JoséDaniel Ortega Saavedra is a Nicaraguan politician who has served as the 58th president of Nicaragua since 2007. Previously he was leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990,first as Coordinator of the Junta of National Reconstruction from 1979 to 1985,and then as the 54th President from 1985 to 1990. During his first term,he implemented policies to achieve leftist reforms across Nicaragua. In later years,Ortega's left-wing radical politics cooled significantly,leading him to pursue pro-business policies and even rapprochement with the Catholic Church. However,in 2022,Ortega resumed repression of the Church,and has imprisoned prelate Rolando JoséÁlvarez Lagos.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino,who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the United States occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s.
Herty Lewites Rodríguez was a Nicaraguan politician. He was Mayor of Managua and a candidate for president in the 2006 Nicaraguan general election when he died suddenly.
La Prensa is a Nicaraguan newspaper,with offices in the capital Managua. Its current daily circulation is placed at 42,000. Founded in 1926,in 1932 it was bought by Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Zelaya,who had become editor-in-chief. He promoted the Conservative Party of Nicaragua and became a voice of opposition to Juan Bautista Sacasa,for which the paper was censored. He continued to be critical of dictator Anastasio Somoza García,who came to power in a coup d'état.
General elections were held in Nicaragua on 5 November 2006. The country's voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and 90 members of the National Assembly. Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FLSN) was elected president with 38% of the vote,defeating Eduardo Montealegre with 28%,JoséRizo with 27%,Edmundo Jarquín with 6%,and Edén Pastora with 0.3%. The FLSN also emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly,winning 38 seats.
The Sandinista Renovation Movement is a Nicaraguan political party founded on 21 May 1995. It defines itself as a democratic and progressive party,made of people of all genders,that promotes the construction of a Nicaragua with opportunities,progress,solidarity,democracy,and sovereignty.
Dora María Téllez Argüello is a Nicaraguan historian known for her involvement in the Nicaraguan Revolution. As a young university medical student in León in the 1970s,Téllez was recruited by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). Téllez went on to become a comandante and fought alongside later president Daniel Ortega in the revolution that ousted dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979. In the subsequent FSLN government,she served as Health Minister under Ortega and has also been an advocate for women's rights. She ultimately became a critic of repression and corruption under President Ortega and left the FSLN in 1995 to found the party Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS),later renamed Unamos. Along with several other opposition figures,she was arrested in June 2021 by the Ortega government.
General elections were held in Nicaragua on 25 February 1990 to elect the President and the members of the National Assembly. The result was a victory for the National Opposition Union (UNO),whose presidential candidate Violeta Chamorro surprisingly defeated incumbent president Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). This led to a historic peaceful and democratic transfer of power in Nicaragua.
Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios is a Nicaraguan independent investigative journalist. He is the founder and editor of Confidencial,a news website and weekly publication combining investigative journalism and analyses of current affairs. He also hosts two television news shows,Tonight and This Week. Chamorro is the youngest son of former president of Nicaragua Violeta Barrios de Chamorro and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal,a Nicaraguan journalist and editor of La Prensa who was shot to death in January 1978 during the Somoza regime.
Humberto Belli Pereira is a Nicaraguan politician and writer. The former Minister of Education in Nicaragua during the presidency of conservative Violeta Chamorro,Belli is also the author of five books.
Luis Fernando Carrión Cruz is Nicaraguan politician. He is a former guerilla and one of the nine commandantes of the Sandinista (FSLN) National Directorate that overthrew the Somoza regime in 1979. Born to a wealthy,politically-connected family,he began college in the United States but returned to Nicaragua,first joining a radical Catholic group then the FSLN. He led the Carlos Roberto Huembes Eastern Front in Chontales during the final offensive of the revolution. He was a government minister and member of the FSLN National Directorate until 1995 when he split with party and became a cofounder of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS).
Violeta Mercedes Granera Padilla is a Nicaraguan sociologist,activist and former candidate for Vice-President. Granera worked for the World Bank,then in government before joining the civic organization Movement for Nicaragua,where she worked for seven years advocating for transparency and election reform. She resigned to run for vice-president in 2016 with the Independent Liberal Party,but the party was barred from the ballot by court decision. In the wake of the 2018 anti-government protests she became involved in the Blue and White National Unity opposition group,and in the run-up to the 2021 Nicaraguan general election,she was among the opposition leaders arrested.
General elections were held in Nicaragua on 7 November 2021 to elect the President,the National Assembly and members of the Central American Parliament.
JoséAdán Aguerri Chamorro,nicknamed Chanito,is a Nicaraguan economist and civic leader. He is the former president of Nicaraguan business chamber,the Superior Council for Private Enterprise (COSEP),where he worked closely with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega as a strong proponent of the "consensus model" that gave the business community a large degree of influence over economic policy in exchange for supporting Ortega. However,the consensus broke down over social security reforms and human rights abuses in April 2018 and Aguerri became a vocal critic of Ortega. Aguerri was arrested in June 2021 along with a number of other opposition leaders including six opposition pre-candidates seeking to challenge Ortega's reelection bid in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election.
Tamara Dávila Rivas is a Nicaraguan sociologist,feminist and political activist. She is a member of Union for Democratic Renewal (Unamos);the Political Council of the National Unity Blue and White opposition group;and the executive committee of the unified opposition front,the National Coalition. On June 13,2021,she was part of a wave of arrests of opposition figures by the government of Daniel Ortega.
Hugo Torres Jiménez was a Nicaraguan Sandinista guerrilla and military leader who was a brigadier general in the Nicaraguan Armed Forces. During the Sandinista National Liberation Front effort to overthrow the Somoza family regime,Torres was the only guerrilla who participated in both the 1974 Christmas party raid that freed future President Daniel Ortega among other prisoners,and the 1978 raid on the National Palace,freeing another 60 political prisoners. In the late 1990s he became a critic of Ortega,leaving the FSLN to join the Sandinista Renovation Movement and later its successor the Democratic Renewal Union,serving as vice-president of both parties. In June 2021 he was part of a wave of arrests of opposition figures by the Ortega administration. He died the following February.
Ana Margarita Vijil Gurdián is a Nicaraguan lawyer,political leader and human rights activist. She is former president,from 2012 to 2017,of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) and a member of the Unamos party that succeeded the MRS. In June 2021,she was part of a wave of arrests of opposition figures,including seven aspiring opposition candidates for president in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election.
Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios is a Nicaraguan journalist and politician. He began his career in journalism working at La Prensa,following the 1978 assassination of its editor,his father,Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal. Working on the side of the Contras in exile in the 1980s,he returned to the country in 1989 when his mother Violeta Barrios de Chamorro ran for president,and following her election,served as a Nicaraguan ambassador. He later became defense minister. In the 21st century,Chamorro has been a city councilor for Managua and deputy in the National Assembly,also for Managua. On 25 June 2021,he became part of a wave of arrests of opposition and civic figures in Nicaragua.
Suyén Barahona Cuan is a Nicaraguan activist. She is president of the Democratic Renewal Union party (Unamos),an opposition group that is the successor to the Sandinista Renovation Movement. She is also a member of the Blue and White National Unity opposition group that formed following the outbreak of anti-government protests in April 2018. In June 2021,she was arrested alongside other opposition figures and pre-candidates for president in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election.
Medardo Mairena Sequeira is a Nicaraguan farmer and coordinator of the peasant (campesino) movement. Mairena has worked in the peasant anti-canal movement since 2013 and has been an active opposition leader since the national protests broke out in late April 2018,participating in the National Dialogue between protestors and the government of Daniel Ortega,mediated by the Catholic Church. Two months later he became one of a large number of dissidents arrested and prosecuted for terrorism;Mairena was sentenced to 261 years in prison,serving one year before he was released under a negotiated Amnesty Law.
