AMERICA/NICARAGUA - "The law is sovereign and not the will of men": the Bishops after the latest arrests of opponents

Thursday, 17 June 2021 elections   politics   local churches  

Twitter

Managua (Agenzia Fides) - The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, highlighted yesterday, Wednesday, June 16, that "there are no conditions" for "free and fair elections" in Nicaragua, and called for the "immediate release" of the four presidential candidates recently detained by the Daniel Ortega regime. In a public statement, Blinken expressed his "firm support" for the resolution approved on Tuesday 15 by a vast majority of 26 countries of the Organization of American States (OAS) calling for "the immediate release of presidential candidates and all political prisoners". The head of US diplomacy called on the Ortega-Murillo regime to change course, respect the Constitution and the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and allow Nicaraguans to fully exercise their rights, including the right to choose their leaders in free and fair elections. According to information released by the international press, the police detained four presidential candidates for the November 7 elections: Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro García. In addition, several prominent opposition figures are under house arrest. In early May, the government banned the National Opposition Coalition alliance from participating in the elections. The Citizens for Freedom party, for which Chamorro wanted to run, is therefore the main political group of the government's opponents. Cristiana Chamorro in particular is the best known among the opposition candidates, she has the upper hand in the polls and is a popular figure (see Fides, 8/6/2021).
The Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua recommended in a document, published following the arrests of several opposition politicians, to avoid the institutionalization of arbitrary and illegal arrests, the "persecution" against opponents and the media, and denounced "the persistent situation of injustice".
The Episcopate urged Nicaraguans to "elect representatives who respect the dignity of the person, human rights, freedom, life from the moment of conception to natural death, and the natural and traditional family, as God created it". In the November 7 elections, President Daniel Ortega is trying by all means to be reelected for another five years. "It is necessary to prevent the arbitrary and illegal restriction of civil liberties, the persecution of opponents and the media, the persistent situation of injustice, laws against human rights, political siege and riots, from being institutionalized in our country", the Bishops write in the document signed last weekend. The principle of the rule of law is that "the law is sovereign and not the will of men". "We want and prefer a democratic system for Nicaragua, where the political authority is accountable to the people and the representative bodies must be subject to effective control by the social body", continues the text sent to Fides. "This control of the social body", indicates the Bishops' Conference, "is possible above all through free, credible elections, observed at the national and international level, which in turn allow the election and also the substitution of representatives". The Message concludes by inviting all Catholic communities to organize days of prayer for the homeland, beginning this month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and ending on August 15, the day in which Nicaragua's first consecration to Our Lady is commemorated. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 17/6/2021)


Share: