Nicaragua moves toward constitutional reform barring “traitors” from elections

Nicaragua’s ruling-dominated National Assembly has approved a constitutional reform that would keep people branded “traitors to the homeland” from running for elected office or holding public positions.

The amendment passed unanimously by a show of hands in a special session in León. It still needs approval in a second legislature, the one that will sit from Jan. 9 to Dec. 15, 2027, before it can take effect.

Article 47 would also bar people who have directed, financed, supported or otherwise been linked to the planning or execution of an attempted or completed coup. The restrictions would cover those accused of undermining Nicaragua’s independence, sovereignty, self-determination, security or peace, promoting foreign interference, requesting military intervention, accepting foreign financing for political organization, or backing economic, commercial or financial blockades and sanctions against the state and its citizens.

The wording uses a label authorities have applied to at least 452 opposition figures and critics stripped of their nationality, including writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli. Anyone covered by the prohibitions would also be barred from serving on the leadership of a political party or organization.

The reform would extend the terms of elected officials and several senior state officials to seven years. That provision would apply to the country’s co-presidents, lawmakers, mayors, judicial and electoral magistrates, the attorney general, the banking superintendent, and the heads of the Army and Police.

The changes were promoted by co-president Daniel Ortega, who has governed Nicaragua since 2007 and has held power in the country for 30 years in total, including earlier periods as head of the governing junta and as president.

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Traitors to the homeland.