Nicaragua's president says country will never hold elections again

Key Points:

• Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced that the country will no longer hold elections, effectively blocking any opposition challenge to his government, which he leads alongside his wife, Rosario Murillo.
• Ortega, in power since 2007 and previously during the 1980s, made the declaration during a speech marking the 1979 Sandinista revolution, stating that opposition parties backed by the U.S. and former Somoza regime supporters would never return to power.
• The Ortega-Murillo administration has consolidated control over Nicaragua’s political institutions through constitutional reforms extending presidential terms and elevating Murillo to co-president, while also controlling the legislative, judicial, and electoral branches.
• The government has imprisoned or exiled opposition leaders, stripped many of citizenship, and revoked legal status for opposition parties and civic groups, amid accusations from UN experts of systematic human rights violations and potential crimes against humanity.
• The U.S. has condemned Ortega’s regime as a dictatorship, imposing sanctions and visa restrictions on officials, while the Biden administration deemed Ortega’s 2021 re-election illegitimate amid a crackdown on dissent and opposition ahead of the vote.