The British Embassy in Nicaragua spoke out against the municipal vote that took place in the Central American country last Sunday, November 6. The election was described as “wrong” by the United States and an “election joke” by the Nicaraguan opposition.

In the election, the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), dominated by Ortega, expanded the number of mayors for the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to all cities. The Electoral Power assigned 153 communes across the country to the governing party, taking absolute control over local power.

“The weekend municipal elections in Nicaragua and the suppression of political freedoms and rights further prove the seriousness of the country’s democratic crisis. We hope that President (Daniel) Ortega will release all political prisoners and allow democracy to flourish,” the embassy wrote on its Twitter account. Twitter and cites a tweet from UK Member of Parliament, David Rutley.

Britain has repeatedly demanded from the Ortega government the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners; and the full restoration of his civil and political rights, as he recalls on this occasion after the municipal elections. In addition, he has issued sanctions against 14 high-ranking officials of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship.

Those sanctioned by the UK

The list of those sanctioned by Britain is led by Rosario Murillo, vice president of Nicaragua, wife of Ortega and a spokesman for the regime. Other political operators who accompanied him were: Lumberto Ignacio Campbell Hooker, judge of the Supreme Electoral Council, Attorney General of the Republic, Ana Julia Guido Ochoa; Fidel Moreno, secretary general of the Office of the Mayor of Managua; Police Commissioner Juan Valle Valle and Fidel Domínguez; Alba Luz Ramos, chief justice of the Supreme Court; and Gustavo Porras, president of the National Assembly; all are also blacklisted in the United States.

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They also imposed sanctions on the commissioner and deputy director of the Ortega Police in the Masaya department, Ramón Antonio Avellán; former Minister of Health, Sonia Castro González; the director general of the Indonesian National Police and the in-laws of the presidential couple, commissioner Francisco Javier Díaz; presidential adviser, Néstor Moncada; general commissioner of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), commissioner Luis Pérez Olivas; and the Head of the Directorate of Special Police Operations (DOEP), Commissioner Justo Pastor.