Democracy News

Opposition Groups Targeted in Nicaragua in Advance of Municipal Elections
By Lauren Crook
October 24, 2008 | Printer Friendly

The International Herald Tribune reports that on the brink of crucial municipal elections, Nicaragua’s leftist government has been accused of targeting political dissident groups who have criticized President Daniel Ortega’s movements toward a totalitarian regime. Ortega, whose Sandinista National Liberation Front party toppled the rightist dictatorship in 1979, has been accused of becoming just as oppressive as the regime he fought to overcome. In assessing the upcoming elections, The U.S. State Department has expressed concern over the Nicaraguan government’s unjust “interference with non-governmental organizations that are working to promote respect for human rights, rule of law, and economic development.”

Tightening control of state institutions and unfair persecution of non-governmental organizations have been the major accusations toward Ortega. On October 10, National Police broke into two NGO offices and confiscated “five years' worth of bookkeeping records, files, and computers,” as part of an investigation for “crimes against the state.” Calling the move an attempt to “fabricate political crimes” and “silence dissidents,” critics view the government’s recent actions as one more step toward the “institutional dictatorship” they claim Ortega is seeking. The administration has been quick to assert that politics are not driving their efforts and that they are simply “investigating irregular activity.” They even go as far as to accuse those who are making dictatorship claims of being “members of the oligarchy who feel threatened by a government of the poor.”

Also on the government’s list of targets is the Autonomous Women’s Movement – “a social organization with roots in the Sandinista revolution” that is now opposed to Ortega, Oxfam Great Britain, the Swedish development organization Forum Syd, the US International Republican Institute, and a civil society umbrella group called the Civic Coordinator. None have been formally charged with a crime and the government refuses to release a cause for the investigations.

Sources:

International Herald Tribune: Police raids of NGOs provoke outcry in Nicaragua

Christian Science Monitor: In Nicaragua, political dissidents targeted

U.S. Department of State: Nicaragua’s Electoral Climate