News SOS for Journalists Latin America Culture

Photos Photo of the Day Videos

Nicaragua: The Lesson of Playing with the Word ‘Dictatorship’

Costa Rica must not turn its back on a people suffering imprisonment, nor trivialize the language with which tyrannies begin.

Editorial by La Nación of Costa Rica (Confidencial)

HAVANA TIMES – Nicaragua is the most painful proof of why no democratic leader should play with the word “dictatorship,” promise to “take over” the judiciary, place themselves above magistrates, judges, prosecutors, or lawmakers, or vilify journalists who expose abuses and corruption in power.

Daniel Ortega began dismantling democracy with a war of words: he divided Nicaraguans, sowed hatred among fellow citizens, and launched carefully crafted campaigns to discredit institutions. His goal was to accustom the public to despising limits on power until the concentration of all authority appeared not as an abuse, but as a supposed act of national rescue or “recovery.”

On July 19, 2026, during the commemoration of the 47th anniversary of the revolution that overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, Ortega announced that there would “never again be presidential elections” in Nicaragua. His words expose him as the true coup plotter, someone who betrayed the people he had promised to free from oppression. His announcement strips Nicaraguans of their right to choose their leaders and completes a dynastic project alongside his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, or ensures its continuation through successors chosen by the two of them.

Lawmakers in the National Assembly, subordinate to the ruling couple, are........

© Havana Times