Thwarting democracy in Nicaragua

StatesmanJournal.com:

Another milestone has been reached in the continued dismantling of democracy in Nicaragua.

Last week, President Daniel Ortega's government effectively eliminated two opposition parties. Under the guise of enforcing bureaucratic regulations, the government's Supreme Electoral Tribunal revoked the political party status of the Sandinista Renewal Movement (MRS) and the right-leaning Conservative Party.

The ruling is the latest in a series of efforts by Ortega to thwart dissent, undermine democratic institutions and keep himself in power.

In April, the same tribunal postponed municipal elections in some northern localities because, the government claimed, the havoc of Hurricane Felix last year made it impossible to ensure proper conditions for the election. The opposition and foreign observers, however, said this was just another Ortega ploy to avoid a Sandinista defeat in a region where his popularity has diminished. The election, originally scheduled for November, is now set for January.

Also early this year, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal decided to, figuratively, cut off the head of the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN), another opposition party. No doubt the government found the ALN leader, Eduardo Montealegre, too big a threat after his second-place showing in the 2006 presidential election against Ortega.

...


There is much more.

It is not too surprising that Ortega is showing his totalitarian stripes. His command economy communism can't survive in a free country with open and honest elections. If there is one constant with communism it is the lack of honest democracy. Some communist governments are more genocidal than others, but they all hate freedom. It is what control freaks do.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more