Nicaraguan Opposition Warns of Paramilitary Danger during Future Elections
They denounce that paramilitaries try to prevent the Civic Alliance from meeting with its base and organizing territorially before any future elections
By EFE (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – The armed attack suffered by a group of opponents by supporters of the government of Daniel Ortega is seen with concern by the local opposition in the face of national elections scheduled for November of 2021.
“How can one be talking about elections in 2021 or early elections, as we insistently demand, if no organization can even freely organize in the national territory, said the coordinator of the opposition Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy in Nicaragua, Carlos Tunnermann.
At least eight members of the Civic Alliance, among them student leader Max Jerez and former legislator Eliseo Nunez, were besieged and held by four strangers who also shot at the vehicle they were travelling in, after holding a meeting with supporters in the municipality of La Libertad, Chontales.
Disarm the paramilitaries
Tunnermann noted that the armed civilians akin to the Government, or paramilitaries, prevent the Civic Alliance from meeting with its bases and organize itself territorially any future elections, violating the right to mobilization, assembly and organization, recognized in the Constitution.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) condemned this past Wednesday the shooting and intimidating acts perpetrated by armed civilians in the municipality of La Libertad against eight members of the Civic Alliance, after they held several political meetings in that locality.
“#OACNUDH again urges the #Nicaragua authorities to dismantle and disarm the progovernment armed persons without delay and guarantee the full exercise of political rights of all citizens,” the organization exhorted.
Meanwhile, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reiterated its “urgent need for the (Nicaraguan) State to take measures to recover democratic institutions and cease the repression against opponents.”
IACHR: Don’t forget the crisis in Nicaragua
This agency also called on the international community to maintain public attention on the human rights crisis in Nicaragua.
According to the complaint, to which the National Police has not referred, four subjects in a sedan vehicle intercepted the two cars in which the opponents were traveling, took out their weapons, and three of them fired in the air and one to the cars.
The incident occurred in the context of a tour to organize the opposition territorially.
The Nicaraguan opposition seeks to form a great coalition to defeat the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in any future national elections, currently scheduled for November 2021, amid a crisis that has polarized and divided Nicaraguans.