“They won’t shut us up! “, insists Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director of the Nicaraguan independent media, El Confidencial and Esta Semana, after a new offensive against the opposition led, Thursday, May 20, by the regime of President Daniel Ortega. Police raided their headquarters in Managua, capital of Nicaragua. That day, several political opponents were in turn repressed. The government of the former Sandinista guerrilla is trying to gag its opponents in preparation for the November elections.
It was by force that the police raided the premises of the investigation website on Thursday morning, Confidential, and the chain Esta Semana. Their equipment was seized. Several journalists who covered the search, including a reporter from Agence France-Presse, were arrested for short, but heavy-handed. A cameraman from Confidential was detained for more than six hours.
The authorities also announced on Thursday the opening of a judicial inquiry against Cristiana Chamorro, the most popular of the potential opposition candidates in the presidential and legislative elections on November 7. According to the prosecutor’s office, the accounts of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro foundation, long run by the opponent, include “Clear indications of money laundering”. Mme Chamorro is the sister of the director of Confidential and the daughter of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, former president of Nicaragua (1990-1997), who had ousted Daniel Ortega from power by the ballot box. At 75, the former revolutionary hero, who ruled the country from 1979 to 1990, then from 2007 to today, will stand for a fourth consecutive term.
An air of government vendetta
At the end of a three-hour judicial interrogation, Cristiana Chamorro declared that the accusation which touches her “Is a legal monstrosity, which seriously undermines democracy”. The day before, two other possible presidential candidates, Felix Maradiaga, of the National Coalition, and Juan Sebastian Chamorro, of the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy, were under house arrest. The latter is a cousin of Mme Chamorro.
So many repressive measures that take on the air of a government vendetta against the Chamorro family, one of the figures of the popular and pacifist revolt, born on April 18, 2018, to demand the end of the regime “Nepotist” and “Corrupt” by M. Ortega. At the time, the person concerned denounced “An attempted coup”. The crackdown on demonstrations left 328 dead, 2,000 injured and hundreds of arbitrary detentions. Since the police have banned gatherings, the standoff has been played out on legislative and institutional grounds.
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