Ortega and Firmenich: the dictator and his Montonero adviser

On July 19, 1979, the Sandinista revolution led by Daniel Ortega ended more than four decades of Somoza family rule and opened Nicaragua’s path toward democracy. Exactly 47 years later, the same Ortega, according to this article, delivered the final blow to the democracy he had helped establish.

In a controversial speech that day, Ortega declared: “There will be no more elections here... Never, never, never. There will be no more elections for them, the opposition, to try to seize the government, to seize power.” The final betrayal of the former revolutionary leader came the following Tuesday, when Congress approved a constitutional reform officially barring opposition groups from taking part in any future electoral process.

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There will be no more elections here... Never, never, never. There will be no more elections for them, the opposition, to try to seize the government, to seize power.

The reform also extended the presidential mandate to seven years. Elections scheduled for this year have already been postponed until 2028. Ortega, now in his eighties, has said he wants to govern until he is 90, while his wife, Rosario Murillo, described in the article as the regime’s “Iron Vice President,” has presented herself as its heir.

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to betray the Nicaraguan dream

The article traces the authoritarian turn back years. Many people who fought alongside Ortega to remove Anastasio Somoza were later persecuted, imprisoned or forced into exile. They include his brother Humberto Ortega, who died under virtual house arrest after being branded a traitor to the homeland; poet Ernesto Cardenal, whom Murillo pursued until his death; former vice president and writer Sergio Ramírez, exiled in Madrid and stripped of his Nicaraguan nationality; and poet and novelist Gioconda Belli, who accused Ortega of betraying the Nicaraguan dream.

The former Sandinista leader has remained in power since 2007. The United Nations Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua said last year that the Ortega-Murillo government had pursued “a deliberate policy to silence dissent through crimes against humanity, enforced disappearances and repression that extends beyond its borders.” The group described phases of violent repression from 2018 to 2020, targeted action against electoral opposition in 2021, the dismantling of organized opposition and civil society in 2022, and the consolidation of absolute power and cross-border repression from 2023 to 2025. The article also mentions allegations by Ortega’s stepdaughter, Zoilamérica, that he sexually abused her from the age of 11, though the supplied text ends before completing that account.

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a deliberate policy to silence dissent through crimes against humanity, enforced disappearances and repression that extends beyond its borders