The Parliament of Nicaraguadominated by the ruling Sandinista Front, approved this Friday a constitutional reform that It subjects the powers of the State to the Executive, increases control of the media, extends the presidential term to six years and creates the positions of co-president and co-president.
The reform package, sent on Tuesday to the National Assembly by President Daniel Ortega with “urgency”, was approved in the first legislature with the vote of the majority Sandinista party.
According to the Nicaraguan Constitution, reforms to the Magna Carta must be approved in two legislative periods before they come into force. The current legislature ends in December and the next one begins in January 10, 2025, when the reform would be fully approvedestimated the president of Parliament, Gustavo Porras.
The opposition has said that the initiative legalizes “the absolute power” of Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.and the Organization of American States (OAS) has accused the presidential couple of trying to “increase their absolute control of the State and perpetuate themselves in power.”
Another relevant change is the creation of the figures of “co-president” and “co-president”, as well as the increase from five to six years of the presidential term and of the deputies of the National Assembly. Ortega, 79, has said several times that Murillo enjoys the same power as him at the head of the Executive.
According to the text, The co-presidents may appoint vice-presidents without them being elected by popular vote. To be candidates for co-presidents, they must have resided continuously in Nicaragua for the six years prior to the election, not have been declared “traitors to the country,” or have not acquired another nationality, thus inhibiting the main leaders of the opposition who were released, exiled and denationalized in February 2023.
The reform also establishes that “The State will ensure that the media are not subjected to foreign interests and spread false news”. Since 2020, a “Cybercrime Law” has been in force in the country, which punishes the dissemination of “fake news” with sentences of up to ten years in prison.
Likewise, it is established that “the State is secular and ensures freedom of worship, faith and religious practices in strict separation between the State and the churches.” However, the amendment warns that “Under the protection of religion, no person or organization can carry out activities that violate public order,” and that “religious organizations must be kept free from all foreign control.”
In addition to defining the State as “revolutionary” and including as a national symbol the flag of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) – a party in Government since 2007 -, the reform empowers the Presidency to “order the intervention of the Army in support of the National Police, when the stability of the Republic requires it”, and authorizes police and military personnel to “temporarily occupy positions in the Executive sphere.”
Also formally create the Volunteer Policeemerged in response to the social protests of 2018 – which resulted in more than 300 deaths -, and was composed mainly of former soldiers who fought during the Sandinista revolution (1979-1990).
In Chapter II, article 132, the reform establishes that The Presidency of the Republic directs the Government and as Head of State it will coordinate the legislative, judicial, electoral, control and regional and municipal bodies.
Also that the Presidency It is the Supreme Headquarters of the Nicaraguan Army, the National Police and the Ministry of the Interior.
On the other hand, in allusion to external sanctions, points out that “no measure that violates international law” taken by States, groups of States or foreign governments against Nicaraguan institutions, officials and/or persons will be valid for the Nicaraguan State. In that sense, the constitutional reform proposes to consider all those who threaten the independence, sovereignty, national self-determination, security and peace of Nicaragua as traitors to the country.
Furthermore, the text highlights that It will be in favor of a new multipolar order “based on brotherhood, solidarity, complementarity, cooperation, equality and respect among States.” And it states that Nicaragua reiterates the “validity and legal force of each and every one of the considerations and resolutions issued by the International Court of Justice of The Hague in its historic ruling of June 27, 1986 on ‘Military and paramilitary Activities in and against the Republic of Nicaragua’, in accordance with International Law, Nicaraguan legislation”, in which the United States was condemned.
“The State of Nicaragua has the right to execute the necessary actions to guarantee full compliance with this historic ruling,” states the initiative, which is expected to be approved in the second legislature in the first quarter of 2025.
(With information from EFE and Reuters)
