Daniel Ortega, the Reagan-era communist president of Nicaragua, was voted out and got elected again 16 years later, and now continues to rule. The former guerrilla leader was first elected to power in 1984 and was voted out in 1990. He returned in 2007 after losing three presidential elections in between. He served in the government during part of his time between terms. He won the 2006 election with 38% of the vote and has been in power ever since. That gives him about 26 total years in power. He is the longest-serving leader in the Americas. He abolished term limits when he was reelected. In his second term, he has become more and more authoritarian.
According to Wikipedia:
“According to Tim Rogers, writing in The Atlantic,
during his second term as president, Ortega took "full control of all four
branches of government, state institutions, the military, and police", and
in the process dismantled "Nicaragua's institutional democracy".
Frances Robles wrote that Ortega took control of "every aspect of
government ... the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, the armed forces, the
judiciary, the police and the prosecutor's office". In its 2019 World
Report, Human Rights Watch wrote that Ortega "aggressively dismantled all
institutional checks on presidential power". Many journalists and
governments criticize Ortega and label him a dictator.”
He had been a revolutionary
since his teens in the 1960s and was imprisoned for criminal activities,
including armed bank robbery and later guerrilla warfare. During the 2008
financial crisis, he declared capitalism a failure. During his last election in
2021, he jailed his opponents. Most recently, he declared that there would be
no more elections in the country. He is basically a full-blown dictator. He has
become allies with Iran, Colombia’s FARC militants, and other leftist
revolutionary groups. He has praised leaders such as Libya’s Gaddafi, Syria’s
Assad, Venezuela’s Maduro, and Bernie Sanders, who visited him in 1985. Many
protestors have been killed in Nicaragua. The UN called killings during a 2018
crackdown crimes against humanity.
Several prominent Nicaraguan
opposition figures were exiled in 2023. According to an LA Times article:
“Nicaraguans “live in a state of terror,” said Dora
María Tellez, a prominent Ortega critic who was imprisoned for nearly two years
before she was stripped of her nationality and forced into exile in 2023.
Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, whom Ortega named co-president last year,
have such a strong grip on power, Tellez said, “that true democratic transition
will require intense external pressure.”
“Many Nicaraguans have long hoped that Washington would
help apply that pressure. Some cheered the stunning U.S. capture of Venezuela’s
authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, and support the ongoing White House
campaign against Cuba’s communist leadership.”
While Marco Rubio has
condemned Ortega’s statements and actions, Nicaragua, the hemisphere’s
second-poorest country after Haiti, does not seem high on the list, since it
has not produced many migrants to the U.S. like Venezuela and Cuba.
Ortega has kept up close ties
with Iran and China and continues to criticize U.S. policy and interference in
Nicaragua’s and other Latin American countries’ affairs. He has built a system
of state surveillance that keeps many Nicaraguans from speaking out.
“We cannot raise our voices or express our opinions,”
said one woman in Nicaragua who spoke by telephone on condition of anonymity
because she fears government reprisals, and who said she would welcome a
Venezuela-style intervention by the U.S.
“We live with constant dread that at any moment they
could seize the property we spent a lifetime working to acquire, or throw us in
prison, where we might not make it out alive.”
It is plainly obvious to
many, including me, that the country, much like Venezuela, needs some kind of
coerced transition to democracy, especially as the current situation is
totalitarian and highly oppressive. One might call it communist oppression. Even
many of his socialist revolutionaries have abandoned him and his current
dictatorship. Most of those are in exile.
An article in The Hill by
Arturos McFields notes:
“The Nicaraguan regime has announced the end of
elections. It has decided to establish a formal dynasty that embraces North
Korea and defies the new Monroe Doctrine.”
“The closeness between the Nicaraguan tyranny and North
Korea’s regime is not merely a political metaphor; it is rooted in a historical
relationship spanning over 50 years. In 1971, guerrilla fighter Plutarco
Hernandez participated in a military training course in North Korea. The
objective was to support “the liberation of peoples” — that is, to establish a
totalitarian Marxist model in the United States’ backyard.”
“In April 1984, Gen. Humberto Ortega — President Daniel
Ortega’s brother — traveled to Pyongyang to finalize an arms purchase, even as
Nicaragua was starving. For years, the dictatorship blamed the U.S. (“the
empire”) for its plight. In reality, the problem lay elsewhere: a model of
corruption that squandered millions on weaponry and graft while the people
suffered in misery.”
“President Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, visited
North Korea in September 1986. The Marxist dictator met with the patriarch Kim
Il Sung, who expressed solidarity and political support to help strengthen the
repressive socialist model.”
“Ortega was impressed by the North Korean model — the
cult of personality, the elimination of free elections, the absence of
political parties and opposition and the lack of checks and balances. It would
take many years and many deaths before Nicaragua could replicate this
totalitarian family-run model.”
The bottom line is this guy
and his regime are bad news and don’t deserve to be in power. Hopefully, that
will change, for the benefit of the oppressed people. One might ask why those
in the West who promote an oppressor/oppressed postcolonial narrative don’t
speak against such obvious oppression and instead focus on a democracy like
Israel. It’s likely because they share his socialist/communist ideology.
McFields concludes:
“The very same regime that has imprisoned bishops and
pastors also benefits from a free trade agreement with the U.S. and holds
membership in the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the
Inter-American Development Bank. “
“Nicaragua represents a metastatic cancer which, if ignored, could spread to other countries in the Americas, weakening U.S. influence and empowering China and North Korea. The message must be clear: Abolishing elections and crowning oneself king will not be tolerated. It must bring with it serious consequences.”
References:
As
Ortega vows to abolish elections, Nicaraguans living 'in a state of terror'
hope for US pressure. Kate Linthicum and Ismael López. LA Times. July 26, 2026.
As Ortega vows to abolish elections,
Nicaraguans living 'in a state of terror' hope for US pressure
Opinion:
Nicaragua’s dictatorship defies the Donroe Doctrine. Opinion by Arturo McFields.
The Hill. July 29. 2026. Opinion:
Nicaragua’s dictatorship defies the Donroe Doctrine
Daniel
Ortega. Wikipedia. Daniel
Ortega - Wikipedia
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