“A Road Already Traveled:” Nicaraguans on the Situation in El Salvador
From 100% Noticias / VOA
Nicaraguan government opponents warn that the concentration of power looming in El Salvador has been happening in Nicaragua for several years.
HAVANA TIMES – Members of the Nicaraguan opposition criticized the panorama that is developing in El Salvador, where, over the weekend the Supreme Court with ties to president Nayib Bukele endorsed consecutive re-election, allowing the president to run again in 2024.
Sociologist Maria Teresa Blandon, who is part of the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB), one of Nicaragua’s most important opposition blocs, said that when power is concentrated in one single person, you already know what to expect, especially from Bukele who she describes as “a messianic and authoritarian leader.”
“What is happening in El Salvador is a road we have already traveled. When you aspire to have control of the judicial, electoral and legislative powers in order to tamper with the Constitution based on the interests of a leader turned strongman, we already know what to expect, and Nicaragua is a good laboratory,” said Blandon.
She also indicated that Salvadorans are looking at the mirror image of Nicaragua in their own country, where Daniel Ortega has more than 14 consecutive years governing, after a court ruling declaring Article 147 of the Constitution which prohibited re-election, invalid.
Opposition member Carlos Zeledon, communications coordinator of a group called the Citizen’s Proposal Party, agrees with Blandon regarding the situation in El Salvador, but emphasized “we saw it coming,” after the “technical coup d’état” that made way for the changes in the Salvadoran Supreme Court.
This ruling affects many people in Nicaragua emotionally, provoking comments on the order of “now how are we supposed to criticize the government in Nicaragua, when the Salvadoran government is doing the exact same thing?”