In the first week of July Sandinista Police, political secretaries and paramilitaries forcibly took over 5 municipal government offices, deposing the elected representatives of the Citizen for Liberty Party (CxL) who were elected in the prior municipal elections. This coming November new municipal elections are scheduled to be held. This report by Urnas Abiertas [Open Ballotboxes] provides the details,context, and legal analysis for those takeovers. Like the adduction and jailing of 7 presidential candidates before the presidential elections of 2021, this is a clear sign that the government will not allow free and fair municipal elections.
Bulletin on the Current Situation #1
By Urnas Abiertas
Blow to municipal autonomy: Arbitrary, illegal, illegitimate and unconstitutional attack on the municipal governments of the CXL party.
July 4, 2022: In less than 48 hours the dictatorial regime stripped the Citizens for Liberty party (CXL) of the 5 municipal governments that they won by popular elections in November of 2017. Just 18 of the 153 municipalities of the country are not found under the banner of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN). Those that belonged to the CXL were: Santa María de Pantasma, San Sebastián de Yalí, and El Cuá in Jinotega; Murra in Nueva Segovia; and El Almendro in Río San Juan.
Until now it is not known that any official information has been issued by any governmental institution, despite the fact that the 5 municipal governments were already taken over by police forces and political operators. The mayor of Santa María de Pantasma, Oscar Gadea Tinoco, the first mayor removed from office, indicated that the Nicaraguan Institute for Municipal Development (INIFOM) informed him that the taking of the Mayor´s office responded to the fact that his CXL party does not have legal status, which was cancelled in a null and arbitrary process in August 2021.
These attacks are arbitrary, illegal, illegitimate and unconstitutional. In addition, they represent the definitive elimination of municipal autonomy, in an illegal process, with abuse of authority and without respect for due process. Like in 2021, the regime annihilated the electoral process before it began. In addition, this blow consolidates the totalitarianism of the dictatorship that wants absolute control over the country.
The illegal take overs of the liberal municipal governments committed constitutional, penal and municipal violations and irregularities. In the face of these illegal attacks we focus on the analysis of three points:
- Illegal, arbitrary administrative process without procedural guarantees.
- Cancelation of the CXL creates a conflict with legal norms
- The abuse of authority: police and the political secretaries seize the mayor´s office.
The government, by not respecting the popular will, breaks and infringes on the Constitution and national sovereignty which resides in the people, and they exercise it through democratic instruments.
In the 2018-2023 municipal period 7 of 18 opposition mayor´s offices were taken over by the FSLN; in 2018 it happened in the municipality of Mulukukú in the Northern Caribbean Coast, when the mayor Apolonio Fargas was arbitrarily arrested, and in 2020 in the municipality of Wiwilí in Jinotega, when a judicial-administrative process was opened against the mayor Reyna Hernández, both now former mayors living in exile.
From Urnas Abiertas we reiterate that Nicaragua needs a credible, honest and legitimate electoral process. We insist on the importance of the reestablishment of democratic conditions which include the freeing the people arrested, ending the repression, political violence and the police state; restructuring the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) to ensure that it functions in a form that is completely independent, transparent, and responsible, and to ensure national and international independent, trustworthy and credible observation, including observers on Human Rights matters like the IACHR and the OHCHR.
Illegal, arbitrary and illegitimate attack
What follows details the information gathered by the citizen networks of Urnas Abiertas in each one of the municipal governments taken over, the monitoring is continuing so this information might be updated in the future.
In all the municipalities the take overs were done by police officers, accompanied by other political operators (political secretaries, mayors of the party in power, paramilitaries, etc.). It is also reported that municipal workers were obligated to turn over information, in some cases it was the mayors or vice mayors themselves who had to be present to turn over what was requested.
Extra officially it is known that those people who did the take overs designated new authorities in an illegal manner, who have not yet been communicated officially nor sworn in by the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), which is why the information reported in this Bulletin could change should the regime so decide.
In the five municipal governments taken over there are more than 50 council members, it is not known whether those people will continue exercising their posts or whether they will also be removed illegally.
Santa María de Pantasma (Jinotega)
On Saturday July 2 the arbitrary and illegal occupation occurred of the mayor´s office of the municipality of Santa María de Pantasma in the Jinotega province, which since 2013 was led by the mayor Oscar Gadea Tinoco from the Citizens for Liberty party (CxL).
The operative was led by Captain Denis Jarquín Iría, police chief of the municipality, Ramón López Orontes, municipal political secretary and Santos Gonzalo Herrera Real, council person of the FSLN.
The assault began with the disproportionate presence of police officials around the municipality who prevented citizens from passing through those streets, as well as access to the municipal market, alleging that this measure was in response to the tropical storm Bonnie. Around midday the Police entered the building, where they were informed that Mayor Gadea was touring the municipality to evaluate the impacts of the meteorological phenomenon.
The police held and kept the workers found within the installation from communicating, Erling Caballero, the person responsible for the financial area, was called in and held in order to turn over all the documentation of the municipal government. Hours later, the flag of the FSLN was raised over the municipal government.
In addition, the presence of paramilitaries was reported and police harassment at the home of mayor Gadea. The roads leading into the place were blocked by the police, who remained at different strategic points carrying out searches.
For hours that afternoon reports were received related to an increase of police and soldiers in the municipality, the information received indicates that troops were transferred from other municipalities in the province of Jinotega to maintain the police harassment in Pantasma.
According to citizen reports, the new illegitimately designated authorities are:
- Mayor Carmen Medina Obando (previously the sixth council person for the FSLN)
- Vice Mayor Melvin de Jesús Zelaya (previously the third council person for the FSLN)
- Secretary of the Municipal Council: Lourdes González
Santa María de Pantasma was raised to a municipality in 1989. Since that date the FSLN has never held the mayor´s office, this town is found within what is known as the “contra corridor”, a territory that historically has been controlled by opponents of Sandinism. More than 80% of the population of the municipality is rural, with a population of 56,336 people.
According to official data from the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) in 2017 the CxL party won the mayor´s office with nearly 59% of the votes, that is 9,553 of the 16,157 valid votes, which resulted in a Municipal Council composed of 17 liberal council members and 11 members of the party in power.
San Sebastián de Yalí (Jinotega)
On Saturday July 2, when the arbitrary take overs began, there was a police blockade on the roads leading into the city and police patrolling in the urban area.
It was reported that on Monday July 4 the police showed up at 6AM, broke down the doors and locks to enter the municipal government offices. Some municipal workers showed up for their shift and they were not allowed to enter. It is presumed that inside the municipal government the operators of the take over called a session to elect new authorities.
According to citizen reports, the new illegitimately designated authorities are:
- Mayor Mario Zamora Hernández (previously fourth council member for the FSLN)
- Vice Mayor Francisca Xaviera Blandón Zamora (previously third council member for the FSLN)
- Secretary of the Municipal Council Reyna Reyes Olivas (previously first council members for the FSLN).
San Sebastián de Yalí was founded in 1908. 80% of the population in the municipality is rural with a total of 38,190 people.
According to official data from the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) in 2017 the CxL party won the mayor’s office with nearly 45% of the votes, in other words 7,321 of the 13,713 valid votes, which resulted in a Municipal Council composed of 12 liberal council members and 11 council members of the party in power.
El Cuá (Jinotega)
Like San Sebastián de Yalí, in El Cuá on Saturday, July 2 when the arbitrary take overs began, there was a police blockade on the roads leading into the city and patrolling in the urban area. Municipal workers reported receiving threats of judicial processes related to corruption in the management of the municipality.
In the early morning of Monday July 4 the police surrounded the perimeter of the municipal government, by morning they had already entered and raised the FSLN flag. Municipal workers were forced to attend a meeting with the “new authorities.” There was information that there are two municipal workers providing all the information requested to prevent bigger manifestations of violence. Up to now there is no information about the mayor Isidro Irias Herrera nor about the vice mayor Oneyda Rodríguez Mairena.
According to citizen reports, the new illegitimately designated authorities are:
- Mayor: Douglas González (previously first council member for the FSLN)
- Vice Mayor: Yadira Gurdián (previously second council member for the FSLN)
- Secretary of the Municipal Council: Gloria Rivera Chavarría (previously sixth council member for the FSLN and delegate of MINED in El Cuá)
El Cuá was raised to a municipality in 1989. More than 80% of the municipality is composed of rural population and has 61,216 people.
According to official data from the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) in 2017 the CxL party won the mayor´s office with 52% of the votes, that is 9,383 of the 17,888 valid votes, which resulted in a Municipal Council composed of 16 liberal council members (1 from the PLC) and 12 council members of the party in power.
Murra (Nueva Segovia)
On Friday July 1 the CxL party tried to hold a party meeting in the municipality, but the police harassed the meeting and informed them that they did not have a permit to hold the meeting.
A police presence was reported around the municipal government offices since 5am on Monday July 4. The mayor´s office was taken during the morning, there was no presence of municipal workers. The municipal political secretary Santiago Jirón Valladares and William Murillo, chief of the municipal police, led the takeover. Up to midday on Monday July 4 some twenty antiriot police were reported circulating on the street of the municipality.
The operators of the takeover called the mayor Francisco Herrera Herrera to sign a legal document turning over power, who according to citizen reports showed up to provide the requested information. They also called in the Vice Mayor Ninoska Cruz to turn over the seals of the municipal government. As of the publication of this report she had not showed up in the municipal offices.
According to citizen reports, the new illegitimately designated authorities are:
- Mayor: Melba Valladares Colindres (previously first council member for the FSLN)
- Vice Mayor: Luis Arturo Averruz (previously fourth council member for the FSLN)
- Secretary of the Municipal Council: Cándida Rosa Maldonado (previously alternate council member for having run as a candidate for Vice Mayor for the FSLN in 2017 and getting second place).
Murra was founded in 1872. 90% of the population is rural and has 19,458 people.
According to official data from the Supreme Electoral Council in 2017 the CxL party won the mayorship with nearly 50% of the votes, 3,551 of the 7,206 valid votes, which resulted in a Municipal Council composed of 9 liberal council members (1 from the PLC) and 8 council members from the ruling party.
El Almendro (Río San Juan)
Since Saturday July 2, when the arbitrary take overs started, information was obtained about the mobilization of police contingents from other municipalities from the Río San Juan province toward the municipality of El Almendro.
On Monday July 4 a police presence was reported in the early hours of the morning. The takeover was led by Jhonny Francisco Gutiérrez Novoa, the mayor of the municipality of San Carlos for the FSLN, by the Commissioner Mayor Dennis Castro, police chief of the Provincial Delegation of Río San Juan, and by the political secretary of the municipality. Those who carried out the takeover raised the flag of the Sandinistas on entering the building.
Municipal workers reported harassment in their homes, while other were found detained inside the mayor´s office. On midday Monday July 4th a disproportionate police presence was reported that kept the entire perimeter of the Mayor´s office surrounded by anti-riot police who did not allow the population to circulate
Up to now there is no information about the mayor Reynaldo Galeano Orosco nor of the Vice Mayor Lilliam Jiménez Córdoba.
According to citizen reports, the new illegitimately designated authorities are:
- Mayor: Miriam del Socorro Arguello Martínez (she was mayor for the FSLN between 2013-2018)
- Vice Mayor: no information
El Almendro was made a municipality in 1974. During the decades of the 1990s the municipality was selected for the relocation, reinsertion and disarming of the fighters of the Nicaraguan Resistance or Counterrevolution. 75% of the population of the municipality are rural and it has a population of 15,101.
According to official data of the Supreme Electoral Council in 2017 the CxL party won the mayor´s race with 54% of the votes, that is 2,776 of the 5,095 valid votes which resulted in a Municipal Council composed of 10 liberal council members and 7 official party council members.
Legal analysis of the illegal, arbitrary and illegitimate assaults
The declarations of the mayor of Pantasma talk about a communication from INIFOM (Nicaraguan Institute for Municipal Promotion) concerning the fact that the reason for the assault on that municipal government responded to the cancelation of the legal status of the CxL party, nevertheless, that justification lacks legal basis and avails itself of legal gaps that allow for ambiguity and discretion. In addition the form of proceeding is arbitrary with abuse of authority and without respect for due process.
The illegal takeovers of the liberal mayor´s office fall into a direct violation of the Constitution of Nicaragua, commit crimes of a penal nature and direct non-compliance with existing municipal norms. We focus the analysis on three points in the face of these illegal assaults.
- Illegal, arbitrary administrative process and without procedural guarantees.
- Cancelation of the CxL created a contradiction with the legal norms.
- Abuse of authority: police and the political secretaries seize the mayor´s office
Illegal, arbitrary administrative process without procedural guarantees
The mayor is the highest executive authority of the Municipal Government. The mayor directs the execution of the municipal attributions, coordinates their exercise with the programs and actions of other institutions and watches out for their effective compliance, as well as for the inclusion of popular demands in those programs, at least that is what the Municipal Law establishes, hand in hand with the Constitution, which indicate that there are different causal factors for the termination of a municipal post:
- Resignation
- Death
- When found guilty and deprived of liberty through a definitive sentence, or prohibition from holding the post for a similar period or larger than the rest of their period.
- Unjustified abandonment of their functions for 60 continuous days
- Violation of what is established in article 130 of the Constitution of Nicaragua
- Among other dispositions pointed out in article 178 of the Constitution, including having been declared by the Comptroller as guilty of poor management of the funds of the Municipal Government.
In that sense, we can state that the arbitrary acts that occurred in the last 48 hours were illegitimate and unconstitutional. To this end, there is a lack of compliance with constitutional procedures, given that the corresponding Municipal Council is the entity that should approve a resolution declaring that the Mayor incurred in circumstances that led to the loss of his/her condition. Such a resolution or the public or authentic documents which accredited the circumstances established in the reasons for the loss of the post, should have been sent to the Supreme Electoral Council, accompanied by the name of the person who would replace them in the post, or the request of a declaration from the office holder, for the name from the Council members.
On the other hand, according to article 78 of the Regulations of the Municipal Law, in the case that the Mayor should fail in his obligations in such a way so as to merit a sanction related or not to the reasons previously mentioned, and without having committed a crime, it is up to the Municipal Council to call an extraordinary session to hear about the offense, listen to the accused and impose a sanction, if necessary. In the case that the Council decides on the loss of his condition as Mayor, this sanction must be approved by two thirds of the members of the Council. Said decision allows the municipal functionary to appeal to the CSE for a review of his/her case, who must hear, evaluate the case and make a decision.
With the illegal removal from office and takeovers of the municipal governments of the CxL, the figure of the Municipal Council, composed of mayors, vice mayors and council members, has been left out. Up to now no document nor official procedure has been made public which incorporates this figure, on the contrary there are threats of the removal from office of liberal council members and firings without severance pay against municipal workers.
Therefore, the processes for the removal of mayor and vice mayors and later illegitimate designation of new authorities do not comply with the due process that the existing norms indicate.
Elimination of the CxL creates a contradiction with the legal norms
As was already pointed out, extraofficially it was known that the justification for the illegal takeover of the CxL municipal government was the elimination of their legal status in the framework of the 2021 electoral process.
The Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) through resolution issued on August 6, 2021 at 3:30pm decided to cancel the legal status of the Citizen for Liberty Party (CxL) by request of the legal representative of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) where it was requested, and in effect was taken up and resolved with standing by the CSE, that the legal status of the CxL be cancelled for having violated the laws of the Republic of Nicaragua, in particular Law No. 1055, the Law for the Defense of the Rights, Independence, Sovereignty and Self Determination of the People for Peace, as well as for the fact that the legal representative of the Citizens for Freedom Electoral Alliance had acquired her identity card in an anomalous manner.
From Urnas Abiertas we pointed out in 2021 that the resolution of the CSE was arbitrary, mull and revocable. This resolution contained a series of irregularities in form, related to the exercise of the legitimacy to challenge and ask for the cancelation of the legal status of an party organization, the absence of the implementation of the right to a hearing of the accused, as well as the quickness with which the resolution was carried out with the reports from the Office of Attention to Political Parties. Likewise, it contained inconsistencies in the application of the fundamental legal norms, in this case Law No 1055, because on building the premise that serves as the basis for the conclusion it does not fully explain what the acts on the part of CxL consisted in that harmed the independence, self-determination and sovereignty of the State of Nicaragua.
Even though the justification might be the banning of the party, it is important to indicate that a contradiction exists with the legal norms, given that even though the political party is dissolved by the cancelation of its legal status, none of the causal reasons for the termination of the post contained in the Municipal Law (Law 40) are met. Neither the Municipal Law nor the Electoral Law (Law 331) prohibit the operations of the municipal governments from parties dissolved after the popular election of the Municipal Council.
The Electoral Law in Article 179 states that “The Supreme Electoral Council is empowered to decide in accordance with dispositions of common law any issue of electoral matters, that is not foreseen in the current Law.” This disposition leaves mayors´ offices and municipal governments in complete vulnerability pursuant to the discretion of a party entity that does not fulfill the principles of transparency, independence and autonomy.
On the other hand, the norms determine the time for hearing the cancelled party, a time frame which was not followed and where actions were not taken either related to the municipal governments of that party. The illegal and arbitrary takeovers is done 11 months after the cancellation and within the framework of a municipal electoral process, which shows that instead of trying to resolve the legal contradiction what the Government is seeking is to show strength, punish opponents and wipe away, once again, the electoral competition.
Abuse ofuthority: police and political secretaries abduct the Municipal Governments.
Up to now, in none of the illegal takeovers, neither the police nor the political operators have presented judicial orders or any other type of official documentation which would justify the action, rather detainments, verbal threats, illegal raids and an attack with military characteristics were reported.
The nine authorities named in an illegal and illegitimate manner are mostly council members of the FSLN in the Municipal Government itself, municipal assets are being given as prizes for loyalty to these political operators, who tend to be involved in the networks of corruption and political violence of the party in power.
In addition, it is important to point out that no law, regulation or norm incorporates in the faculties of the political secretaries nor the National Police the right to remove from office nor name municipal authorities elected by popular vote. Even though the Police is a body of the State that protects order for the citizenry, they transgressed their own legal norms by not fulfilling their professional, apolitical, non-partisan nature and in strict compliance with the Constitution of Nicaragua, which is due respect and obedience and likewise is pointed out by Law 228 the Law of the National Police and its reforms. In this way those who carried out the illegal takeovers are carrying out unconstitutional deeds in so far as they are exercising more functions than the Constitution and the law confer on them.
The government by not respecting the popular will breaks with and infringes on the Constitution and the national sovereignty that resides in the people and is exercised through democratic instruments.The Constitution indicates that “Political power is exercised by the people through their representatives freely elected by universal, equal, direct and secret ballot, without any other person or meeting of people that can arrogate that power or representation.”
Municipal autonomy: the last Blow of the dictatorship
These events show the consolidation of a totalitarian state that is committed to the absolute control of political power without municipal autonomy, which has been trampled in a systematic and continuous manner in recent years.
Since the middle of the decade of the 1980s matters of municipal autonomy have been advancing and receding in Nicaragua, in those years it was decided to share the political power centralized in the Executive with the territorial levels beyond the national level, first with the Caribbean Coast in 1984 with the Law for the Autonomy of the Autonomous Regions of the Atlantic Coast, and later with the municipalities in 1990 with the Municipal Law.
Nevertheless, in these years all governments have used doubletalk and duplicitous behavior on issues of municipal autonomy, because on the one hand they nominally promote a legal ordering in favor of the decentralized model of power (Law of Municipal Autonomy, Autonomy Law for the Autonomous Regions, Law for Municipal Transfers, etc.), but on the other hand they carry out recentralization efforts with clear partisan interests.
In part of this process (1984-2002) fluctuating characteristics were observed of a certain acceptance and apparent tolerance to legitimize municipal electoral contests, with alliances of residual parties that would administer the minority of municipalities (in the municipal elections of 2017 the opposition administered less than 12% of the total number of 153 municipalities).
Starting in 2007 with less intensity and after 2018 with greater intensity – with the consolidation of the dictatorship – a flagrant violation has been observed of municipal autonomy through arbitrary mechanisms like electoral fraud, the replacement of territorial network structures and legally recognized institutions in the legal order (e.g. open town hall meetings, territorial assemblies, etc.) with political bodies (CPC) and people with partisan and ideological political power (political secretaries) who make decisions under guidelines sent down directly from the Executive Branch without valuing local participation nor interests.
Likewise a growing arbitrary process is observed to impair municipal autonomy through the decrease in municipal transfers (from 10% to 4%) and the asymmetrical distribution of public resources.
As the municipal electoral process approaches, actions against municipal autonomy have become more violent and arbitrary. In addition to the use of harassment, threats and blackmail toward opposition authorities, institutions and people, four months before the elections takeovers were done and popularly elected authorities removed with arbitrary, illegal, illegitimate and unconstitutional mechanisms.
These actions have the purpose of consolidating a totalitarian dictatorship through assembling a corrupt structure and superstructure based on a strong man patronage system that does not support the role of local power for the improvement of the lives of the people.