“The North Korea of ​​Latin America.”

This is how the Nicaraguan opponent Juan Sebastián Chamorro defined Nicaragua after Daniel Ortega's statements over the weekend where he suggested that there will not be elections again in the Central American country.

“Let them forget, there will be no elections here again,” President Ortega said on Sunday during an event commemorating the anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, which overthrew the Anastasio Somoza regime in 1979 and brought him to power for the first time.

Ortega returned to the presidency in 2007, and has remained in this position ever since.

In recent years, there have been massive mobilizations in the country demanding democratic reforms, but they have been repressed with violence by the ruling party's military apparatus.

According to Nicaraguan laws, new presidential elections were to be held towards the end of this year, but in 2025 the Ortega regime led a constitutional reform that postponed the elections until 2027.

In this reform, Rosario Murillo, Ortega's wife, was also declared co-president of the country.

However, now Ortega's statements suggest that this electoral event will not be held either.

The reactions from the opponents were immediate.

“Nicaragua has become the North Korea of ​​Latin America,” Chamorro said.

“The end of democracy”

The political and participatory situation in Nicaragua has deteriorated especially after the massive mobilizations of 2018, where various groups in the country demanded Ortega's departure from power.

However, these protests were violently repressed by the State. It is estimated that at least 325 people died in the protests.

Therefore, for the opposition, the president's announcement constitutes confirmation of the end of Nicaraguan democracy.

“I think what Ortega is trying to do is create, as I have already said, a one-party system in which he controls – through internal consultations – the election… following the model of what the Chinese, the Cubans or North Korea do,” Chamorro explained.

During the speech, Ortega also took aim at the United States government.

“We are going to work with the National Assembly and with the corresponding organizations, because we must make laws that put a wall, a block to the coup plotters, to the sell-outs, and that no matter how much money the Yankees give them, they will not be able to.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted that “the Trump government and the international community will not sit idly by while the Murillo and Ortega dictatorship intensifies internal repression and generates instability that threatens the national security of the United States.”

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