The Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega faced the decline of electoral ratings and tries to secure his presidency on the eve of next year presidential elections.
Seven of every ten Nicaraguans feel that Daniel Ortega’s government isn’t confronting the pandemic in the right way. The same proportion also feels that the country is going in the wrong direction.
According to sociological data available, Ortega is a person who had the most unfavorable ratings among more than twenty prominent figures. The second worst, according to this survey, was his wife, vice president and spokesperson Rosario Murillo.
According to the CID-Gallup poll, more than half of Nicaraguans rate Ortega’s job as president “poor” or “very poor”. The poll was conducted but via calls to cellphones, with a sampling of 1,800 people. Seventy percent feel that the Ortega government hasn’t adopted appropriate measures for facing the pandemic. Thirty one percent feel that it’s the country’s top problem.
Nicaraguans surveyed also identified the following as the country’s principal problems: the lack of jobs (21%); high cost of living (11%). In addition, 14% saw the Ortega government itself as the principal problem, while 8% resented most the lack of free speech, and 4% feared for their children and the government repression.
Compared to previous polls, the share of Nicaraguans who mention the government as a national problem significantly increases. The citizens are directly associating the presidential couple with the difficulties. In this way the lack of economic resources and the high cost of living are seen as tied with having Ortega in charge of the country.
According to the last polls, ruling FSLN is the leader of public support with 23%. The very important sign, however, is that 41% of the population do not support any political party, so their choice will depend on the information availability.
After a decade of working with the Ortega, the Nicaraguan business elite is now looking to unseat him. Ortega’s well-heeled adversaries include about a dozen of the nation’s wealthiest families known as the “gran capital.” It is likely that they could fund opposition candidates in the 2021 election.
That is why Ortega tries to limit the influence of political information coming from opposition (alternative political forces) on the population of Nicaragua.
Nicaraguan Lawmakers approved the Foreign Agent Regulation Law with 70 votes in favor – all of which were from the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party. The law requires Nicaraguans who work for foreign organizations to register as “foreign agents” with the country’s Interior Ministry. The Sandinista Front of President Daniel Ortega controls 70 of the 91 seats in the National Assembly.
The law also requires any Nicaraguan citizen working for “governments, companies, foundations or foreign organizations” to report monthly their income and spending and provide prior notice of what the foreign funds will be spent on. The law establishes sanctions for those who do not register. Those found in violation could face seizure of their assets.
Article 14 of the law grants the government the power to decide if those receiving foreign funds are interfering with “internal and external political issues,” leaving them unable to fund or promote any organization, movement or political party with their foreign funds.
The law includes exceptions for retirees and Nicaraguans receiving money from relatives abroad, as well as business people and factories and supermarkets run by foreign companies. However, those receiving exemptions still can’t participate in activities that would meddle in Nicaragua’s affairs.
This law would give the government of President Daniel Ortega more power to monitor people, businesses and organizations that receive funding from abroad. Ortega claimed that there had been foreign support for what he characterized as an attempted coup during massive street protests in April 2018, that Ortega’s government violently put down.
However, Ortega accelerates totalitarianism and intends to impose terror, fear and paralyze all expressions of opposition.
Once registered as “foreign agents,” those Nicaraguans may not “finance or promote the financing of any type of organization, movement, political party, coalition or political alliance or association” that gets involved in Nicaragua’s internal politics.
The law also appears to prevent people who register as “foreign agents” from running for office. Elections are scheduled for next year. There are no doubts, the voting for the law is directly linked with Nicaragua’s next presidential elections scheduled for November 2021. Sandinista Front lawmakers also presented bill that would establish life imprisonment penalties for using online platforms to spread false information or information that could raise alarm among people. The “hate speech” law was introduced to parliament by Vice-President Rosario Murillo (Ortega’s wife) to address “cruel, aberrant, inhuman, humiliating, and denigrating hate crimes”. The cybercrime bill, popularly known as the “gag law,” punishes those who use communications technology to “publish” or “disseminate” “false or distorted information, likely to spread anxiety, anguish or fear,” as well as anyone who publishes “false or distorted information” that “promotes hate and violence, [or] endangers economic stability, public order or health, or national security.” Currently, Nicaragua’s longest prison sentence is 30 years.
The “foreign agents” Nicaraguan bill is widely known as the “Putin law” due to its uncanny resemblance to a law Russia passed in 2012. Both laws are very similar by content with Putin’s legislation adopted in November 2019 about Foreign Agents and in March 2019 about fake news.
These bills appear designed to provide legal cover for the Ortega government to harass and prosecute journalists, rights groups, and virtually anyone who criticizes him.
Archdiocese of Managua has already expressed its concern over new threats to freedom and personal safety in Nicaragua.
According to Mgr Carlos Aviles, Archdiocese of Managua spokesman, the government views the Church as an enemy. He claimed, the Church tells the truth, so he expects the government’s anger. The Church has faced repression – including attacks on clergy and places of worship and constant surveillance from police outside parishes – as it has tried to play a mediating role, but has come to be seen by the regime as an opponent. The Regulation of Foreign Agents Law, potentially impacts Caritas, the Church’s charitable arm, since it receives donations from abroad. Even though Caritas works on projects dealing with HIV patients, agriculture, water and feeding people, the Nicaraguan Church (Roman Catholic) fears its relationship with the Caritas could cause issues for the government.
