In Nicaragua, Parliament adopts a constitutional reform that increases President Daniel Ortega's hold on the country

This 79-year-old former guerrilla returned to power in 2007 and is accused by the United States, the European Union and Latin American countries of having established an autocracy with his wife.

He reformed the Constitution a dozen times, allowing him an indefinite number of mandates. The President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, sees his influence over the country further increased with the adoption by Parliament, Friday, November 22, of a constitutional reform, which makes his wife Rosario Murillo a “co-president”.

Controlled by the ruling party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN, left), Parliament approved Friday “unanimously” this reform project presented Tuesday by Daniel Ortega. It will be ratified during an upcoming parliamentary session in January, according to the president of the unicameral assembly.

According to this text, “the presidency of the Republic is composed of a co-president and a co-president”who will be appointed during elections organized “every six years”and no longer every five years. The two leaders will coordinate “the legislative, judicial, electoral bodies” or even those managing regions and municipalities, while the current constitution considered them independent.

Daniel Ortega, a 79-year-old former guerrilla who led Nicaragua in the 1980s after the triumph of the Sandinista revolution, returned to power in 2007. He is accused by the United States, the European Union and foreign countries. Latin America for having established an autocracy with his wife, six years his junior, appointed vice-president in 2017.

Both radicalized their positions and strengthened their control over Nicaraguan society after the anti-government protests of 2018, the repression of which left 320 dead according to the UN.

“All that is now in the reform is what, in fact, is Nicaragua: a de facto dictatorship. The new thing is that it will now be enshrined in the Constitution”former guerrilla commander Dora Maria Tellez, imprisoned in Nicaragua and now living in exile in the United States, told AFP.