They denounce the disappearance of the opposition mayor in Nicaragua and the seizure of his office

The observatory of political violence in Nicaragua Open Ballot Boxes denounced this Saturday that the mayor of the municipality of Santa María de Pantasma (north), Omar Gadea Tinoco, an opponent of President Daniel Ortega, is missing, and that a group of police officers and alleged Sandinista militants have taken over the municipal government offices. .

“The mayor’s office is taken and the Sandinista flag was raised on the building, the operation is led by Denis Jarquín Irías, municipal police chief, Ramón Orontes, municipal political secretary, and Gonzalo Herrera, FSLN councilman. There was also knowledge of the police siege in the house of Mayor Gadea, who is currently unaccounted for,” the observatory reported.

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The event occurs when there are four months to go before the municipal elections, in which Nicaraguans will elect the mayors, deputy mayors and councilors of the 153 municipalities of Nicaragua, of which 135 are currently under the administration of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). ).

Open Ballot Boxes, made up of a team of Nicaraguan experts in politics and economics, also reported that “they were blocked by the Police, who are at different strategic points, carrying out searches, to enter the town,” and that a group of workers who initially held were released, with the exception of an official from the financial area.

Complaints about the disappearance of opponents are common in Nicaragua since the massive protests against Ortega in 2018. Most of the people reported missing have turned up days or weeks later under arrest.

In 2021, with five months to go before the presidential elections, more than 70 people were captured in a wave of arrests against opponents, which included seven dissident leaders who had announced their interest in competing with Ortega for the Presidency. Two others fled into exile, they said, after learning that they would be arrested.

Gadea was mayor of Santa María de Pantasma after winning the 2017 municipal elections for the Ciudadanos por la Libertad (CxL) party, whose legal personality was canceled a few months before the elections in which Ortega was re-elected once again with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president.

Since 2018, Nicaragua has been experiencing a sociopolitical crisis that in its first year left 355 dead, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), of which Orta has recognized 200.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.