Florida lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have supported the RENACER Act. Most recently, Florida Rep. Charlie Crist (D), who’s vying to unseat Governor Ron DeSantis (R) in the upcoming 2022 gubernatorial election, lent his support to the bill, which seeks to condemn the Ortega regime in Nicaragua.
After the Nicaraguan presidential election was held over the weekend, which resulted in Daniel Ortega winning reelection, President Joe Biden (D) released a statement calling the Nicaraguan election a “sham." President Biden further added that it “was a pantomime election that was neither free nor fair, and most certainly not democratic.”
After the RENACER Act was introduced in the House, Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salizar (R) said that the regime in Nicaragua “is harassing, persecuting, and repressing the Nicaraguan people to prevent a free and fair presidential election this November.”
The Ortega regime, much like the Castro regime, has received criticism from both sides of the aisle for their human rights violations, and both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have joined forces to call for sanctions.
After the election this week, President Biden has echoed in the Florida Republican's remarks, adding that “the arbitrary imprisonment of nearly 40 opposition figures since May, including seven potential presidential candidates, and the blocking of political parties from participation rigged the outcome well before election day.”
In the condemnation of the Ortega regime’s actions leading up to the election, Biden expressed that “the United States stands in support of the inalienable right to democratic self-determination of the Nicaraguan people, and those of any other country in the hemisphere where popular sovereignty is compromised by the erosion of democratic norms, stifling of civic space, or violations of fundamental rights.”
As a result, the President called “on the Ortega-Murillo regime to take immediate steps to restore democracy in Nicaragua, and to immediately and unconditionally release those unjustly imprisoned for speaking out against abuses and clamoring for the right of Nicaraguans to vote in free and fair elections.”
