Political Prisoners

Subterms

    More stories

    • 88 Shares109 Views

      in Elections

      Daniel Ortega está destrozando el sueño nicaragüense

      by

      ¿Vendrán por mí? ¿Qué se sentirá ser encarcelada por la misma gente con la que peleé hombro a hombro para derrocar la dictadura de 45 años de los Somoza en Nicaragua, mi país?En 1970, me uní a la resistencia urbana clandestina del Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, conocido como FSLN. Tenía 20 años. La larga y sangrienta lucha para librarnos de Anastasio Somoza Debayle ahora es un recuerdo que produce un orgullo agridulce. Alguna vez fui parte de una generación joven y valiente dispuesta a morir por la libertad. De los diez compañeros que estaban en mi célula clandestina, tan solo sobrevivimos dos. El 20 de julio de 1979, tres días después de que Somoza fue expulsado gracias a una insurrección popular, entré caminando a su búnker en una colina desde donde se veía Managua, llena del sentimiento de haber logrado lo imposible.Ninguna de esas ilusiones sobrevive el día de hoy. En retrospectiva, para mí está claro que Nicaragua también pagó un costo demasiado alto por esa revolución. Sus jóvenes líderes se enamoraron demasiado de sí mismos; pensaron que podíamos superar todos los obstáculos y crear una utopía socialista.Miles murieron para derrocar a Anastasio Somoza y muchos más perdieron la vida en la guerra de los contras que le siguió. Ahora, el hombre que alguna vez fue elegido para representar nuestra esperanza de cambio, Daniel Ortega, se ha convertido en otro tirano. Junto con su excéntrica esposa, Rosario Murillo, gobiernan Nicaragua con puño de hierro.Ahora que las elecciones de noviembre se acercan cada vez más, la pareja parece poseída por el miedo de perder el poder. Atacan y encarcelan a quien consideren un obstáculo para ellos. En las últimas semanas, encarcelaron a seis candidatos presidenciales y arrestaron a muchas personas más, entre ellas a figuras revolucionarias prominentes que alguna vez fueron sus aliadas. El mes pasado, incluso fueron tras mi hermano. Para evitar ser capturado, huyó de Nicaragua. No estaba paranoico: tan solo unos días más tarde, el 17 de junio, más de una veintena de policías armados hicieron una redada en su casa; lo estaban buscando. Su esposa estaba sola. Buscaron en cada rincón y se fueron después de cinco horas.La noche siguiente varios hombres enmascarados y armados con cuchillos y un rifle entraron a robar a su casa. Se escuchó a uno de ellos decir que era un “segundo operativo”. Otro amenazó con matar a su esposa y violar a mi sobrina, que había llegado para pasar la noche con su madre. Ortega y Murillo parecen estar usando la forma más cruda de terror para intimidar a sus opositores políticos.En lo personal, nunca admiré a Ortega. A mí siempre me pareció un hombre mediocre e hipócrita, pero su experiencia en la calle le permitió aventajar a muchos de sus compañeros.En 1979, fue la cabeza del primer gobierno sandinista y el presidente de 1984 a 1990. La derrota frente a Violeta Chamorro en las elecciones de 1990 dejó una cicatriz en la psique de Ortega. Regresar al poder se volvió su única ambición. Después del fracaso electoral, muchos de nosotros quisimos modernizar el movimiento sandinista. Ortega no aceptó nada de eso. Consideró nuestros intentos de democratizar el partido como una amenaza a su control. A quienes no estuvimos de acuerdo con él nos acusó de venderle el alma a Estados Unidos, y se rodeó de aduladores. Su esposa se puso de su lado aun después de que su hija acusó a Ortega, su padrastro, de haber abusado sexualmente de ella a la edad de 11 años, un escándalo que habría sido el fin de la carrera de otro político.De hecho, Murillo, a quien se le ha caracterizado como una Lady Macbeth tropical, renovó la imagen de Ortega con astucia luego de que este perdió dos elecciones más. Sus ideas New Age aparecieron en símbolos de amor y paz y pancartas pintadas con colores psicodélicos. De manera muy conveniente, Ortega y su esposa se metamorfosearon en católicos devotos tras décadas de ateísmo revolucionario. Para tener a la Iglesia católica más de su lado, su némesis en la década de 1980, Ortega accedió a respaldar una prohibición total al aborto. También firmó en 1999 un pacto con el presidente Arnoldo Alemán, quien luego fue declarado culpable de corrupción, para llenar puestos de gobierno con cantidades iguales de partidarios. A cambio, el Partido Liberal Constitucionalista de Alemán accedió a reducir el porcentaje de votos necesarios para ganar la presidencia.Funcionó. En 2006, Ortega ganó con tan solo el 38 por ciento de los votos. En cuanto asumió el cargo, comenzó a desmantelar instituciones estatales ya de por sí debilitadas. Obtuvo el apoyo del sector privado al permitirle tener voz y voto en las decisiones económicas a cambio de que aceptara sus políticas. Modificó la Constitución, la cual prohibía expresamente la reelección, para que se permitiera una cantidad indefinida de reelecciones. Luego, en 2016, en la campaña para su tercer periodo, Ortega eligió a su esposa para la vicepresidencia.Ortega y Murillo parecían haber asegurado su poder hasta abril de 2018, cuando un grupo de esbirros sandinistas reprimió con violencia una pequeña manifestación en contra de una reforma que iba a reducir las pensiones de seguridad social. Varias protestas pacíficas arrasaron todo el país. Ortega y Murillo reaccionaron con furia y combatieron la revuelta con balas: 328 personas fueron asesinadas, 2000 lesionadas y 100.000 exiliadas, de acuerdo con la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos. Paramilitares armados deambularon por las calles matando a diestra y siniestra, y los hospitales tenían la orden de negar la asistencia médica a los manifestantes heridos. Los doctores que desobedecieron fueron despedidos. El régimen impuso un estado de emergencia de facto y suspendió los derechos constitucionales. Se prohibieron las manifestaciones públicas de cualquier índole. Nuestras ciudades fueron militarizadas. Ortega y Murillo justificaron estas acciones con una gran mentira: el levantamiento era un golpe de Estado planeado y financiado por Estados Unidos.Las siguientes elecciones de Nicaragua están programadas para el 7 de noviembre. A finales de la primavera, los dos principales grupos de oposición acordaron elegir a un candidato bajo el cobijo de Alianza Ciudadana. Cristiana Chamorro, hija de la expresidenta Chamorro, tuvo un sólido respaldo en las encuestas. Poco después de que anunció su intención de contender por la presidencia, le impusieron un arresto domiciliario. El gobierno parece haber fabricado un caso de lavado de dinero con la noción equivocada de que eso iba a legitimar su arresto. Le siguieron más detenciones: otros cinco candidatos a la presidencia, periodistas, un banquero, un representante del sector privado, dos contadores que trabajaban para la fundación de Cristiana Chamorro y hasta su hermano, todos ellos acusados bajo leyes nuevas y de una ambigüedad conveniente que en esencia hacen que cualquier tipo de oposición a la pareja en el poder sea un delito de traición. Ortega insistió en que todos los detenidos eran parte de una inmensa conspiración apoyada por Estados Unidos para derrocarlo.Ahora, los nicaragüenses nos encontramos sin ningún recurso, ninguna ley, ninguna policía que nos proteja. Una ley que le permite al Estado encarcelar hasta por 90 días a las personas que estén bajo investigación ha remplazado el habeas corpus. La mayoría de los presos no ha podido ver a sus abogados ni a sus familiares. Ni siquiera estamos seguros de dónde los tienen detenidos. Por las noches, muchos nicaragüenses se van a la cama con el temor de que su puerta sea la siguiente que derribe la policía.Soy poeta, soy escritora. Soy una crítica manifiesta de Ortega. Tuiteo, doy entrevistas. Con Somoza, me juzgaron por traición. Tuve que exiliarme. ¿Ahora enfrentaré la cárcel o de nuevo el exilio?¿Por quién irán después?Gioconda Belli es una poeta y novelista nicaragüense. Fue presidenta del centro nicaragüense de PEN International. More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Daniel Ortega and the Crushing of the Nicaraguan Dream

      by

      Will they come for me? What will it be like to be jailed by the same people I fought alongside to topple the 45-year Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua, my country?I joined the clandestine urban resistance of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, known as the FSLN, in 1970. I was 20. The long and bloody struggle to get rid of Anastasio Somoza Debayle is now a bittersweet memory of pride. I was once part of a brave young generation willing to die for freedom. Of the 10 “compañeros” who were in my clandestine cell, only two of us survived. On July 20, 1979, three days after Mr. Somoza was forced out by a popular insurrection, I walked into his office bunker on a hill overlooking Managua, filled with the empowering feeling that the impossible had been made possible.None of those illusions survive today. It is clear to me, looking back, that Nicaragua paid too high a cost for that revolution. Its young leadership became too enamored of itself; it thought we could defy the odds and create a socialist utopia.Thousands died to topple that dictator, and many more lost their lives in the Contra war that followed. Now, the man once chosen to represent our hope for change, Daniel Ortega, has become another tyrant. Along with his eccentric wife, Rosario Murillo, they rule Nicaragua with an iron fist.As the November elections approach, the couple seem possessed by the fear of losing power. They lash out and imprison whoever they think might stand in their way. In the past month, they have jailed five presidential candidates and arrested many others, including iconic revolutionary figures who were once their allies. Last month they even came for my brother. To avoid capture, he left Nicaragua. He wasn’t paranoid: Just a few days later, on June 17, over two dozen armed police officers raided his house looking for him. His wife was alone. They searched every corner and left after five hours. The next night several masked men armed with knives and a rifle robbed his house. One of them was heard to say it was a “second operation.” Another threatened to kill his wife and rape my niece who had arrived to spend the night with her mother. Mr. Ortega and Ms. Murillo appear to be using the crudest form of terror to intimidate their political opponents.I never admired Mr. Ortega personally. To me, he always seemed like a duplicitous, mediocre man, but his street smarts allowed him to outwit many of his companions. He was the head of the first Sandinista government in 1979 and president from 1984 to 1990. Losing the election to Violeta Chamorro in 1990 scarred Mr. Ortega’s psyche. Returning to power became his sole ambition. After the electoral defeat many of us wanted to modernize the Sandinista movement. Mr. Ortega would have none of it. He viewed our attempts to democratize the party as a threat to his control. He accused those who disagreed with him of selling our souls to the United States, and he surrounded himself with sycophants. His wife sided with him even after her daughter accused Mr. Ortega, her stepfather, of sexually abusing her from the age of 11, a scandal that might have ended another politician’s career.In fact, Ms. Murillo, who has been characterized as a tropical Lady Macbeth, cleverly reshaped his image after he ran in two more elections and lost. Her New Age ideas appeared in symbols of peace and love and banners painted with psychedelic colors. Rather conveniently, Mr. Ortega and his wife metamorphosed into devout Catholics after decades of revolutionary atheism. To further win over the Catholic Church, Mr. Ortega’s nemesis in the ’80s, he agreed to back a complete ban on abortion. He had also signed a pact in 1999 with President Arnoldo Alemán, who would later be found guilty of corruption, to stack government posts with equal shares of loyalists. In exchange, Alemán’s Liberal Party agreed to lower the percentage of votes needed to win the presidency.It worked. In 2006, Mr. Ortega won with only 38 percent of the vote. No sooner did he take office than he set about dismantling already weak state institutions. He obtained the support of the private sector by giving it a say in economic decisions in exchange for acquiescence to his politics. He trampled on the Constitution, which expressly forbade re-election, to allow for indefinite re-elections. Then, in his run for his third term in 2016, he chose his wife to be vice president.Mr. Ortega and Ms. Murillo seemed securely in power until April 2018, when a small demonstration against a reform that would have lowered social security pensions was violently repressed by Sandinista thugs. The entire country was swept by peaceful protests. Mr. Ortega and Ms. Murillo reacted with fury and crushed the revolt with firepower: 328 people were killed, 2,000 were wounded, and 100,000 went into exile, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Armed paramilitaries roamed the streets in a killing spree, and hospitals were ordered to deny assistance to wounded protesters. Doctors who disobeyed were fired. The regime imposed a de facto state of emergency and suspended constitutional rights. Public demonstrations of any sort were banned. Our cities were militarized. Mr. Ortega and Ms. Murillo justified their actions by fabricating a big lie: The uprising was a coup planned and financed by the United States.Nicaragua’s next elections are scheduled for Nov. 7. In late spring, the two major opposition groups agreed to choose one candidate under the umbrella of the Citizens Alliance. Cristiana Chamorro, daughter of former President Chamorro, had strong showings in the polls. Soon after she announced her intent to run for president she was placed under house arrest. The government appears to have fabricated a case of money laundering in its deluded notion that this would legitimize her detention. More arrests followed: four more presidential candidates, journalists, a banker, a private sector representative, two accountants who worked for Cristiana Chamorro’s foundation and even her brother, all of them accused under new and conveniently ambiguous laws that essentially make any opposition to the ruling couple a treasonous crime. Mr. Ortega insisted that all the detainees are part of a vast U.S.-sponsored conspiracy to overthrow him.Nicaraguans now find ourselves with no recourse, no law, no police to protect us. Habeas corpus has been replaced by a law that allows the state to imprison people who are under investigation for up to 90 days. Most of the prisoners have not been allowed to see their lawyers or members of their families. We are not even sure where they are being held. Every night, too many Nicaraguans go to bed afraid that their doors will be the next that the police will break down.I am a poet, a writer. I am an outspoken critic of Mr. Ortega. I tweet, I give interviews. Under Mr. Somoza, I was tried for treason. I had to go into exile. Will I now face jail or exile again?Who will they come for next?Gioconda Belli is a Nicaraguan poet and novelist. She is the former president of the Nicaraguan PEN center.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

    • 100 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      Iran Activists Urge Election Boycott. Raisi Likely Winner.

      by

      In a soft pleading voice, the white-haired woman in the video implores, “For the sake of my son, Pouya Bakhtiari, don’t vote.” She holds the young man’s photo, and continues, “Because of the bullet they shot at his head and shattered his dreams, don’t vote.” In a second video, another mother, sitting next to a gravestone, echoed the same message: “At 30, my son lies under a huge pile of dirt.” A third woman described her 18-year-old son as full of hope, until Nov. 17, 2019, when a bullet pierced his heart.“Voting means betrayal,” she added.Videos like these, circulating on Iranian activists’ social media accounts with the hashtag that in Persian means #notovoting, have been appearing in increasing numbers in the weeks and months leading up to Iran’s presidential election on Friday. Some of the videos have been made by parents who say their children were shot dead during antigovernment protests over the last few years. Others are by the parents of political prisoners who were executed by the regime in the 1980s, as well as by the families of those who died in the Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed last year shortly after takeoff from Tehran. (Iran’s military said it mistakenly shot down the plane).What’s remarkable about the videos is their audacity: that Iranians are speaking up, seemingly without fear, about boycotting an election in an authoritarian country whose leaders rarely tolerate open displays of dissent. Iranians have had enough. And besides, what’s the point of voting when the result is predetermined?The call for an election boycott seems to be resonating: a recent poll by the state-run Iranian Student Polling Agency predicts that turnout will be as low as 40 percent — the lowest since the 1979 revolution.A low turnout in Friday’s election would certainly signal a rejection of the Islamic regime. But not voting will also give the regime exactly what it wants: a near-certain assurance that its handpicked candidate, Ebrahim Raisi, a cleric who is close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, will win.Of course, the regime has done its part as well for Mr. Raisi. Last month, the Guardian Council, the body that vets election candidates, rejected all the potential candidates except for Mr. Raisi and six relatively unknown figures.Even insiders to the regime were reportedly stunned that the council had gone so far as to bar a current vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, and a former speaker of Parliament, Ali Larijani.To be sure, the Guardian Council has rejected other presidential hopefuls over the past four decades. But this time it’s especially significant because the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is 82, which raises the issue of succession. Hard-liners within the Revolutionary Guards are grooming Mr. Raisi to take his place, making his election into office even more important. The ayatollah’s support for Mr. Raisi is no secret. After Mr. Raisi failed a bid for the presidency in 2017, Ayatollah Khamenei made him head of the judiciary two years later.The tightly controlled process has led many Iranians to question the entire exercise. And institutions such as the Guardian Council, which is controlled by Ayatollah Khamenei, have stymied any democratic change and crippled the efforts of presidents who have tried to introduce political and social freedoms. (Two presidential candidates during the 2009 race, Mehdi Karroubi and the former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, who campaigned on a platform of delivering democratic reforms, remain under house arrest. The regime at the time suppressed massive protests in the aftermath of what was seen as a widely disputed election.)The campaign to boycott the election highlights the rising levels of both anger and apathy toward the regime, at a time when the economy has been suffering under the weight of U.S. sanctions, as well as mismanagement and corruption by Iranian officials. The government also badly botched the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving more than 82,000dead so far. In addition, the regime has brutally cracked down on protests that have erupted since 2009, mostly over worsening economic conditions.Those boycotting the vote include a wide group of people inside and outside Iran, including many who formerly used to be sympathetic to the regime, such as the former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mr. Mousavi and Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Last month, over 230 prominent activists signed an open letter calling for an election boycott and stated that their goal is to bring “nonviolent transition from the Islamic Republic to the rule of the people.”Unsurprisingly, Ayatollah Khamenei has branded those pushing for a boycott as enemies and has urged Iranians to go to the polls. Here lies the regime’s dilemma: Iran’s leadership wants just enough turnout to legitimize Mr. Raisi’s victory, but not so much that the result might demonstrate how unpopular he really is.During his campaign trips in recent weeks, Mr. Raisi has sought to cast himself as a man of the people and has promised to fight corruption. He talked to people who approached him about pending court cases, depicting himself as an accessible man. But his past as head of the judiciary is testament to what may lie ahead under his rule. Young activists were tried behind closed doors and executed. As a young cleric, he signed off on the executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.Boycotting the elections, for a population that is deeply scarred, is understandable. But sadly, a boycott this time may cement the hard-liners’ grip on power for many years to come.Nazila Fathi is the author of “The Lonely War: One Woman’s Account of the Struggle for Modern Iran.” She is a fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. She lives in Maryland.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

    • 125 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      En Nicaragua se profundiza la represión y la democracia peligra

      by

      Durante la presidencia de Daniel Ortega, el país está a un paso de convertirse en un Estado de partido único. Las acusaciones de lavado de dinero contra su principal rival agudizan las preocupaciones.MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Los candidatos de la oposición han sido detenidos. Las protestas se han prohibido. Y los partidos políticos han sido descalificados.A meses de postular a la reelección, el presidente de Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, deja al país a un paso de convertirse en un Estado de partido único, al tomar medidas drásticas contra la oposición a un grado que no se ha visto desde la brutal represión de las protestas antigubernamentales de 2018, dicen los expertos.Las medidas agresivas de Ortega son un inesperado desafío para la gestión de Biden, que ha hecho del fortalecimiento a las democracias centroamericanas un pilar de su política exterior en la región.La mano dura de Ortega alcanzó un punto de inflexión el miércoles, luego de que su gobierno acusó a Cristiana Chamorro, una de las principales candidatas de oposición, de lavado de dinero y “falsedad ideológica” y la puso bajo arresto domiciliario horas después de anunciar sus planes de postular a la presidencia en las elecciones del 7 de noviembre. Otro candidato, Arturo Cruz, fue detenido el sábado por la policía por supuestamente “conspirar contra la sociedad nicaragüense”.La policía ha confinado a sus hogares a otros tres aspirantes presidenciales, que no han sido acusados formalmente de ningún cargo, lo que en la práctica impide que realicen campañas electorales.“Ortega está a punto de acabar con toda la competencia política en el país”, comentó Eliseo Núñez, un analista político y activista opositor nicaragüense. “Estamos muy cerca de llamar a esto de una dictadura”.La velocidad con que Nicaragua se ha precipitado hacia el autoritarismo ha tomado por sorpresa incluso a muchos de los oponentes de Ortega.Ortega, otrora líder de la junta revolucionaria de Nicaragua, ha desmantelado gradualmente las instituciones democráticas del país y sofocado la disidencia desde que regresó al poder en 2007 tras ganar unas elecciones democráticas. Más de 320 personas, en su mayoría manifestantes, murieron en protestas contra su gobierno en 2018, lo que la convierte en la peor ola de violencia política en América Latina en tres décadas.Las protestas ayudaron a sumir a uno de los países más pobres de la región en una recesión económica prolongada y condujeron a la imposición de sanciones estadounidenses contra los principales funcionarios de Ortega, incluida su esposa, Rosario Murillo, quien es la vicepresidenta y su portavoz.Ortega, intentando aliviar la presión económica e internacional, inició un diálogo con la oposición tras las protestas y estableció un plazo con la Organización de Estados Americanos el año pasado para lograr que el sistema electoral nicaragüense sea más justo.Pero al acercarse el plazo para la reforma, Ortega viró radicalmente hacia la represión. Ha nombrado a sus partidarios al consejo supremo electoral. Introdujo una serie de leyes que permiten a sus funcionarios detener o descalificar a cualquier ciudadano que haya expresado críticas al presidente, incluidos periodistas y políticos.“Ortega hizo todo lo contrario de lo que se esperaba”, observó Carlos Tünnerman, un ex alto funcionario del gobierno revolucionario de Ortega en los años ochenta. “Ha demostrado que está listo para hacer cualquier cosa para mantenerse en el poder”.La medida más audaz del gobierno hasta ahora ha sido el arresto sorpresivo de Cristiana Chamorro, heredera de una de las familias más ricas e influyentes de Nicaragua y cuya madre derrotó a Ortega en las elecciones de 1990. Hasta hace poco, Chamorro dirigía una fundación que capacitaba a periodistas independientes de Nicaragua con fondos recibidos parcialmente de Estados Unidos, lo que llevó al gobierno a acusarla de lavado de dinero y subversión.Cristiana Chamorro, al centro, candidata líder de la oposición, en Managua la semana pasada.Inti Ocon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesEn la actualidad solo un grupo creíble de la oposición tiene la posibilidad legal de participar en las elecciones de noviembre y representa la última esperanza para los opositores de Ortega. La agrupación, llamada Ciudadanos por la Libertad, está en el proceso de elegir a su candidato presidencial, quien se convertiría de hecho en estandarte de una oposición por lo general indisciplinada.Los analistas políticos indican que un candidato serio de Ciudadanos por la Libertad tendría buenas oportunidades de movilizar al grueso de los votantes nicaragüenses que no apoyan al gobierno y presentar una amenaza electoral de importancia al partido gobernante.Ortega parece no estar dispuesto a permitirlo. El viernes, la junta electoral, aliada del gobierno, hizo una amenaza velada de prohibir a cualquier candidato que no cumpla con las nuevas leyes que criminalizan la disidencia política.Los líderes opositores comentaron que la nueva directriz permite que los funcionarios electorales tengan el poder de suspender a cualquier candidato que represente una amenaza seria para Ortega o el candidato de su elección para que en la práctica no enfrente oposición.“Están claramente abiertos a dar ese último paso”, dijo Félix Maradiaga, uno de los finalistas en la carrera por la nominación de Ciudadanos por la Libertad a candidato presidencial.El mismo Maradiaga ha estado periódicamente en arresto domiciliario desde noviembre sin que se le hayan presentado cargos.La vocera de Ortega, Murillo, no respondió a un pedido de comentarios sobre las detenciones de los candidatos de la oposición.El rápido deterioro de las protecciones democráticas de Nicaragua ha presentado un desafío para la gestión de Biden, que ya estaba teniendo dificultades para detener el creciente autoritarismo en Centroamérica.Funcionarios y congresistas estadounidenses respondieron a la detención de Chamorro con amenazas de imponer nuevas sanciones contra Ortega.“Definitivamente estamos viendo qué acciones vamos a tomar para responder” a la represión política, dijo el sábado a la Voice of America el principal asesor de la Casa Blanca para América Latina, Juan González.La fuerte dependencia de Nicaragua de las exportaciones preferentes a Estados Unidos y los créditos de prestamistas internacionales financiados por Estados Unidos significa que las sanciones son una seria amenaza económica para Ortega, dijo Tiziano Breda, analista centroamericano de International Crisis Group.Pero la introducción de sanciones de importancia podrían conducir a la ya contraída economía de Nicaragua a una crisis, impulsando un nuevo éxodo de migrantes de la región hacia Estados Unidos.“Ortega ya ha presidido una economía de guerra; está demostrando que está dispuesto a repetir la historia”, comentó Breda. “La pregunta es: ¿Estados Unidos está dispuesto a afrontar las consecuencias de sus acciones?”Yubelka Mendoza More

    • 88 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      ¿Qué pasa en Bielorrusia? Una guía básica

      by

      Un avión que no llegó a su destino planeado, un periodista disidente detenido y todo lo que pasó antes del “secuestro de Estado” del que todos hablan.El aterrizaje forzoso de un vuelo comercial el domingo, considerado por varios países como un secuestro de Estado, ha puesto a Bielorrusia y a su presidente, Alexander Lukashenko, de nuevo en primer plano a nivel mundial.Se produjo a menos de un año de que los bielorrusos se enfrentaron a una violenta represión policial al protestar por los resultados de unas elecciones que muchos gobiernos occidentales tacharon de farsa.Según los gobiernos occidentales, el vuelo de Ryanair procedente de Atenas y con destino a Vilna, Lituania, fue desviado a Minsk con la excusa de una amenaza de bomba, con el objetivo de detener a Roman Protasevich, un periodista disidente de 26 años. En un video publicado por el gobierno, confesó haber participado en la organización de “disturbios masivos” el año pasado, pero sus amigos dicen que la confesión se hizo bajo amenaza.Para quienes intentan ponerse al día, he aquí el contexto que los ayudará a seguir a la par de la historia en curso. More

    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      What’s Happening in Belarus? Here Are the Basics.

      by

      For those trying to catch up on the “state hijacking” of an airplane, the arrest of a dissident and what preceded it.The forced landing of a commercial flight on Sunday, seen by several countries as a state hijacking, has put Belarus and its strongman president, Alexander G. Lukashenko, in a new global spotlight.It came less than a year after Belarusians were met with a violent police crackdown when they protested the results of an election that many Western governments derided as a sham.The Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, was diverted to Minsk using the ruse of a bomb threat, according to Western governments, with the goal of detaining Roman Protasevich, a 26-year-old dissident journalist. In a video released by the government, he confessed to taking part in organizing “mass unrest” last year, but friends say the confession was made under duress.For those trying to catch up, here’s the background that will help you follow along with the ongoing story. More

    • 125 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      ‘Tell Us if He’s Dead’: Abductions and Torture Rattle Uganda

      by

      Hundreds have been detained, many brutalized, after a bloody, contested election. The government of Yoweri Museveni appears intent on breaking the back of the opposition.KAMPALA, Uganda — Armed men in white minivans without license plates picked up people off the streets or from their homes.Those snatched were taken to prisons, police stations and military barracks where they say they were hooded, drugged and beaten — some left to stand in cellars filled with water up to their chests.The fear is still so palpable in the capital, Kampala, that many others have gone into hiding or left the country.Three months after Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, won a sixth five-year term in office in the most fiercely contested election in years, his government appears to be intent on breaking the back of the political opposition. The president of Uganda, a strategically located country in East Africa, is a longtime U.S. military ally and major recipient of American aid.His principal challenger, Bobi Wine, a magnetic musician-turned-lawmaker who galvanized youthful crowds of supporters, is now largely confined to his house in Kampala. Mr. Wine’s party said on Friday that 623 members, supporters and elected officials have been seized from the streets and arrested in recent weeks, many of them tortured.The musician-turned-oppostion politician Bobi Wine is now largely confined to his home, his party members and supporters arrested.Esther Ruth Mbabazi for The New York TimesFor many Ugandans, the enforced disappearances suggest a slide toward the repressive policies of dictators such as Idi Amin and Milton Obote — who was ousted by Mr. Museveni. Ugandans now say they worry that President Museveni, after 35 years in power, is adopting some of the harsh tactics used by the autocrats he railed against decades ago.“I didn’t know if I was going to make it out dead or alive,” said Cyrus Sambwa Kasato, his eyes darting as he spoke, his hand tugging at the rosary around his neck. A district councilor with Mr. Wine’s opposition party, he said he was held at military intelligence headquarters, his hands chained to the ceiling, whipped by several men at once.President Museveni has acknowledged arresting 242 people, branding them “terrorists” and “lawbreakers,” and admitted that an elite commando unit had “killed a few.” But he denied that his government was disappearing its own citizens.Cyrus Sambwa Kasato, a district councilor with the opposition party,  said he was held at military intelligence headquarters, chained to the ceiling and whipped.Esther Ruth Mbabazi for The New York TimesA military spokesman, Lt. Col. Deo Akiiki, said in an email, “Terrorism has changed the modus operandi of some security operations across the world.”He defended the use of the unmarked white vans, saying that using “unidentifiable means of transport” was not unique to Uganda and that other countries — including the United States and Britain — have deployed similar methods to deal with “hard-core criminals.” He added that military officers are well trained in upholding human rights.The detentions and disappearances, in Uganda’s central region and elsewhere in the country, have targeted both young and middle-aged men and women.Some of those detained say they had collected evidence of vote tampering to present to the Supreme Court to challenge the official election results — which gave Mr. Museveni 59 percent of the vote to 34 percent for Mr. Wine. Mr. Wine has since dropped his challenge.Many of those who agreed to be interviewed were initially afraid to meet, fearing that journalists were actually government operatives. They asked to meet in public spaces or in party offices. Most did not want their names used for fear of retribution.They said uniformed soldiers or plainclothes gunmen whisked them away in unmarked minivans, known as “drones,” and shuffled them between prisons, police stations and military barracks — making it hard for their families and lawyers to find them.Campaign billboards for President Museveni, who was elected to his sixth five-year term.Esther Ruth Mbabazi for The New York TimesThey were ordered to turn over evidence of vote-rigging, accused of orchestrating violence and participating in an American plot to start a “revolution.” Mr. Museveni has claimed that the opposition was receiving support from “outsiders” and “homosexuals” who don’t like the “stability of Uganda.”Some said they were charged in a military court with possessing “military stores,” including the red berets worn by supporters of Mr. Wine, which the government banned in 2019.David Musiri, a member of Mr. Wine’s National Unity Platform Party, said he was shopping at a supermarket in Kampala on Jan. 18 when six gunmen in plainclothes assaulted him and injected him twice with a substance that made him lose consciousness.Mr. Musiri, 30, said he was placed in solitary confinement with his hands and feet tied together. Like most of those arrested, he said that his jailers interrogated him about what they called “Plan B” — Mr. Wine’s postelection strategy.Soldiers made him listen to recordings of his own phone calls with party officials, and kicked and hit him so much that he started urinating blood, he said. When he was released four days later, he couldn’t walk.“We are the very people funding the dictator to do this to us,” he said.David Musiri, a member of the opposition party, said soldiers beat him so badly he couldn’t walk, and interrogated him about a suspected “Plan B.”Esther Ruth Mbabazi for The New York TimesMr. Kasato, the district councilor, said that plainclothes officers picked him up from a church meeting on Feb. 8, threw him, hooded, into a car and clobbered him.He said the men asked him for the evidence of election rigging he’d collected, and whether he had sent it to Mr. Wine’s party. He said, yes, he had.Mr. Kasato, a 47-year-old father of 11, said that while he was chained to the ceiling, his feet barely touching the ground, military officers whipped him with a wire and pulled at his skin with pliers. “It was a big shock,” he said. “I was praying deeply that I really survive that torture.”In late February, Mr. Kasato was charged with inciting violence during the November protests in which security forces killed dozens of people — accusations he denies. He has been released on bail, but said he was still in intense physical pain, and that his doctors advised he seek medical attention abroad.Analysts say that Mr. Museveni, 76, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, is trying to avoid history repeating itself. He himself was a charismatic young upstart who accused his predecessor, Mr. Obote, of rigging an election, and led an armed rebellion that after five years managed to take power.Mr. Wine, 39, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has become the face of this young movement, promising to shake up the country’s stifled politics. As his campaign gained ground last year, he was arrested and beaten and placed under de facto house arrest.“We are seeing a movement toward full totalitarianism in this country,” said Nicholas Opiyo, a leading human rights lawyer. He was abducted last December and released, charged with money laundering after his legal advocacy group received a grant from American Jewish World Service, a New York-based nonprofit.“I have never felt as restricted and constrained as I am today,” said Nicholas Opiyo, a human rights lawyer, who was detained.Esther Ruth Mbabazi for The New York TimesAfter years of working to defend civil liberties in Uganda, Mr. Opiyo said, “I have never felt as restricted and constrained as I am today,” adding, “It feels like the noose is tightening on our neck.”Authorities have started releasing some of those forcibly disappeared following weeks of public outcry.On a March morning in Kyotera, a town 110 miles southwest of the Ugandan capital, news spread that 18 of the 19 local people who went missing had been returned.One was Lukyamuzi Kiwanuka Yuda, a 30-year-old trader who was taken from his home on the night of Jan. 8. Mr. Yuda said that 15 to 20 men in black counterterrorism police uniforms broke down his door, beat him and asked whether he was training “the rebels.”Lukyamuzi Kiwanuka Yuda, embraced by friends upon his release, said he was detained for more than 70 days in a hood and shackles.Esther Ruth Mbabazi for The New York TimesFor more than 70 days, he said, he and others detained with him remained hooded and shackled, allowed to lift their hoods only up to their lips when eating their one meal a day.“We would count the days based on when the meal for the day arrived,” he said, while continuously gazing at the sky. When asked why he kept looking up, he said, “I miss the sun.”In the hours after the reunion, neighbors and local officials gathered, cheering, ululating and hugging the returnees. A tent was pitched, and soon families arrived dressed in their best as a pastor delivered a prayer of thanks.But one resident quietly slipped out.After rushing over, Jane Kyomugisha did not find her brother among those released. Her brother, who is 28, had run in the local council election as an independent. He was taken away on Jan. 19 and has not been seen since. Ms. Kyomugisha said she has asked about him at numerous police stations, but in vain.“I feel a lot of pain that others have come back and my brother is not here,” she said in an interview at her convenience store in town. With each passing day, she feels more hopeless.“They should tell us if he’s dead,” she said. “Give us back the body and let our hope end there.”Jane Kyomugisha said that her brother, who ran as an independent in a local council election, was abducted in January and has not been seen since.Esther Ruth Mbabazi for The New York Times More

    • 175 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      Latest Claim in the Effort Against Aung San Suu Kyi: A Bag of Cash

      by

      The Myanmar military’s latest accusations against the ousted civilian leader suggest a monthslong campaign to neutralize the country’s most popular politician.The Myanmar construction tycoon spoke in a faltering monotone, blinking fast and gulping occasionally for air. He said that over the past several years he had handed a total of $550,000 to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader of Myanmar who was ousted in a military coup last month.On two occasions, he had provided $100,000 and $150,000, the businessman said in a confessional statement broadcast on a military television network Wednesday night. In the English subtitles, the money had been handed over in a “black envelope.” In Burmese, the description had him presenting the money, meant to enhance his business ties, in a paper gift bag.Either way, the envelope or gift bag would have been very large to hold that much cash.The televised statement by U Maung Weik, a military crony who was once imprisoned for drug trafficking, appears to be the latest act in an intricately planned effort to impugn Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi.Before elections in November, an online campaign amplified by pro-military groups raised a litany of unproven allegations against the civilian leader, who had shared power with the military for five years. Once her party won a landslide victory, military-linked forces stepped up their attacks on her, calling her corrupt and under the influence of foreigners.Then, after the military staged its Feb. 1 coup, security forces detained individuals who had been named months earlier as key members of a foreign plot, blessed by Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, to destabilize Myanmar. The chronology suggests a well-planned effort to rid the country of its most beloved leader.Protesters clashing with security forces in Yangon, Myanmar, on Tuesday.The New York Times“We have seen their attempt to arrest Daw Aung San Suu Kyi since before the election,” said U Khin Maung Zaw, her lawyer. He has not been able to see his client nor has he been given power of attorney so he can formally handle her legal affairs.Days before the November polls, the coordinated attacks on social media accused Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and her governing National League for Democracy of illegally profiting from foreign funding. If the National League for Democracy is found guilty of having been tainted by foreign influence, the party could be disbanded, neutralizing the most popular political force in Myanmar’s history.The targeted campaign — disseminated on Facebook, YouTube, a custom-built website and spoofed emails that shared similar branding and cross-posting — implied that a cabal of Western interests was working with the National League for Democracy to steal the elections and upend Myanmar governance. The custom-built website was developed from a folder named after the military’s proxy party, a digital forensics investigation found.Chief among the supposed plotters was George Soros, the American philanthropist whose Open Society Foundation promotes democracy worldwide.One of the pre-election posts claimed that the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, a charity group set up in the name of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother, was secretly working with the Open Society Foundation to destabilize Myanmar.The implications of the social media attack became clearer this month. Mr. Maung Weik, the construction tycoon, claimed in the television broadcast on Wednesday that he had donated money to the charity. Last week, the military accused Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi of having siphoned off some money from the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation. At least two of the charity’s employees have been detained in recent weeks.On Monday, the same military-controlled television network that broadcast Mr. Maung Weik’s statement announced that arrest warrants had been issued for 11 employees of Open Society Myanmar for aiding the anti-coup protest movement with, among other things, illegal bank transactions. The group’s finance manager has been detained.Volunteer medical doctors operate on an 18-year-old protestor wounded during a crackdown in Yangon, Wednesday.The New York TimesOpen Society Myanmar has denied that it acted illegally by withdrawing funds from its own local bank account.Another pre-election social media attack pointed fingers at a deputy industry minister, a deputy finance minister and an Australian economic adviser to Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, reproaching them for machinations to control the country. After the military ousted the civilian government last month, all three were detained.The military’s takeover of power has galvanized tremendous pushback from the people of Myanmar. Since the coup, millions of people have demonstrated and participated in labor strikes against the regime.The military has responded with the kind of violence normally reserved for the battlefield. In attacks on protesters, security forces have killed at least 215 people, mostly by gunshot, according to a local group that tallies political imprisonments and deaths; more than 2,000 people have been detained for political reasons since the coup.This week, members of a group representing the disbanded Parliament were charged with high treason. So was Myanmar’s envoy to the United Nations, who gave an impassioned speech last month decrying the military’s seizure of power.On Wednesday, the last of Myanmar’s major independent newspapers ceased publication. More than 30 journalists have been detained or pursued by authorities since the coup. The country, for decades under the military’s fist, is rapidly losing whatever democratic reforms had been introduced over the past few years.Protesters building a roadblock on a bridge, Yangon, on Tuesday.The New York TimesSince Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi was locked up in a pre-dawn raid on the day of the coup, she has been formally charged with various crimes that could see her imprisoned for years. The charges include esoteric crimes such as illegally importing foreign walkie-talkies and contravening coronavirus regulations.Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has not yet been charged in relation to Mr. Maung Weik’s accusations that he gave her money to better his business relationship with the civilian government. The military television network said that investigators were currently looking into the case.Last week, the military also accused her of illegally accepting 25 pounds of gold and about $600,000. Mr. Maung Weik’s accusations of money transfers are separate from this figure.If charges are brought in any such cases, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, could face life imprisonment.“I 100 percent believe that their accusations against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi are groundless,” said U Aung Kyi Nyunt, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy.Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s popularity in Myanmar far outstrips that of the generals who have controlled the country for most of the past 60 years. She spent 15 years under house arrest and won the Nobel Peace Prize for her commitment to nonviolent resistance.While her international reputation faded after she defended the military’s ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims, her star appeal endured at home. The National League for Democracy’s electoral performance last year bested its 2015 landslide. The military has called fraud on the polls.Mr. Khin Maung Zaw, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer, said that by silencing and imprisoning her the military regime risked burnishing her popularity further.“They should not let Daw Aung San Suu Kyi change from a hero to a martyr,” he said. “If Daw Aung San Suu Kyi becomes a martyr, then the strength of the people will never be destroyed, and her martyrdom will become the people’s greatest strength.”A Yangon neighborhood after clashes on Tuesday.The New York Times More