Nicaragua’s president Daniel Ortega has proposed a constitutional reform that would officially make him and his wife, current vice president Rosario Murillo, “co-presidents” of the central American nation.
While the initiative has to pass through the country’s legislature, Mr Ortega and Ms Murillo’s Sandinista party control the congress and all government institutions, so it is likely to be approved.
Wednesday’s proposal also looks to expand the presidential term from five years to six years, while Mr Ortega put forward another bill that would make it illegal for anyone to enforce sanctions from the United States or other foreign bodies “within Nicaraguan territory”.
The Organisation of American States general secretary’s office condemned the proposed constitutional reforms.
“The ‘reform’ document is illegitimate in form and content, it merely constitutes an aberrant form of institutionalisation of the matrimonial dictatorship in the Central American country and is a definitive attack on the democratic rule of law,” it said in a statement.
The proposals come amid an ongoing crackdown by the Ortega government since mass social protests in 2018 that the government violently repressed.
Nicaragua’s government has imprisoned adversaries, religious leaders, journalists and more, then exiled them, stripping hundreds of their Nicaraguan citizenship and possessions.
Since 2018, it has shuttered more than 5,000 organisations, largely religious, and forced thousands to flee the country.
Dissident groups including the Nicaraguan University Alliance quickly railed against the measures, calling them an extension of that clampdown.
“They are institutionalising nepotism and repression, destroying the rule of law. Democracy faces its greatest threat,” the organisation wrote on the social media platform X on Wednesday.
Manuel Orozco, director of the migration, remittances and development programme at the Inter-American Dialogue, called Mr Ortega’s proposed reforms “nothing but a rubber stamping formalisation of a decision to guarantee presidential succession” for Ms Murillo and their family.
Mr Ortega has referred to Ms Murillo in recent years as his co-president.
While the rejection of international sanctions would have no immediate impact, Mr Orozco said it could put the country at “high financial risk” and risk further penalties from the US Treasury Department.
Mr Orozco said the constitutional reform to the presidency is part of a long-term plan for the administration to stay in power and was pushed forward as a way to avoid provoking the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
The analyst said Mr Trump may not prioritise crackdowns on democratic freedoms in places like Nicaragua, but also isn’t likely to “tolerate provocations”.
“The procedure, apart from circumventing the popular will, the rule of law, creates the pathway to give Ortega extra time to stay in power,” Mr Orozco said.
Mr Ortega was reelected to a fourth consecutive five-year term in November 2021.
