In the land of volcanoes and lakes resides a king who will go to great lengths to never be dethroned.

The king of Nicaragua known as Daniel Ortega, and his queen, Chayo Murillo, go into presidential elections on November 7th 2021. When first elected, one of Ortega’s first mandates was to remove the limit in years anyone could serve as president. Now after being president for over 14 years, his has become a controversial name. The United States government recently declared the Nicaraguan election a rigged sham. 

The U.S. government has also started an investigation of Nicaragua’s participation  in a Central America trade agreement, and has already stopped all  support for any trade building activities that may be correlated as benefiting Ortega’s government. President Biden’s administration, expanding on actions begun by former president, Donald Trump, has imposed  financial support and travel bans on many Nicaraguan officials, including Ortega and his family members. In Trump’s presidency, multiple members of the “Sandinista” group’s funds were frozen in attempt to stop any potential existing corruption or misconduct towards civilians. 

This fiasco started a few years after Ortega entered office but grew drastically in 2018 when over 400 Nicaraguans were murdered in broad daylight during peaceful protests against government mandates. Nicaraguan students started this opposition by protesting tax increases without consent and multiple decreased benefits for the elderly as well as community college students. The rough aftermath caused families to grieve and the country to turn grey. The economy dropped fast and pushed a large part of the community into immigration. The ones who were blessed enough to afford an airplane ticket, found their way to the United States. Those who didn’t, fought their way across the border to Costa Rica. Not only the common folk moved to the United States, but also those persecuted by the government for speaking against them became refugees and are currently still residing in the US. Nicaragua has become a living cry for help.

Currently, almost 40 opposition politicians and activists have been arrested by the National Police, among them seven presidential candidates. Three of the potential candidates have been accused of committing crimes that have been rejected by them, their lawyers, and families.

After personally  living in Nicaragua for 14 years of my life, if there is anything concrete it’s the lack of government stability. Citizens’ only wish is accomplish a fair and just election where the most capable candidate wins. We wish to reach this goal without the need of violence, stepping towards a better future as a united community.