US diplomacy chief Mike Pompeo confirmed that the law against opponents that went into effect in Nicaragua this week will cause the president to “isolate himself even more in the region.”
Last week, Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega passed a controversial law preventing the opposition from participating in the November 2021 elections. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged him to go off course. change. , respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and allow free and fair elections in November 2021.
Pompeo made this appeal to Ortega in a statement criticizing the new law disqualifying candidates for popular positions in Nicaragua who are considered “traitors to the homeland” by authorities.
See more: The law with which Daniel Ortega tries to end the opposition
“The Ortega regime’s new authoritarian law is undermining democracy,” said the US Secretary of State, who warned that Washington will not tolerate threats to democracy in Nicaragua.
“The United States will not tolerate these threats to Nicaraguan democracy, nor the oppression of the Nicaraguan people,” Pompeo said.
Authoritarian regime
Pompeo emphasized that the Western Hemisphere is now “a hemisphere of freedom, with the exception of some small-scale authoritarian regimes that remain, such as Nicaragua”.
“This week, the Ortega regime has further isolated itself in the region by passing a law that could effectively prohibit Nicaraguans running for democracy from running in next year’s elections,” he said.
Its application, he added, will further undermine Nicaragua’s democratic institutions and processes, as it would ban opposition personnel from running for popular positions, “and threatens to transform the 2021 elections into” elections. “in name only.”.
The Sandinista majority controlling the National Assembly (parliament) urgently passed a law on Monday that will prevent the candidacy of those Nicaraguans, who, among other things, welcome the imposition of sanctions on the state and its citizens, which will also be considered ‘ traitors to Homeland “.
See more: Ortega, the president who disappears when there is a crisis in Nicaragua
The “Law in Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-Determination for Peace” was approved in an extraordinary session by 70 votes by the Sandinistas and their allies, the initiators of the controversial initiative, compared to 14 who voted. against and 5 abstentions.
Warn of new consequences
“These actions follow the National Assembly’s passing of a law on foreign agents that sabotages Nicaraguans’ ability to pursue democratic change, and a cybercrime law that systematically suppresses freedom of speech,” Pompeo continued.
It noted that the US has taken measures against the Nicaraguan government, including sanctioning members of the Ortega family “and the corrupt inner circle, to encourage the Ortega regime to pursue democratic reforms ahead of the planned presidential election. country. on November 7, 2021 “.
He stressed that his European partners and those of the Organization of American States (OAS) have also spoken out “strongly against the repression of the Ortega regime” and that the EU has imposed its own sanctions.
See more: Why does Nicaragua not have a visible opposition leader?
“For the good of the Nicaraguan people, we again urge Ortega to change course, respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and allow for free and fair elections,” he pleaded.
Otherwise, the United States will not hesitate to impose new consequences, he warned.
Ortega, who returned to power in January 2007 after coordinating a government junta from 1979 to 1985 and chairing the country from 1985 to 1990, said last Friday that the Nicaraguans who took part in the uprising against their government in April 2018, that the executive describes it as a “coup attempt”, they will not be able to run for elected office in the next election.