Nicaragua - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Nicaragua’s Ortega says country will ‘never again’ hold elections, shutting out opposition

Landon Mion | Fox News — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:52:03 +0000

The president made the announcement during a speech commemorating the 1979 Sandinista revolution

Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega said the Central American country would no longer hold elections, further closing off any potential path for the opposition to challenge the government he leads with his wife, Rosario Murillo.

Ortega, Nicaragua’s longest-serving leader, has remained in power since 2007 after previously governing during the 1980s. His current presidential term is scheduled to run through 2027.

“There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” Ortega said.

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Source: https://www.foxnews.com/world/nicaragua-ortega-ends-elections?fbclid=IwY2xjawTNzb5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEegVUb_F5eTHag6djYehHs0sx3NSWLsX93N3Cv0IwXBpfhKFOpsLGgWJBWNG0_aem_9hEeFIpAHv2BFLF4khyaEA

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Nicaragua Reportedly Expels Brazilian Ambassador

Lucas Berti | The Brazil Report — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 19:31:21 +0000

Nicaragua’s diplomatic isolation has deepened as the authoritarian administration of Daniel Ortega has reportedly expelled Brazil’s ambassador to Managua. Breno Souza da Costa was given two weeks to leave Nicaragua, after which he is expected to be replaced by his chargé d’affaires.

The news was first reported by Divergentes, a local opposition outlet, on Wednesday. Brazil’s Foreign Affairs Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

News of the expulsion was later relayed by Arturo McFields, a former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS). Mr. McFields resigned from his OAS post in March 2022 after publicly condemning the Ortega regime as a “dictatorship” and advocating for the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

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Source: https://brazilian.report/liveblog/politics-insider/2024/08/08/nicaragua-expels-brazilian-ambassador/

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Nicaragua Agrees to Host Russian ‘Police Academy,’ Fueling Espionage Fears

CHRISTIAN K. CARUZO | Breitbart — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 21:57:14 +0000

Nicaragua’s communist regime authorized the establishment of a Russian-made “Instruction Center” for the “reengineering” of the Nicaraguan police, authorities confirmed last week.

Local media and experts have denounced the center as a possible “cover-up” for a prospective Russian spy agency in the Central American nation.

The Nicaraguan National Assembly approved the construction of the training center on Thursday as part of an agreement between Nicaragua and Russia for the “retraining and professional improvement” of Nicaragua’s police. The deal followed Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolái Pátrushev’s visit to Managua in February, where he met with dictator Daniel Ortega.

Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa reported on Monday that the center will conduct its activities under the direction of Russian personnel, who will have the same immunity and privileges granted to foreign diplomats accredited in the country and will have “no obligation to account to the Nicaraguan authorities for their actions in the country.”

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Source: https://www.breitbart.com/latin-america/2024/03/26/nicaragua-agrees-to-host-russian-police-academy-fueling-espionage-fears/

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Iota death toll in Nicaragua rises as rescuers search for survivors

James Rogers | Fox News — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 10:33:32 +0000

The death toll from Hurricane Iota continues to rise after the storm hammered a part of Central America that was recently battered by Hurricane Eta.

Iota left a trail of devastation in its wake as it tore across parts of Nicaragua and Honduras earlier this week. The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Nicaragua’s northeastern coast late Monday, hitting almost exactly the same stretch of the Caribbean coast that was devastated by Hurricane Eta two weeks ago.

Nicaragua Vice President and first lady Rosario Murillo on Wednesday raised the nation’s death toll to 16. The victims were spread across the country, swept away by swollen rivers or buried in landslides.

Rescuers searched at the site of a landslide in northern Nicaragua, where the local government confirmed four deaths and neighbors spoke of at least 16.

HURRICANE IOTA HITS NICARAGUA, SPARKS WARNING OF FLASH FLOODS AND LANDSLIDES IN PARTS OF CENTRAL AMERICA

A fallen tree lies on the road after the passage of Hurricane Iota in Siuna, Nicaragua, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. Hurricane Iota tore across Nicaragua on Tuesday, hours after roaring ashore as a Category 4 storm along almost exactly the same stretch of the Caribbean coast that was recently devastated by an equally powerful hurricane. (AP Photo/Carlos Herrera)

On Wednesday, CD-SINAPRED, which is Nicaragua’s emergency management agency, tweeted footage of the area where the landslide occurred at Macizo de Peñas Blancas, a mountain in Matagalpa province.

There were seven confirmed dead at the mountain, and the search continued, Murillo said.

Nicaragua’s army said it was sending 100 rescuers to the site. Access was complicated by downed trees blocking roads.

Monsignor Rolando José Alvarez, the Roman Catholic bishop of Matagalpa, tweeted Wednesday that priests are being sent to the Macizo de Peñas Blancas.

“At this moment our priests are mobilizing to that area and we are making ourselves available to all who are affected,” he wrote, in a translated tweet.

HURRICANE IOTA COULD SPARK HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN STORM-RAVAGED REGION, AID ORGANIZATIONS WARN

On Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said the storm was dissipating over Central America but warned that a threat from heavy rains continues.

National Hurricane Center@NHC_Atlantic

Remnants Of #Iota Advisory 21: Iota Dissipates Over Central America. Heavy Rain Threat Continues. go.usa.gov/W3H

Aid organizations have warned that Iota could spark a humanitarian crisis in the storm-ravaged region.

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On Wednesday CD-SINAPRED tweeted images of the disaster relief group COMUPRED in the Boaco area helping families affected by the heavy rains.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/world/hurricane-iota-death-toll-rises

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Nicaragua: After two years of crisis, more than 100,000 have fled the country

UN News — Fri, 08 May 2020 19:33:10 +0000

UNHCR/Daniel Dreifuss – Persecuted Nicaraguans flee to Costa Rica in search of international protection.

Over the past two years, more than 100,000 people in Nicaragua have sought asylum abroad, reportedly fleeing persecution and human rights abuses, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday.

“Serious political and social crises in the country have prompted Nicaraguan students, human rights defenders, journalists and farmers to flee their country at an average rate of 4,000 people every month”, UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told journalist on Tuesday at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

And with no resolution in sight, the agency expects these numbers to grow.

Last September, Michelle Bachelet told the Human Rights Council that abuses had continued against activists who opposed social security reforms in the Central American State.

And freedom of expression had also been restricted in various ways, from the closure of independent media outlets and the retention of their property and equipment to the imprisonment of journalists for several months.

Moreover, leading human rights groups have seen their legal registrations canceled after being accused of supporting the 2018 protests while the right to peaceful assembly had also been impeded by a new police requirement for permits to carry out public gatherings.

“Between August 2018 and July 2019, human rights violations continued to occur in Nicaragua”, Ms. Bachelet told the Human Rights Council. “However, since the end of February 2019, when the Government and the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy resumed their dialogue, the number of violations against life and personal integrity has decreased, proof that dialogue is possible and peaceful way to overcome the crisis”.

Refugees mounting in number

Since the initial violent clampdown following popular protests in 2018, most Nicaraguans have fled to neighboring Costa Rica, which currently hosts 77,000 refugees and asylum seekers – two-thirds of those who have fled so far.

Just over 8,000 have fled to Panama and another 9,000 to Europe, Mexico shelters some 3,600 Nicaraguans.

An additional 5,100 are hosted in other countries, comprising to date, a total of 103,600 Nicaraguan refugees and asylum seekers worldwide.

Since October 2019, UNHCR has supported Costa Rica in streamlining procedures to determine refugee status for those alleging persecution in Nicaragua. This helps to reduce the time needed for people to be recognized as refugees and granted protection.

“Through an agreement with UNHCR, Costa Rica has also allowed access to the public health care system to 6,000 of the most vulnerable asylum seekers”, said the UNHCR spokesperson. “These include people with chronic conditions or disabilities, those in need of surgery, torture survivors, and people living in extreme poverty”.

Moreover, under a regional refugee response framework aimed to address the challenges of forced displacements in and from Central America, UNHCR coordinates with Government authorities and other UN agencies to monitor cross-border movements and respond to protection and humanitarian needs of those fleeing Nicaragua. This also includes the provision of health care, psychological support, shelter, and food assistance.

UNHCR/Flavia Sanchez – Since April 2018, political persecution has pushed tens of thousands of Nicaraguans to flee to neighbouring countries, two-thirds of whom currently shelter in Costa Rica.

Shabia Mantoo@Shabia_M

#Nicaragua: 2 years of political + social crisis forces more than 100,000 to flee. 4,000 people fleeing every month, incl. students, human rights defenders, journalists + farmers. With no political resolution in sight refugee outflows expected to continue. https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2020/3/5e6759934/years-political-social-crisis-nicaragua-forces-100000-flee.html …

Source: https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059051

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Sorry If You’re Offended, but Socialism Leads to Misery and Destitution

David Harsanyi — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 04:26:21 +0000

Socialism is the leading man-made cause of death and misery in human existence.

On the same day that Venezuela’s “democratically” elected socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, whose once-wealthy nation now has citizens foraging for food, announced he was lopping five zeros off the country’s currency to create a “stable financial and monetary system,” Meghan McCain of The View was the target of internet-wide condemnation for having stated some obvious truths about collectivism.

During the same week we learned that the democratic socialist president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, is accused of massacring hundreds of protesters whose economic futures have been decimated by his economic policies, Soledad O’Brien and writers at outlets ranging from GQ, to BuzzFeed, to the Daily Beast were telling McCain to cool her jets.

In truth, McCain was being far too calm. After all, socialism is the leading man-made cause of death and misery in human existence. Whether implemented by a mob or a single strongman, collectivism is a poverty generator, an attack on human dignity and a destroyer of individual rights.

It’s true that not all socialism ends in the tyranny of Leninism or Stalinism or Maoism or Castroism or Ba’athism or Chavezism or the Khmer Rouge—only most of it does. And no, New York primary winner Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t intend to set up gulags in Alaska. Most so-called democratic socialists—the qualifier affixed to denote that they live in a democratic system and have no choice but to ask for votes—aren’t consciously or explicitly endorsing violence or tyranny. But when they adopt the term “socialism” and the ideas associated with it, they deserve to be treated with the kind of contempt and derision that all those adopting authoritarian philosophies deserve.

But look: Norway!

Socialism is perhaps the only ideology that Americans are asked to judge solely based on its piddling “successes.” Don’t you dare mention Albania or Algeria or Angola or Burma or Congo or Cuba or Ethiopia or Laos or Somalia or Vietnam or Yemen or, well, any other of the dozens of other inconvenient places socialism has been tried. Not when there are a handful of Scandinavian countries operating generous welfare-state programs propped up by underlying vibrant capitalism and natural resources.

Of course, socialism exists on a spectrum, and even if we accept that the Nordic social-program experiments are the most benign iteration of collectivism, they are certainly not the only version. Pretending otherwise would be like saying, “The police state of Singapore is more successful than Denmark. Let’s give it a spin.”

It turns out, though, that the “Denmark is awesome!” talking point is only the second most preposterous one used by socialists. It goes something like this: If you’re a fan of “roads, schools, libraries and such,” although you may not even be aware of it, you are also a supporter of socialism.

This might come as a surprise to some, but every penny of the $21,206 spent in Ocasio-Cortez’s district each year on each student, rich or poor, is provided with the profits derived from capitalism. There is no welfare system, no library that subsists on your good intentions. Having the state take over the entire health care system could rightly be called a socialistic endeavor, but pooling local tax dollars to put books in a building is called local government.

It should also be noted that today’s socialists get their yucks by pretending collectivist policies only lead to innocuous outcomes like local libraries. But for many years they were also praising the dictators of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the nation’s most successful socialist, isn’t merely impressed with the goings-on in Denmark. Not very long ago, he lauded Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela as an embodiment of the “American dream,” even more so than the United States.

Socialists like to blame every inequity, the actions of every greedy criminal, every downturn and every social ill on the injustice of capitalism. But none of them admit that capitalism has been the most effective way to eliminate poverty in history. Today, in former socialist states like India, there have been big reductions in poverty thanks to increased capitalism. In China, where communism sadly still deprives more than a billion people of their basic rights, hundreds of millions benefit from a system that is slowly shedding socialism. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the extreme poverty rate in the world has been cut in half. And it didn’t happen because Southeast Asians were raising the minimum wage.

In the United States, only 5 percent of people are even aware that poverty has fallen in the world, according to the Gapminder Foundation, which is almost certainly in part due to the left’s obsession with “inequality” and normalization of “socialism.” Nearly half of American millennials would rather live in a socialist society than in a capitalist one, according to a YouGov poll. That said, only 71 percent of those asked were able to properly identify either. We can now see the manifestation of this ignorance in our elections and The View co-host Joy Behar.

But if all you really champion are some higher taxes and more generous social welfare, stop associating yourself with a philosophy that usually brings destitution and death. Call it something else. If not, McCain has every right to associate you with the ideology you embrace.

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As Trump closes US doors to migrants, Latin Americans look to Europe

Daniel Boffey in Brussels and Sam Jones in Madrid — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 11:30:27 +0000

Migrants from Honduras head north through Guatemala in January 2019. The difficulty and danger of the journey to the US is a factor in a rise in Latin American migrants heading for Europe. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

Venezuelans are behind only Syrians in terms of asylum applications in Europe while those from Central Americans are up 4,000% in a decade.

In contrast to many congregations in western Europe, attendance is on the up at Notre-Dame aux Riches Claires, an imposing baroque red-brick church on a cobbled road close to Brussels’ Grand Place.

The faithful squeeze into the pews for Sunday mass and spill out on to the road to catch up before and after the weekly Spanish-language service by Father Óscar Escobar.

The 17th-century church’s change in fortunes is not just down to the strength of the Colombian priest’s sermons, or the healthy trade in community gossip and empanadas afterward.

It is on the frontline of a dash to Europe by Latin Americans, as growing numbers of migrants reject the mortal risks now inherent in trying to secure a new life in the USA.

The European Asylum Support Office reported this month that an 11% increase in people seeking political asylum in Europe since last year is being driven by people fleeing economic disasters, political repression and criminal violence in Venezuela, El Salvador, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru.

Venezuelans have lodged some 18,400 asylum applications from January to May, roughly twice as many as during the same period in 2018, making them the nationality with the second-highest number of applications in Europe after Syrians.

Meanwhile, applications for refugee status by Central Americans have increased 4,000% compared with a decade ago.

The trend to head across the ocean to Europe is in part a reaction to the pitiless approach of Donald Trump’s White House, whose aggressive immigration policies have separated families at the border and drastically curtailed asylum and refugee resettlement.

The dangers of attempting to reach the US through Mexico were brought home by the photograph of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie Valeria, who drowned trying to cross into Texas.

Many Latin American migrants are judging it better to buy a plane ticket and face the bureaucracy of the European immigration authorities rather than risk the cruelty of the people smugglers and the apparent indifference of the US administration.

Others describe a greater tolerance in Europe for Latin Americans who want to live out what was once called the American dream.

The Trump administration has refused to grant protected status to people fleeing Venezuela’s political and economic meltdown, but there is no visa requirement for Venezuelans coming to the EU’s Schengen area.

Spain remains the prime European destination for Latin Americans. Figures from the Spanish asylum and refugee office – part of the country’s interior ministry – show that asylum applications from Central America have more than tripled over the past two years as people flee violence, unemployment, corruption, crime and the impacts of climate change.

In 2017, 2,231 people from the region applied for asylum: 986 from Honduras; 31 from Nicaragua and 1,143 from El Salvador.

In just the first five months of 2019 alone, 7,442 people from Central America applied for asylum: 2,698 from Nicaragua, 2,666 from Honduras and 2,078 from El Salvador.

Julián, (not his real name), was driven out of his native El Salvador after being persecuted because of his sexual orientation. He tried to enter the US eight years ago and spent a year there trying to apply for asylum. When he failed to come up with the $25,000 bond needed, he was deported.

After moving back to a different city in his home country, he eventually decided to come to Spain where his siblings live.

Relatives and friends react at a crime scene after a man was killed, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Violence in Central America is a major driver of migration. Photograph: Edgard Garrido/Reuters

“I’m applying for asylum at the moment and will probably have to wait another eight months before I find out whether my application has been approved,” he said.

But each European immigration system is different. And Spain is not the easiest to traverse.

When confronted with long, difficult and unpredictable situations – such as the current crisis in Nicaragua – the Spanish authorities tend to adopt a watching brief, said Paloma Favieres, director of policy and campaigns at the Spanish Refugee Aid Commission (Cear).

Spain also has a hefty backlog and usually turns down asylum requests from those alleging persecution by the armed drug gangs known as maras – because the perpetrators are not state actors.

Belgium, in contrast, recognizes gang violence as a reason for granting refuge and is known for a comprehensive system of support for people in search of international protection.

Those applying for asylum receive housing, food, medical follow-up, legal assistance, help with learning one of the three official languages of the country and the right to social support, said Susana Parraga, a social worker with Caritas International in Belgium.

“All European countries are supposed to offer these guarantees – taking into account European reception directives – but significant differences between countries still exist,” Parraga said.

Belgium is now third behind Spain and Italy as the most popular European country for Salvadorans.

They are in Belgium’s top 10 of the highest number of asylum applicants in 2019, with 343 applications. And of the 95 decisions made this year, 93 were positive.

In 2017, all Venezuelan requests for refugee status were recognized, dropping slightly to 86% in the period January to October 2018. Some 411 Venezuelans applied for refugee status in 2018, generally, in Parraga’s experience, individuals with a high level of education.

“The lack of knowledge of French or Dutch is an obstacle, although they learn quickly and the conditions of reception and the opportunity to quickly integrate into the labor market are very much appreciated by Venezuelans,” she said.

Luis, 29, from Maturín, in Aragua de Maturín, Venezuela, was granted refugee status in Belgium in February this year after leaving university in Caracas in the light of the kidnapping of his brother-in-law and the deteriorating economic situation.

“There is no hope for the future in Venezuela,” he said. “There are no jobs, no food. And it is dangerous. The most powerful reason I left was the homophobia, my life there was in danger.”

Luis, not his real name, lives in Flanders now and works in a call center, using his French, Spanish, Dutch and English. He can see a future. “America is completely full of Venezuelans,” he said. “So, people won’t find chances there. Belgium accepts people, it has its doors open to everybody. Here there are chances.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/10/latin-american-migrants-europe-belgium-spain-eu

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