According to authorities, another presidential contender was jailed in Nicaragua on Saturday, making it the seventh held by Daniel Ortega’s regime in the run-up to the November 7 elections.
Noel Vidaurre was placed under house arrest on charges of “undermining the country’s sovereignty,” the latest in a string of arrests criticized by the US and the EU.
In the next elections, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is set to run for a fourth consecutive term as president.
Last Monday, Nicaragua’s speaker, Gustavo Porras, confirmed that Ortega, 75, will be the presidential candidate of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front.
Ortega’s regime has detained 28 people, including seven opposition presidential candidates.
Ortega’s government has been rounding up political enemies in a series of house raids and night-time arrests since June 2 on charges of jeopardizing Nicaragua’s “sovereignty.”
Jaime Arellano, a political pundit, was taken into arrest at his house on Saturday.
The two were “simply the latest victims of a vile campaign to criminalize nonviolent resistance,” said Julie Chung, the senior US diplomat for Latin America, on Twitter.
The allegations stem from a law proposed by Ortega and passed by lawmakers in December, which has been widely condemned as a way to keep rivals out of the race and silence opponents before of the election.
Those who “call for, rejoice, and support the implementation of sanctions against the Nicaraguan state” are barred from running for public office, according to the legislation.
