The Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega openly and decisively ruled out any possibility of holding elections in Nicaragua this Sunday, with the explicit aim of preventing the opposition from gaining power, according to reports from CNN Español and the EFE agency.
The statement was made during the commemoration of the 47th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution in Managua, where Ortega, aged 80 and in power since 2007, addressed a crowd with a speech that formally buried democratic alternation in the country.
"They would like to win elections to make schools a reality. But they should forget it: there will be no more elections here, so that they can try to seize the government, seize power," the dictator stated, referring to the opponents whom he described as being "lurking" in exile.
Ortega also announced that the National Assembly, completely subordinate to the ruling party, will develop new laws to "put up a wall, a block, against coup plotters, against traitors," and warned that "no matter how much money the Yankees provide, they will not be able to."
The statement comes in a context of accelerated institutional dismantling. The constitutional reform approved in January 2025 and went into effect in February of that year changed more than 100 articles of the Constitution: it extended the presidential term from five to six years, created the position of "co-president" for Rosario Murillo —Ortega's wife— established indefinite re-election, and removed the independence of the state powers.
That reform, harshly criticized by the UN, the OAS, the United States, and the European Parliament, had already postponed the general elections that were supposed to take place in November 2026 to November 2027. With his words on Sunday, Ortega goes further and dismisses any future electoral process.
In January, the U.S. State Department accused Murillo of having invented the position of co-president "without elections, without a mandate, and without legitimacy, because she knows she cannot win," and warned that "power based on repression and constitutional manipulation is not the will of the Nicaraguan people."
In the same speech, Ortega also referred to the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3, calling it a "monstrosity." "They went in and stormed the Presidential Palace where Nicolás was with his wife, killed most of his bodyguards, who were Cuban, and took him to a prison in the United States," he denounced.
The Nicaraguan dictator also warned about what he called a danger for Cuba: "There are Cubans in exile asking the United States government to militarily invade Cuba and imprison the commander of the revolution, Raúl Castro."
Managua, which for years maintained a close alliance with Caracas and Havana, is today more isolated following Maduro's capture and the increasing pressure from Washington on the Cuban regime. Last April, Ortega had already referred to Trump as a "mental deranged" for "kidnapping" Maduro, which represented a break of the unwritten truce that the Sandinista regime had upheld with the U.S. administration.
The OAS demanded last June the restoration of democracy in Nicaragua and the unconditional release of all political prisoners, while Human Rights Watch documented at least 87 political prisoners in the country during 2026.
Filed under: