Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega recently announced that the country will not hold any future elections to prevent the opposition from potentially taking his position.
“They should forget about it. Here in Nicaragua, there will never again be elections that they can use to try to seize the government and take power,” the authoritarian leader said during an event marking the 47th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution in Managua.
Ortega’s announcement effectively canceled the Central American nation’s November 2027 general elections, guaranteeing the dictator and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, power over the country.
Ortega's Rule
The Sandinista leader first came to power following the toppling of the Somoza dictatorship in 1979. Ortega governed Nicaragua from July 1979 to January 1985, until he was defeated by the nation’s first female president, Violeta Chamorro.
22 years later, Ortega returned to power, taking over all four branches of government, state institutions, the military, and the police and dismantling the country’s institutional democracy.
In 2018, protests erupted across the country over a fire at a nature reserve and an unpopular directive that slashed social services while increasing taxes on its people.
The demonstrations marked the beginning of the Ortega-Murillo regime’s violent government crackdown, which has left more than 300 people dead, dissenters imprisoned, exiled, stripped of citizenship and property, and thousands of Nicaraguans fleeing the country.
Secretary Rubio Responds to the Announcement
“The Trump Administration and the international community will not stand by as the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship deepens repression at home and manufactures instability that threatens U.S. national security,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated. “Ortega’s pledge to abolish elections in Nicaragua proves his cowardice and fear of the Nicaraguan people’s will.”
Rep. Salazar Warns That the U.S. is Coming After Nicaragua
“The Ortega-Murillo regime has declared war on the Nicaraguan people’s right to choose their own future. The United States must stand unequivocally with the people of Nicaragua, increase the pressure on this despicable regime, and ensure that those responsible for its crimes are held accountable,” Congresswoman Salazar wrote on X.
“After Cuba, Nicaragua is next,” Rep. Salazar affirmed.
