Ortega regime seeks to annul elections through law after failing by force, says journalist Chamorro

Nicaraguan journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro asserts that President Daniel Ortega's regime is now seeking to codify its long-standing suppression of political opposition through legal means. Chamorro, who has been in exile in Costa Rica since 2021, argues that Ortega intends to "annul through law what had been prohibited by force."

Chamorro, son of La Prensa director Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal and former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, has a deep understanding of Nicaragua's political landscape. He previously led Barricada, the Sandinista Front's official newspaper, before founding Confidencial, a prominent investigative outlet. Confidencial has frequently denounced corruption and abuses of power, leading to its offices being raided and confiscated after the 2018 protests, forcing Chamorro into exile.

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The novelty is that now he intends to eliminate them by legal means, with which he recognizes his political failure, because he has never been able to crush the opposition that he has persecuted and exiled.

According to Chamorro, Ortega has effectively nullified competitive elections for the past decade. He points to the 2016 disqualification of the main opposition coalition and the 2021 imprisonment or exile of presidential candidates as evidence. Chamorro views Ortega's recent pronouncements as an admission of political failure, suggesting the regime cannot crush dissent through persecution and exile alone, thus resorting to legal maneuvers.

"The novelty is that now he intends to eliminate them by legal means, with which he recognizes his political failure, because he has never been able to crush the opposition that he has persecuted and exiled," Chamorro stated. He believes this legal strategy aims to permanently dismantle any possibility of electoral challenge, formalizing the authoritarian control that has been in place for years.

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The dictatorship Ortega-Murillo annulled competitive elections by force more than ten years ago, in 2016 and 2021. In 2016 it outlawed the opposition and in 2021 it imprisoned opposition candidates and imposed a police state.