Ortega proposes constitutional reform
Nov. 21, 2024
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega proposed a constitutional reform that changes significant chunks of the country’s magna carta to ensure the Ortega family’s control over the government. While the reform technically has to go through the country’s lawmakers, the National Assembly — dominated by Ortega’s Sandinista party in a context of absolute political repression — has long been a presidential rubber stamp.
The brunt of the reform would elevate his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, to the post of “copresident.” Both copresidents could appoint vice presidents, like their son Laureano Ortega Murillo.
The proposal would also expand the presidential term to six years from five. Ortega also proposed a bill, yesterday, that would make it illegal for anyone to enforce sanctions from the United States or other foreign bodies “within Nicaraguan territory.”
The reform stipulates that “traitors to the homeland lose their Nicaraguan nationality,” a practice the government has already applied to approximately 450 politicians, businesspeople, journalists, intellectuals, and religious figures expelled from Nicaragua and stripped of their citizenship following protests in 2018.
Ortega's reform proposal also allows the executive to order the army to intervene "in support of" the country's national police when necessary. It would also authorize military and police officials to "temporarily occupy" executive branch positions "when the nation's supreme interest demands."
Dissident groups including the Nicaraguan University Alliance said the new measures are an extension of the clampdown that started in 2018. Since then the government has imprisoned thousands of people. The government has shuttered more than 5,000 organizations, largely religious, and forced thousands to flee the country.
(El País, Associated Press, AFP, Reuters)
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