A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The United States is condemning Nicaragua's longtime leader, 80-year-old Daniel Ortega, who said there will be no more elections in his country. But tough words from the U.S. in the past did not stop Nicaragua from becoming one of the most authoritarian countries in the Americas. Here's NPR's Eyder Peralta.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: It was during a celebration of Nicaragua's socialist revolution that Co-President Daniel Ortega went on a tirade, accusing the United States of bankrolling political candidates. It was then that he dropped this bombshell.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CO-PRES DANIEL ORTEGA: (Speaking Spanish).
(CHEERING)
ORTEGA: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "This country will never have any more elections."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ORTEGA: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "There will be no more elections that they can use to take the government, to take power."
Carolina Sandoval Jimenez at the Washington Office on Latin America says the decree shouldn't have come as a surprise. Nicaraguan government, after all, has either exiled or jailed nearly all of its opposition figures, but even North Korea has elections. So proposing a blanket ban says, Sandoval Jimenez...
CAROLINA SANDOVAL JIMENEZ: Breaks with the tradition of even the most autocratic leaders in the world to have that simulation of making citizens participate in elections.
PERALTA: Secretary of State Marco Rubio quickly issued a statement saying Ortega's words proved his, quote, "cowardice and fear of the Nicaraguan people's will." He added that the U.S. and the international community wouldn't stand by while the Nicaraguan government deepened its repression. Ortega's wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, then went on state TV to say Ortega was taken out of context.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CO-PRES ROSARIO MURILLO: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "Yes, there will be elections," she said, "but proper elections based on our sovereignty."
Felix Maradiaga, an opposition leader in exile, says the swift reaction by the United States gives him hope that the U.S. may take action.
FELIX MARADIAGA: For the first time in a long time, I see that at least the language has changed.
PERALTA: The U.S., he says, has suddenly started positioning Nicaragua as a national security challenge. But to John Feeley, a former American diplomat who focused on Latin America, this dance is all too familiar. Feeley says, for decades, Democratic and Republican administrations have been too busy with other things to pay attention to Nicaragua. When Ortega took the presidency for a second time in 2007, the U.S. was dealing with Afghanistan and Iraq. Biden was much more concerned about immigration. And Trump, says, Feeley, is transactional.
JOHN FEELEY: Trump says to himself what he always says - what do I get from Nicaragua? And the answer is, slim to none - and slim just left town.
PERALTA: Nicaragua, for example, doesn't have the oil or rare earth minerals of Venezuela, and it's not important geographically.
FEELEY: It may be that Ortega's superpower is that he's so irrelevant. Sadly, tragically, the democratic freedom of expression and self-determination of the Nicaraguan people just ain't enough to convince them that the juice is worth the squeeze.
PERALTA: To Feeley, Nicaragua will continue to be a case of what he calls a creeping infection of dictatorial control.
Eyder Peralta, NPR News, Mexico City. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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