Daniel Ortega's police assault and hold Cristiana Chamorro

Her name is Cristiana Chamorro and she was the main hope of Nicaraguans to defeat Daniel Ortega at the polls. Until Tuesday. The Sandinista Prosecutor's Office has de facto disqualified the daughter of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, with the aim of clearing the electoral path of the revolutionary leader ahead of the November presidential elections.

The legal action preceded his capture, carried out by the Sandinista police, who violently assaulted his residence in an unexpected turn of events.. Both anti-riot agents and paramilitaries participated in the enormous pro-government deployment, who stood in the surroundings while their companions took over the interior of the house.. The arrest warrant was signed by one of the judges of the regime.

“I am not an official candidate and they try to inhibit me. how afraid they are of change. United, Nicaragua will once again be a republic,” denounced the 67-year-old journalist, hours before her arrest..

The Sandinista body ordered the disqualification of Cristiana Chamorro from any public position for being in criminal proceedings, without the right to defense and without even a sentence involved.. Technically she is not “inhibited”, but the sentence has already been handed down against her: it will be made public when the Sandinistas see fit.

Since Cristiana, founder of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (Fvbch) and vice-president of the newspaper La Prensa, made official her intention to head a unitary list of the opposition months ago, the Sandinista devils have been unleashed. The first to react was Vice President Rosario Murillo, Ortega's wife. And he made it very clear: “We do not deliver the people's assets to families that have believed they are the owners of the country. Throughout history, believing themselves to be superior, they have sold their homeland. Never again neither hate nor sale of homeland”.

Murillo and Ortega head the all-powerful family clan, with their nine children distributed among the public administration, a media empire of television, radio and newspapers, as well as strategic companies.. A monarchical dynasty in which it is worth recovering the old adage of both Ortega and Murillo riding.

After the threats came the facts. The accusation made by the Sandinista Prosecutor's Office is as arbitrary as the express process opened two weeks ago against the presidential candidate. Cristiana is accused of crimes of abusive management and ideological falsehood at the head of the Fvbch, “both in real competition with money, property and asset laundering,” according to the Prosecutor's Office.

The process against the daughter of Doña Violeta started from the Ministry of the Interior for alleged “irregularities” in the management of the Fvbch, which was dedicated from its inception to the defense of press freedom in homage to the journalist Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, father of Christian who was assassinated by the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza.

For years, the Fvbch exercised an exemplary guardianship in its support for independent media and journalists, in addition to strengthening the journalistic exercise. Among the twenty journalists and media owners summoned to testify was also the writer and Cervantes Prize winner Sergio Ramírez, who confirmed that the agreements were reported to the Ministry and were carried out “in strict adherence to the law.”.

The US State Department, one of the foundation's donors, like other European countries, denied any type of irregularity in its relationship with the Fvbch. Arbitrarily banning opposition leader Cristiana Chamorro reflects Ortega's fear of free and fair elections. Nicaraguans deserve a real democracy,” Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, responded yesterday..

The Prosecutor's Office has also taken precautionary measures against María Lilly Delgado, a Univisión correspondent, and two journalists who worked at the foundation..

Because right now? Chamorro had registered hours before in the Alianza Ciudadanos por la Libertad coalition to participate in the internal process in search of a unitary candidate.. Among them his cousin Juan Sebastián Chamorro, the historian Arturo Cruz, the dissident Félix Maradiaga or the peasant leader Medardo Mairena.

The disqualification of Chamorro culminates the crusade initiated by the Sandinistas, but it will not be the last blow against the opposition. Ortega ordered to fill the National Electoral Council with seven of his followers, eliminated international observation, suppressed the second round, prohibited external financing of the campaigns and imposed the gender quota on the presidential ticket.. A maneuver that is not due to any egalitarian desire and rather to the distribution of power that he exercises together with Murillo.

In addition, four of the pre-candidates also suffer police siege in their homes. The revolution is looking for a candidate willing to agree to maintain the current status quo.

The mere sound of the last name Chamorro causes tremors in the Sandinista leader, who wants to remain at the helm of the country despite being 75 years old, in failing health and after 25 years as a great leader and president.. First, a decade after the 1979 revolution and then a second phase in a democratic guise since 2006, 15 years during which he has not only copied the Chavista manual to win (however) elections, but has even contributed initiatives of his own..

With this arbitrary and illegal decision, the ruling party intends to avoid a new political miracle like the one carried out by Doña Violeta, as she is known in Nicaragua. A historic milestone and against all odds that in 1990 shook Latin America by imposing the revolutionary leader at the polls, who controlled all the strings of power in the Central American country since the dictator Anastasio Somoza was defeated by force of arms. First as a strong man and then as president.

Since he made public his intention to lead the opposition, Cristiana has been first in all the polls. In fact, the latest poll carried out by Gallup appeared with 21% of the support at the head of a squad of almost a dozen opposition candidates, which add up to 46% compared to 33% of the presidential couple..

Both Cristiana and her brother, the exiled journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, are the two personalities in the country with the highest popularity index.. Doña Violeta, the 91-year-old “Mother of Nicaraguan Democracy”, suffered a vascular accident in 2018 and is in a delicate state of health.

“These are the consequences of the coup d’état that Ortega consummated from power, first by dismantling the rule of law and eliminating the separation of powers and then after the massacre of April 2018 and Operation Cleanup, by violating by de facto means all constitutional freedoms,” denounced Carlos F. Chamorro, recently awarded the Ortega y Gasset Prize. His media in Managua remain under government siege.

.