political prisoners and the restitution of civil liberties and guarantees.
“Nicaragua is present at the Summit of the Americas through its civil society representatives. We are here denouncing the economic vulnerability that the country is experiencing, the abuse of indigenous peoples, the environmental deterioration that affects us all and demanding the freedom of political prisoners”, he stated.
Nicaragua, protagonist country of forced migration
Ruiz also emphasized in the migration crisis in Nicaraguacaused by the climate of political violence imposed by the regime and the socioeconomic deterioration of the country.
“One of the cross-cutting themes of this summit is the issue of forced migration. Nicaragua is becoming one of the countries that expels the most population to the United States and is the one that expels the most to Costa Rica. More than 3% of the Nicaraguan population has been displaced,” he added.
Nicaraguan migration set a record figure last year, when more than 120,000 people left for different countries, mainly to the United States (87,530 detentions of Nicaraguans at US borders). The strong migratory flow continues in 2022, at a rate that exceeds 10,000 Nicaraguans detected month after month, that is, more than 300 daily.
Aguirre spoke about the more than 150 students arbitrarily expelled from universities due to pressure from the regime, the vast majority of whom had to leave the country to complete their studies or flee the violence of Ortega.
He also referred to the cancellation of the legal status of 14 higher education centers by Ortega and the confiscation of six of these to become directly controlled by regime operators, in addition to the cut in the constitutional allocation of funds to the Central American University (UCA)
“In Nicaragua there is no longer any type of university autonomy or academic freedom. The right to a comprehensive education has been curtailed from young people. In addition, we want to highlight the situation of more than 27 young political prisoners. They have been torturing them and limiting their access to medicines”, he highlighted.
