Since being elected for a second term as Nicaraguan president in 2006, Daniel Ortega – the former Sandinista freedom fighter-turned-authoritarian leader – has extended his term of office several times. But last week he announced a new strategy for holding on to power.
He declared that there will no longer be elections in the Central American country. Making a speech to commemorate the anniversary of the 1979 revolution that toppled the Somoza dictatorship which had ruled Nicaragua since 1937, he said: “The days when parties backed by the Yankees and the Somocistas would return to power are over – never again.” The legal changes are already moving through the country’s legislature.
