Managua (Nicaragua), Jul 25 (AP) Nicaraguan police on Saturday placed a seventh presidential contender under house arrest, meaning almost everyone who challenged President Daniel Ortega in the November 7 election is now in custody Is.
Opposition leader Nol Vidouré was placed in police custody at his home on Saturday, as was political commentator Jaime Arellano. Arellano was called in for questioning in relation to a comment he wrote criticizing an Ortega speech.
Vidourre was one of the potential presidential candidates of the Citizens for Liberty Alliance.
The conservative coalition announced that it had chosen Oscar Sovalbarro as its candidate, the leader of the US-backed “Contra” rebellion that fought the Sandinists in the 1980s. It was not clear whether Sovalbarro had accepted the nomination.
Half a dozen other potential candidates have been arrested in the crackdown that started about two months ago. About two dozen other journalists and opposition activists have also been detained.
Almost all were arrested under “sedition” laws that Ortega used against political rivals. Most face vague charges of crimes against the state. Ortega alleged that the country’s April 2018 street protests were part of an organized coup attempt with foreign backing.
Another possible candidate, Christiana Chamorro, is also under house arrest.
Most of those arrested in a crackdown that began in late May are being held incommunicado, in undisclosed locations, without access to lawyers or family visits.
These include Medardo Myrena, Felix Maradiaga and Miguel Mora.
Probable candidates Juan Sebastian Chamorro and Arturo Cruz were also arrested. Candidates will have to register by August 2.
Lester Alleman – a former student leader who returned to Nicaragua after exile but remained in safe homes – has also been detained.
And several prominent Sandinist revolutionaries who fought alongside Ortega in 1979 have also been imprisoned by him.
Those currently arrested include 65-year-old Dora Maria Tellez, a former guerrilla commander who later split from Ortega and became the leader of the Sandinista renewal movement. Another jailed former Sandinista guerrilla and renewal movement leader Hugo Torres is 73.
Another is Victor Hugo Tinoco, leader of the political movement Unamos, a former assistant foreign minister and former ambassador to the United Nations.
Ortega, 75, is running for the fourth time in a row in the November 7 elections. (AP) India
(This story is published as part of an auto-generated Syndicate wire feed. Headline or body have not been edited by ABP Live.)
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