According to the draft, Nicaragua defines itself as a “revolutionary” state and includes the red and black flag of the FSLN among its national symbols.
An extended presidential term
Daniel Ortega, a 78-year-old former guerrilla who ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s, has been in power since 2007. He is accused by the United States, the European Union and Latin American countries of having established a autocracy in the country.
According to the text of the reform, “the Presidency of the Republic is made up of a co-president and a co-president”, who will be designated during elections organized “every six years”, and no longer every five years.
The two leaders will coordinate “the legislative, judicial, electoral bodies” or those managing regions and municipalities, which the constitution currently in force considers independent.
An “ultimate aggression against the rule of law”, “a direct blow to democracy”
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro condemned the project, seeing it as “an aberrant form of institutionalization of marital dictatorship” and an “ultimate aggression against the democratic rule of law”, d ‘after a press release.
Exile organizations have also criticized the text, such as the Nicaraguan University Alliance (AUN), according to which the announced reform “destroys fundamental rights, legitimizes state violence and concentrates all powers in the hands of Ortega and Murillo. A direct blow to democracy and freedoms.”
The draft also stipulates that “traitors to the homeland lose Nicaraguan nationality.” Following the 2018 protests, some 450 politicians, businessmen, journalists, intellectuals, human rights activists and members of the clergy had already been expelled from Nicaragua and stripped of their nationality.
Media freedom reduced
Daniel Ortega and his powerful wife accuse the Church, journalists and NGOs of having supported these protests which left more than 300 dead, according to the UN, and which the Nicaraguan government considers a sustained coup attempt. by Washington.
In total, 278 journalists have gone into exile and practice their profession from Costa Rica and the United States, while around fifty clerics have been sent abroad, mainly to the Vatican.
“The state will ensure that the media are not subject to foreign interests and do not disseminate false news,” underlines the draft, which establishes restrictions on the media.
In the reform, the government also plans to create a “voluntary police force”, made up of civilians, to “support” the security forces.
