OLIVER STUENKEL
NOVEMBER 08, 2021
The brazenness of Nicaragua’s authoritarian turn sets a troubling precedent and reflects the broader erosion of democracy in Latin America.
The presidential election in Nicaragua on Sunday, November 7 was neither free, fair, nor competitive. Unwilling to maintain even a superficial façade of democratic legitimacy, the country’s long-term president and former guerilla fighter Daniel Ortega made a mockery of the electoral process.
Over the past months, Ortega had detained all of his serious challengers along with numerous activists, business leaders, opposition politicians, and even former allies of the Sandinista movement—which Ortega had been instrumental in leading and which overthrew former president Anastasio Somoza Debayle’s regime in 1979. Those who were allowed to run against Ortega were not seen as serious contenders, leaving no doubt that he would win his fourth re-election. Not..
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