MANAGUA.- The dictator of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortegaannounced on Wednesday the creation of a Ministry of the Interior like the one that functioned in the 1980s during the war, in order to “reinforce” the security apparatus.
Ortega indicated that this ministry will replace the Interior Ministry and will be as strong as the one that functioned in the regime he headed for a decade after the start of the Sandinista revolution of 1979, during which he faced counterrevolutionary rebels (the “contras”) who attempted overthrow him.
“It is a step that gives us enormous strength and we once again have the two great instruments with which we defeated the counterrevolution: the army and the Ministry of the Interior,” said Ortega in an act of homologation of police ranks.
The Interior Ministry, which exercised strong control over opponents in Nicaragua during the 1980s, changed functions and was renamed the Interior Ministry in 1990 after Ortega’s electoral defeat against Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.
In the new structure, the police, the penitentiary system, firefighters, immigration and immigration will be under the same command, said Ortega.
Power and repression of Ortega in Nicaragua
The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions against the Nicaraguan regime after denouncing a strong repression of the protests, which left some 300 dead according to the UN.
The opposition maintains that Ortega is increasingly concentrating power by putting the army and police under his direct command, after controlling key institutions such as the National Assembly (parliament), the Supreme Court of Justice and the Electoral Council.
According to parliamentary leader Gustavo Porras, the law that creates the Ministry of the Interior will be approved on Thursday in an extraordinary session.
Source: AFP
