QCOSTARICA (EFE) The reform to Nicaragua’s Political Constitution, which transforms the state, eliminates the balance of power, and grants total power to the country’s president, Daniel Ortega, and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who now serve as co-presidents, pursues “family succession,” argued the Center for Transdisciplinary Studies of Central America (CETCAM) in an analysis presented last Friday in Costa Rica.
“The new Political Constitution pursues family succession everywhere,” concluded Nicaraguan opposition lawyer Eliseo Núñez, author of the study “Tyranny, Legality, and Transition: Lessons and Challenges for a Democratic Nicaragua.”
For the lawyer, with these constitutional amendments, which eliminate checks and balances, Ortega resembles a “Middle Eastern sultanate” rather than a “monarchy,” because he rules without any oversight.
– Advertisement –
In fact, said Núñez, a denationalized Nicaraguan, before the constitutional reform, Ortega first used force to violate the fundamental freedoms and rights of citizens and then legalized them in the Magna Carta, that is, “legality after tyranny.”
Therefore, according to the Cetcam study, the recent constitutional reforms, in effect since last February, are part of a strategy by Ortega and Murillo to “legalize their authoritarian and dynastic political project” in the context of the sociopolitical crisis the country has experienced since the civil protests of April 2018.
Transformation of the Nicaraguan Political System
For this think tank, made up of Central American researchers from different disciplines and based in Costa Rica, since “the Ortega-Murillo regime has been unable to end citizen resistance, it has opted for authoritarian radicalization” of the Nicaraguan political system and established “a police state.”
“The reforms eliminate the separation of powers, consolidating a centralized model where the Executive has control over the Legislative, Judicial, and Electoral branches. This seriously compromises the democratic principles and checks and balances that guaranteed institutional independence,” warned Núñez, a research associate at Cetcam.
According to the analysis, these reforms severely impact the conditions necessary for a functioning democratic system.
Credibility in political alternation “has been practically eliminated with the reform. The introduction of the co-presidency and the elimination of the separation of powers consolidate a model where democratic alternation is impossible,” the jurist noted.
– Advertisement –
To reverse these changes, the study proposes a roadmap that includes returning power to the citizens through civic education, strengthening civil society, and fostering alternative leadership.
The Absolute Power of the Presidency
In mid-February 2025, Nicaragua implemented a sweeping reform of the Political Constitution that has been harshly criticized by the UN, the Organization of American States (OAS), the United States, the European Parliament, and the Nicaraguan opposition.
The amendment extends the presidential term from five to six years, establishes the position of a “co-president,” requires the executive branch to “coordinate” the other “organs” of the state, which are no longer called branches of government, and legalizes statelessness.
Furthermore, it creates the “patriotic reserve military forces” and the “voluntary police,” which, according to the opposition, are paramilitary and parapolice forces.
– Advertisement –
At Ortega’s request, legislators amended 148 of the 198 articles of the Magna Carta and repealed 37 others, including the one prohibiting the practice of torture.
It also includes the flag of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), the ruling party since 2007, as a national symbol.
Ortega, 79, has been in power since 2007 and has governed Nicaragua with his wife Murillo since 2017, amid allegations of electoral fraud and the elimination of the opposition to avoid competition.
– Advertisement –
Source link
Rico
