Ortega Shields Nicaragua's Top Electoral Official after U.S. Issues Sanctions.
| Autor | Witte-Lehbar, Benjamin |
Never one to take his marching orders from "el imperio" (the empire) to the north, Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega has come up with a signature "solution" to a conundrum he has faced since late last year, when the US government issued sanctions against one of his key political allies, Roberto Rivas, head of the country's top electoral authority, the Consejo Supremo Electoral (CSE).
After weeks of conspicuous silence, the Ortega regime finally responded in early February by introducing a curious "electoral reform" bill that the unicameral legislature, dominated by the governing party, the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN), quickly approved.
Rather than remove Rivas--as the US government and even 58% of Nicaraguan citizens would like, according to a recent CID Gallup poll --the Ortega administration opted to keep him on as president of the CSE but transfer his duties to the body's vice president, Lumberto Campbell. The move was approved by 74 of the legislature's 92 deputies.
Campbell is now the de-facto president of the CSE, while Rivas, who hasn't been seen in public since the sanctions scandal erupted in December (NotiCen, Feb. 8, 2018), is free from most day-today responsibilities yet maintains his decorative title, government salary (reportedly US$5,000 per month) and perhaps most importantly, immunity from prosecution.
Officially, the reform is an attempt to "search for administrative efficiency within the process of modernizing the state." Many observers, though, say it's really just a way for Ortega to shield Rivas while demonstrating that he's willing to bend a little but not bow to outside pressure.
"They're still trying to protect him, to cover up what can't be covered up, because they continue to confront a very delicate situation [with the US]," Mauricio Diaz, a former diplomat who ran, unsuccessfully, for mayor of Managua last year, told the independent news magazine and website Confidencial. "Effectively, Roberto Rivas hasn't been condemned by any court, but [the US sanctions] affected his assets and those of his family members, who are going to appear in the blacklists."
"The goal is to protect him, not to abandon him," Diaz went on to say. "That's the way the Sandinistas behave. They won't throw him to the lions or chop the fallen tree into kindling."
Corruption claims
As president of the CSE, Rivas played a key role in helping Ortega consolidate his now virtually uncontested position of power, most notably by...
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