Lawmakers loyal to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega proceeded to pass legislation Monday transferring control of six prominent universities to the state. The legislation is the most recent in a string of maneuvers intended to quash opposition to Ortega’s authoritarian government. Officials claimed the Universities were being shut down due to a failure to comply with financial regulations. Opponents, however, claim the charges are merely an excuse to justify the suppression of opposition movements.
The University crackdowns are the most recent power retention endeavor by the Ortega administration attempting to eliminate all opposition and dissent. The administration has previously arrested and detained more than 30 political opponents for presumably fabricated charges, ranging from well-known millionaire bankers to lesser-known student leaders. Prior to the closures, Universities had been one of the last remaining centers of resistance to state and police abuses of power. Student demonstrations played a pivotal role in the 2018 protests which began as opposition to a social security reform policy, but eventually catalyzed widespread anti-government protests.
“At the heart of these measures is a blatant attempt to undermine the student movement, one of the pillars fighting for democracy in Nicaragua,” said Tamara Taraciuk Broner, the acting Americas director at Human Rights Watch. Opponents and academics share in their fears that the state’s growing influence over public and private life are indicative of repression endeavors accelerating in the near future. Universities will likely be filled with Ortega loyalists, and criticism of the government will be met with swift repercussions.
Gonzalo Carrión, a lawyer for the human rights group Nicaragua Never Again, warned of the severe implications of the crackdown, “The aim is to impose a single model of thought, a vertically organized society to perpetuate Ortega in power.” Ernesto Medina, the former rector of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua’s León campus, said that the government takeover was a “warning to the roughly 30 private universities remaining” calling the attack on institutions of higher education “The culmination of a process of deterioration of the entire institutional framework of the country.”
The latest legislation targeting universities is indicative of the erosion of democracy in Nicaragua. It functions as a deliberate, strategic maneuver to reconfigure the functioning of Nicaraguan society at large, a preemptive movement to quell public dissent and student organizing as Ortega’ reign veers closer and closer to total dictatorship.
It is imperative that the international community is vocal in their support of Nicaraguan civilians, condemning Ortega’s blatant abuse of power, including sponsoring state-sanctioned violence and utilizing tactics of fear-mongering and intimidation against civilians. International observers should remain adamant in their demands that wrongfully imprisoned political opponents be released, universities remain autonomous, and elections be conducted without interference, manipulation, or obstruction.
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