Managua, Nicaragua
One-party rule is complete: Nicaragua’s authoritarian President Daniel Ortega completed his yearslong quest for total control of the country last week, after his Sandinista party swept all
153 municipalities in carefully stage-managed local elections. International observers called the vote unfree, because the opposition was barred from running and prominent challengers were jailed. Turnout was below 20 percent. In power since 2007,
Ortega has grown increasingly repressive since brutally crushing a 2018 uprising against his rule. Some 300 people were killed and thousands jailed, and since then some 200,000 Nicaraguans have left the increasingly repressive country. Chilean President Gabriel Boric, a leading critic of the regime, said the Nicaraguan vote was “carried out without freedom, reliable electoral laws, and imprisoned or outlawed opponents” and “is not democracy.”