Caribbean & Central America - February 2017 (ISSN 1741-4458)

Last month, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) government led by President Daniel Ortega presented a joint document – the fruit of a three-month period of talks between both sides and meetings with groups representing various sectors. The report was part of the “mechanism of conversation and exchange” agreed in October 2016 by both sides as part of efforts to assuage democracy-related concerns ahead of the November 2016 general elections which produced a sweeping victory for Ortega albeit in a highly questioned electoral process [RC-16-11]. The report has, however, been slammed by the opposition and civil society groups. These complain that it effectively grants a ‘clean slate’ to the FSLN government – which controls all the country’s institutions – and which has recently faced other democracy-related criticism from the international community.

Inked on 20 January by Foreign Minister Denis Moncada and OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, the report calls for the two sides to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 28 February that “would include technical aspects” aimed at reinforcing the country’s democratic institutions. The report also establishes that the OAS will observe the next municipal elections, scheduled for November of this year. (President Ortega’s refusal to allow any credible international observers to oversee the last election was a major concern for both the political opposition as well as members of the international community such as the US government).

The OAS-government report was criticised by a range of sectors. Mauro Ampié, the executive director of the local human rights NGO, Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos (Cenidh), complained that the result of the dialogue “did not respond to the immediate necessities of the Nicaraguan people”. His remarks were echoed by Fabio Gadea, the 2011 presidential candidate for the opposition Partido Liberal Independiente (PLI) who went on to accuse Almagro of being “too frightened” to acknowledge that the country’s “institutionality” had been “lost”. Previously the main opposition, the PLI had suffered as a result of a highly controversial decision by the electoral authorities (CSE) last year, stripping 28 national deputies (including 12 alternates) of their posts [RC-16-08]. One of the PLI legislators affected by the CSE’s ruling, Carlos Langrand, told leading national daily La Prensa that the OAS-government report served as “a clean slate”, for the Ortega government, with regard to the alleged fraud committed in the last election. He added that it would “leave intact and unpunished Ortega’s abuse and violation of the Nicaraguan democratic institutions”.

Other democracy-related criticism

In recent weeks, the Ortega government has attracted criticism from institutions like US-based NGO Freedom House and international NGO, Transparency International (TI). In a report released on 17 January, Freedom House noted that, along with Venezuela, Nicaragua is one of the “few countries in the Americas on an extended downward trajectory” with the “regime of President Daniel Ortega” having “brought Nicaragua to its lowest point in more than 20 years”. The Freedom House report warns that “having stacked the judiciary in his favor and whittled away the independent media, Ortega was able to nearly eliminate the opposition in presidential and legislative elections”.

Meanwhile the annual TI Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released on 25 January, showed Nicaragua with the third worst ranking in the Americas, (145 of 176 countries) and scoring 26 out of 100 (where 0 is highly corrupt and 100, very clean). This is above only Haiti (159; 20) and Venezuela (166; 17) in the region. Nicaragua’s score also marks an ongoing decline – having registered 27 in 2015; 28 in 2014 and 2013 and 29 in 2012.

• Political rights and civil liberties

In the latest Freedom House report, Nicaragua’s political rights rating declined from 4 to 5, while its civil liberties rating declined from 3 to 4 (where 1=Most Free, 7=Least Free). Along with Venezuela, Nicaragua also featured as one of the countries to register one of the largest ten-year declines in political rights and civil liberties, with a -17 decline in aggregate score.