Cristiana Chamorro remains incommunicado and under surveillance at her home in Nicaragua

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Cristiana Chamorro, the Nicaraguan opposition figure with the highest probability of winning the November elections, in which President Daniel Ortega is seeking new reelection, spent this Thursday 24 hours confined in her house, incommunicado and under strong police surveillance.

Practically “this is a kidnapping”, said her lawyer, Orieta Benavides, who affirmed that none member of the legal team defending Chamorro has been able to communicate with her.

Chamorro, daughter of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997), who defeated Ortega in the 1990 elections, remains confined to her home in southern Managua after a judge ordered her arrest and the search of her home for a case of alleged money laundering.

“House arrest, as established in the legislation, is not what is happening in practice with Cristiana,” said her lawyer, for whom Chamorro “should not be held incommunicado” or be deprived of speaking with her family and her defense.

“It is a situation that goes beyond what is legal and that makes it practically a kidnapping,” said Benavides.

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The official Twitter account of Chamorro, who was disqualified from participating in the electoral contest under the argument of “not being in full enjoyment of her civil and political rights”, continues to be active, although without publishing messages since last Tuesday night.

EU URGES RELEASE OF OPPOSITION LEADER

The European Commission urged Daniel Ortega to “free” Chamorro and warned that the judicial actions against the opposition “are incompatible with a credible, transparent and open electoral process for the opposition and its candidates”.

“The European Union (EU) urges her immediate release and the immediate reversal of the measures against her rights,” said EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano in a tweet.

For its part, the UN recalled that the Nicaraguan government has the responsibility to guarantee Chamorro’s safety and that of all political leaders.

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“We are well aware of the recent legal actions taken against Cristiana Chamorro”, assured Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General of the organization, António Guterres, who said that the measures against the opponent “create the risk of worsening confidence” in the upcoming elections.

For the opposition jurist and former Nicaraguan vice-chancellor José Pallais, Ortega is “now holding Chamorro hostage” in order to “negotiate” the withdrawal of the sanctions imposed by the US, the EU, the UK, and Canada on more than twenty relatives, and companies linked to the Sandinista leader, who are accused of “serious human rights violations” and “corruption”.

MENENDEZ: “IT IS TIME” FOR MORE SANCTIONS

Meanwhile, Democrat Bob Menendez, who chairs the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that “it is time” to use the tools provided by the U.S. Congress to sanction those who undermine democracy in Nicaragua.

In a statement, Menendez condemned the “authoritarian actions” of Ortega, who, in his opinion, demonstrates “an absolute disregard for the rule of law and the cornerstone of any democracy: free, fair and transparent elections.”

“Seeing how Ortega’s desperate regime is increasingly determined to become Latin America’s third dictatorship, I am more committed than ever to working with Secretary (of State Antony) Blinken and the Biden Administration to ensure democratic elections that allow Nicaraguans to take control of their own political processes and economic opportunities,” added the Cuban-born senator.

DAUGHTER OF SLAIN JOURNALIST

Chamorro, 67, is the daughter of journalist Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, a critic of Anastasio Somoza’s dictatorship who was assassinated in 1978.

She is vice-president of the newspaper La Prensa of Managua and directed the NGO Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation, dedicated to the protection and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression, which closed last February in order not to be subject to a law that obliges representatives of organizations receiving funds from abroad to register as “foreign agents”.

According to the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior, the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation “seriously failed to comply with its obligations before the Regulatory Body, and from the analysis of the Financial Statements, period 2015-2019, clear indications of money laundering were obtained”, for which reason “the Public Prosecutor’s Office has been informed in order to (open) the corresponding investigation”.

For this case, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has called to testify as witnesses about twenty journalists, and also the writer, novelist, and former vice president of Nicaragua Sergio Ramírez Mercado in his capacity as legal representative of the Luisa Mercado Foundation, which had a relationship with the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation.