Since his return to the presidency of Nicaragua in January 2007, Daniel Ortega’s rule has been characterized by an increasing trend toward autocracy. The 2016 election was boycotted by opposition parties (which were later effectively banned) and the 2021 election was dismissed almost universally as a sham. In 2024 the Nicaraguan legislature rubber-stamped an amendment to the constitution that elevated Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murillo, to the office of “co-president,” while also empowering Ortega to strip domestic critics of their Nicaraguan citizenship. Ortega claimed that he needed to suspend elections to prevent a return to power of supporters of Anastasio Somoza Debayle, a U.S.-backed dictator who was assassinated in 1980.
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