Nicaragua's President Ortega Says No More Elections

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega said his country will no longer be holding elections, a statement underscoring the absence of political freedom in the country, and extending his 20-year rule.

Transcript

Jon Bonfiglio 0:01

Hi everyone. So I promised that we would speak about uh Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega earlier in the week, but then got hijacked by other stories. But um yeah, at the beginning of the week he Daniel Ortega said that the country will no longer hold elections. Uh it wasn't really news in a way, in the sense that the country hasn't held real elections for multiple cycles now. And in the last president election in inverts, commas in 2021, uh he moved to imprison seven separate opposition candidates, as well as attacking independent media outlets, civil rights groups, etc. But it was still an incredible, incredibly stark declaration uh which made clear uh Ley, of course, uh removed all grey areas from the uh autocratic situation in Nicaragua and just the level of um I guess lack of political freedom in the country. Ortega has now been in power in this iteration because of course he was in power before um since 2007, and now effectively rules the country as part of a what is a dual presidency alongside his wife Rosario Murillo. The next round of elections was due in October twenty, sorry, November 2027, but the entire system has been cast in doubt after a constitutional extension to term limits. Still, this incredibly brazen statement about an end to elections, marking a formal conclusion to democratic processes in the country is definitely a radical, at least rhetorical, shift. Nonetheless, there are a couple of things worth mentioning here which shed a little bit of extra light on everything, um, which I think are worth mentioning. The first of these relates to Nicaragua's relationship with China and Russia, which uh, as countries have taken on central importance in Nicaragua's outward-looking world view, with in particular China's economic and political sway growing dramatically in the country over the last few years, added to which Russia has been supporting aligned countries, not just Nicaragua, but of course Nicaragua is one of these with security and surveillance infrastructure, which has become of central importance to the Ortega Murillo surveillance state. Um, Ortega's view is that with these backers with Russia and China behind him, them, what need does he have in even paying lip service to democratic processes? But, and here is the key second point. The question then becomes in an Americas of increased US interventionism, how does the Trump administration respond to this declaration? A win for them in Nicaragua would be much more straightforward and broadly supported supported than in Cuba, say, for it for uh and um and Ortega is much easier to present as a leftist bad guy than the Cubans, than Raul Castro. But then uh Nicaragua doesn't have the historic cachet for the USA that Cuba has, nor does it stare across a short body of water to Florida. US Secretary of State Marco uh Marco Rubio has uh in the last few days markedly criticized this new turn towards authoritarianism. But we've been learning for years now that sanctions have no political impact on the on the social and political on-the-ground realities in Nicaragua. So will this week's declarations awaken something bolder in the United States? Well, as long as the country continues to be caught up in Iran, likely not. But there are still well over two years of the Trump administration to run. For many in Latin America, the conflict in Iran has actually been uh a blessed distraction for the United States, has averted their gaze for at least a limited period. But at the end of this year this year, two other major events will take place, which will continue to shape uh US policy towards Latin America for the remainder of the Trump term. The first of these, of course, is the US uh midterm elections in November, and the second, the Brazilian presidential election of October.