The U.S. has called for the immediate release of Nicaraguan opposition people

Cristiana Chamorro and two of her colleagues were arrested on “excellent charges,” according to the U.S. State Department.

The United States has called on the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to immediately release the leader of the opposition, Cristiana Chamorro, and her two colleagues, who were arrested on Friday.

“Their detention is an abuse of rights and an attack on democratic values, as well as a clear attempt to thwart free and fair elections,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price.

It was Chamorro arrested at home on June 2, Nicaraguan police searched his home, escalating the political battle ahead of the November election, when Ortega wants to hold on to power.

Journalist Chamorro, 67, sees Ortega as a possible challenge, and is expected to run for re-election in November for the third consecutive term.

Police he searched Chamorro’s house In the capital of Managua, and after being there for more than five hours, he was placed “under house arrest, isolated,” his brother Carlos Fernando Chamorro announced on Twitter.

Chamorro is the third opposition candidate to be arrested in Nicaragua when two opposition parties are deemed illegal.

Chamorro’s arrest was condemned on Friday by a senior Democratic member of the U.S. Congress, California Representative Eric Swalwell.

“Instead of wasting time without democratically addressing the disagreement, Ortega should work to get his country out of the horrendous poverty and violence that has caused so many voters to leave the country,” Swalwell said.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega I strongly condemn the unjustified deportation of opposition popular candidate Cristiana Chamorro to popular opposition candidate Cristiana Chamorro. My statement: pic.twitter.com/Fiw1g4IOls

– Representative Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) June 4, 2021

Swalwell called on the Biden administration to work with allies in the region to “implement Ortega’s consequences for his regime for attacking freedom of democracy and human rights.”

A group representing Nicaraguan political prisoners and the mothers of people killed in protest in Ortega’s authoritarian government have called for a national strike after Chamorro was arrested.

“A national strike is better than a bullet,” Grethel Gomez said in front of Chamorro’s house to express solidarity with the families of political prisoners.

Earlier this week, Nicaragua’s attorney general, Ortega’s ally, sought Chamorro’s disqualification from public office as a result of a criminal investigation against him, which was immediately signed by the judge.

State prosecutors have accused him of alleging money laundering and forgery, which he has denied.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blink, who met with President Carlos Alvarado alongside Costa Rica on June 1, criticized the actions of the Ortega regime and reaffirmed the US. economic sanctions against Nicaraguan officials.

“Punishments are there for that, and that is to promote the responsibility of those who violate human rights, corruption or undermine democracy,” Blinken said.

In Costa Rica, Antony Blinken says ‘Nicaragua is going in the opposite direction’ | Q COSTA RICAhttps://t.co/QWbd4ciQEH

– The Voice of Nicaragua (@vozdenicaragua) June 4, 2021

Although Chamorro may appeal the disqualification, he is unlikely to return because of Ortega’s influence in the courts.

Coming from an old political lineage, Chamorro has recently emerged as a possible candidate for the union that could garner a split in the November vote to defeat Ortega.

Chamorro is the daughter of Violeta Chamorro, who was elected president of Nicaragua in 1990, when Ortega was first removed from office, and her father, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, was assassinated in 1978 after leading the opposition to democracy against the Somaza dictatorship. .