MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US reacts to Ortega's announcement that Nicaragua will hold no more elections

“Daniel Ortega's declaration that under his family's dictatorship Nicaragua will never again hold elections lays bare their true authoritarian nature,” Rubio said

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on Tuesday that his country “will not stand idly by” after Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced that the country will no longer hold elections. In a State Department statement, Rubio called on the international community to “join forces” to respond to what he described as the Nicaraguan government's attacks on the democratic principles of the hemisphere.

Ortega made the announcement on Sunday, during the commemoration of the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista Revolution, in which he took part in the overthrow of the Anastasio Somoza dictatorship. “There won't be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and power,” he said, in his first public appearance in two months. The 80-year-old president added that he would work with the National Assembly, which he controls, to pass laws barring opposition parties from reaching power through the ballot box. He did not specify how the measure would be formally implemented.

The announcement effectively cancels the elections scheduled for November 2027, after a constitutional reform approved in January 2025 extended the presidential term from five to six years and designated Ortega's wife, Rosario Murillo, as “co-president.” The two exercise control over nearly all branches of the state, including the armed forces, the police, and the judiciary.

“Daniel Ortega's declaration that under his family's dictatorship Nicaragua will never again hold elections lays bare their true authoritarian nature,” Rubio said in the statement, titled “A Call to Action.” The text added that the Ortega and Murillo government “cannot expect to maintain business as usual with other nations” while undermining the region's democratic foundations. Rubio, who has placed Latin America among his priorities, had already described the Nicaraguan government as a “dictatorship” in June.

The United States, which does not recognize Ortega's presidency, has imposed sanctions and visa restrictions on more than 2,350 Nicaraguan officials and their relatives in recent years. It is unclear whether Rubio's warning will be followed by new pressure measures.

The last election, in 2021, was deemed illegitimate by international observers and by Washington, after Ortega jailed the main opposition candidates; he then claimed about 76% of the vote. Since the 2018 crisis, in which a crackdown on protests left hundreds dead, much of Nicaragua's opposition is in exile or barred from office. In early July, UN experts denounced the mass revocation of lawyers' licenses in the country.