Barely three days had passed since Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo ordered the approval of a comprehensive reform of the Nicaraguan Constitution, through which they protected family succession and buried what was left of the separation of powers — when the Sandinista parliament announced Monday changes to the Military Code and the National Police Organization Law to extend the mandate of the heads of the armed forces from five to six years .

The presidential couple thus continues to reform fundamental laws at a rapid pace in order, according to the opposition, to adapt its “totalitarian model” to a new “tailor-made” legal framework. The reform of the legislation relating to the police and the army – the main repressive tools of Ortega and Murillo – gives the president full powers over these armed institutions, to the point that he will not only be able to appoint the commander in chief of the Army and Director of the Police, but he will also be able to extend the position of police chief as many times as he wishes, “according to the interests of the nation”.

The current police chief, whose mandate has been extended, is Commissioner General Francisco Díaz, whose daughter Blanca Díaz is married to Maurice Ortega-Murillo, one of the sons of the presidential couple. Díaz has been police chief since August 2018, the year of massive anti-government protests that police and paramilitaries suppressed with such violence that a United Nations panel of experts called it a “crimes against humanity”. Commissioner Diaz was sanctioned by the United States for being the main operator of repression and human rights violations against Nicaraguans, particularly against opponents of all sides, members of the Church and journalists .

In the case of the reform of the Military Code, the Army remains, on paper, independent of the government, since the initiative establishes that “no relative of the President and the Vice-President of the Republic falling within the fourth degree of consanguinity and of the second degree of affinity can be appointed commander-in-chief of the army. »

But in practice, General Julio César Avilés subjected the military to the Ortega-Murillo diktat. Not only did he boycott military succession after Ortega extended his term for 16 years, but in May 2020 the United States sanctioned him for “providing support to police and paramilitary gangs who committed crimes against the Nicaraguan people.”

“Self-coup”

Nicaraguans had not yet fully assimilated and understood the profound change to the Constitution when these new reforms were added on Monday, institutionalizing at the highest legal level what was already de facto: Ortega and Murillo’s control over the forces. armies.

After beginning a “compaction of the State” and an unprecedented purge of civil servants, the presidential couple ordered Parliament three days ago to approve a tectonic constitutional reform: the new Magna Carta changes the meaning of the State of Nicaragua calling it “revolutionary and revolutionary”. socialist” and created a shared “co-presidency” between Ortega and Murillo, thus resolving the thorny question of family succession. In other words, Nicaragua becomes the only country in the world known to have two presidents in power, according to complaints from opponents who prefer to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals against them and their families.

In addition, the reform allows the co-presidents to appoint vice-presidents if they deem it necessary, without having to go through popular vote. This provision has been interpreted by critics as an opening to nominate their own children, such as Laureano Ortega, whom her parents are strongly promoting in the new constitutional line of succession.

In addition to extending their presidential mandate from five to six years, the co-presidents will enjoy full powers over the Nicaraguan state. “The Presidency of the Republic directs the Government and, as Head of State, coordinates the legislative, judicial, electoral, control and surveillance, regional and municipal bodies, respecting the supreme interests of the Nicaraguan people and the provisions of this Constitution,” says the new constitutional article 132.

In addition, the co-presidents will be able to officially appoint and dismiss ministers, vice-ministers, lawyers, directors of autonomous and governmental bodies, heads of diplomatic missions and heads of special missions, as they already did de facto with the purge of the State.

In total, this modification of the Constitution affects around a hundred articles, which legalize the paramilitaries, authorize the Nicaraguan army to carry out repression for political reasons alongside the national police and justify loss of nationality critics considered “traitors to the country”.

A group of exiled opponents made a statement to EL PAÍS in which they described what the presidential couple did as a self-putsch. “Under the cover of a partial reform of the political Constitution, they are developing a new one, which falls under the exclusive power of a National Constituent Assembly,” they assert. “A large number of rights and guarantees established in the dogmatic part of the Constitution are modified in a regressive manner; the nature of a series of institutions is being changed, mainly the army and the police, and the door is left open for the executive, today called the presidency, with its absolute power, to regulate and control, through secondary laws, the activities of the country. economy.”

Opponents in exile insist that with these reforms, “Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo seek to consolidate a hereditary family dictatorship, accumulating more power than they have, establishing at the constitutional level family dynastic succession and the absolute power that they already exercise over Nicaragua. . By establishing a co-presidency, which replaces the executive power, they resolve their own differences, to satisfy the personal aspirations of Rosario Murillo.

Another law to protect against international sanctions

In this rush of reforms and new “à la carte” laws, the presidential couple approved on Monday a new regulation: the “Protection against sanctions and external aggressions” law, which places the national financial system at a crossroads with the international banking system, because Not only does it order banks not to apply future sanctions, ranging from restrictions on financial operations to the closure of bank accounts, but it also leaves sanctions already in place ineffective. In other words, it would force national banks to reopen the accounts of sanctioned officials.

In case of non-compliance with the law, the regulations impose fines on financial institutions that do not waive the sanctions. They also threaten prison and “treason” charges against individuals in financial institutions who decide to comply with international guidelines.

The approval of this law makes Nicaragua a place of “high financial risk” and transforms it into an “outlaw state”, explains researcher Manuel Orozco, because it makes the country a safe place for people and entities sanctioned. How the international financial system reacts and responds to this measure remains to be seen. However, the aim of this law is to force national banks to seek financial markets other than those of the United States, which is for the moment Nicaragua’s main trading partner. And the regime seeks, in light of its new international relations, in China, Russia and Iran.

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