Nicaragua’s vice presidential nominee, Berenise Quesada. photo social media capture
The government of Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, which continues to suppress opposition figures ahead of the November presidential election, has put the opposition vice president candidate under house arrest.
The conservative opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Freedom posted on Twitter on the night of the 3rd (local time), “At 9:30 p.m., we received a notice from the judicial authorities that Vice-President Candidate Berenise Quesada was placed under house arrest.”
The Citizens’ Coalition for Freedom said, “Kesada is staying at home under police supervision, with limited phone calls and movement and banned from running for public office.”
27-year-old Quesada, from Miss Nicaragua in 2017, completed her registration as a candidate for vice president of the Citizens’ Coalition for Freedom on the 2nd of November ahead of the presidential election on 7th November.
Nicaragua’s Conservative Opposition Coalition presidential candidate Oscar Sovalvaro (right) and vice-presidential candidate Berenise Quesada (left) arrive at the Central Election Commission in Managua, capital of America, for registration of candidates on the 2nd (local time). Sovalvaro was the leader of the Contra right-wing rebels who faced the Sandinista regime with US backing in the 1980s, and Quesada was the 2017 Miss Nicaragua. The two will face President Daniel Ortega, who is running for a fifth term in the presidential election in November, and Rosario Murillo, First Lady and Vice President. EPA Yonhap News
It was planned to stop Ortega’s fifth term in office with the presidential candidate Oscar Sovalvaro, a former right-wing rebel ‘Contra’.
However, Ortega supporters took issue with Quesada’s remarks related to his participation in anti-government protests in 2018 and demanded that he be stripped of his candidacy the day before, accusing him of ‘incitement to hatred’.
President Ortega, who is aiming for a long term in office, has already captured a bunch of people who have been discussed as potential presidential candidates in the opposition even before registering as a presidential candidate.
In the two months since early June, more than 30 opposition figures, including seven presidential candidates, have been arrested on charges of treason.
The United States and the European Union (EU) have criticized the Nicaraguan government’s suppression of anti-government protests in 2018 and imprisoned opposition figures, and imposed sanctions on government officials, including President Ortega and First Lady and Vice President Rosario Murillo.
By Bae Jae-seong, staff reporter hongdoya@joongang.co.kr
