Ex-ambassador to the U.S. launches pre-candidacy for the Presidency of Nicaragua

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Former Nicaraguan ambassador to the United States Arturo Cruz Sequeira on Monday launched his pre-candidacy to the Presidency of Nicaragua for the opposition Alianza Ciudadana (center-right) party for the general elections of next November 7th.

Cruz, 67 years old and ambassador to the U.S. in the government presided by Sandinista Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, between 2007 and 2009, from whom he is now distanced and refers to as the “imperial couple”, formally registered his pre-candidacy with Alianza Ciudadana, one of the main opposition parties.

Cruz, son of former member of the National Reconstruction Junta and anti-Somocista fighter, the late Arturo Cruz Porras, who was also Nicaragua’s ambassador in Washington during the first Sandinista regime (1979-1990), focused his speech on attacking the “monarchy of the 16th century,” and advocating for the change which, in his opinion, the country needs.

CHALLENGES THE “GOVERNMENT OF OCCUPATION”

“This regime is virtually an occupying government, which invades our homeland and treats us as its enemies, not as its nationals. Today Nicaragua is occupied territory, we need to save it, to liberate it,” he pointed out.

“We cannot continue to allow that, in our country, the whims of the imperial couple drag us into endless chaos. In these uncertain times, Nicaraguans have the opportunity to demonstrate before the history of the homeland, that we are capable of leading the country towards a new fate. Without violence, without terror, without bullets, without death,” he continued.

For the also academic of the Central American Institute of Business Administration (INCAE) and political analyst, “today our homeland is threatened.”

“We are trapped in limbo. Between an old country that refuses to die, and a new one that has not yet come,” he said. “Today we do not have a Republic, but rather an aging monarchy of the 16th century, which insists on clinging to the past, to the gloom,” he added.

He said that “Nicaraguans do not want to continue being subjects anymore” and “we cannot allow it.” “We want to be free citizens, of a new democratic order, where we never again have to bow to any monarch,” he added.

“THE ADVERSARY CONTROLS EVERYTHING”

During another part of his speech, Cruz said that “in these dark hours, the homeland needs its best sons and daughters”, and courage, because “ours is a titanic struggle against a regime that has our country in gloom, in darkness.”

He acknowledged that they are facing “an adversary that controls everything in our country, and that even free thought has been taken away from us.”

“We know that they will do everything possible to tilt the electoral balance in their favor, even, if the electoral reforms we are fighting for are carried out. It is in their nature. However, I ask you: has the last word been said? Just because of that, will we surrender? No, dear compatriots, a thousand times no,” he continued.

For the politician, the Sandinista regime “does not offer the country any possible future, because a country without democratic institutions is unsustainable in time”, and “that is why we Nicaraguans must ask ourselves: is it really viable for this regime without any legitimacy to continue? Or do we really deserve something better?”

“That is why we have the responsibility to convert that social majority that does not want to continue being subjects of the imperial couple, into an electoral majority that will allow us to really change things,” he urged.

THE APRIL 2018 POPULAR UPRISING 

Cruz also criticized the response given by the Executive to the popular uprising in April 2018 over unpopular social security reforms, which left hundreds dead.

For the politician, the demonstrations were a message from the “majority of Nicaraguan society” that “said enough and demanded a change of course to the authoritarian regime that had been installed in the country.”

“Once again, the blood of our brothers and sisters ran and we did not have a government up to the legitimate demands of the people. Once again, from the irrationality of power, they bet on coercion, force, repression and death”, he added.

For Cruz, the response of the Sandinista Executive to the street protests, “is perhaps the greatest tragedy and mistake of the imperial couple until today.”