Ortega consolidates his absolute power in Nicaragua, appoints his wife 'co-president'

Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo consolidated their absolute power in Nicaragua. Thanks to Parliament's ratification of a constitutional reform, the couple, as president and "co-president," will control all branches of government and civil society. The government's term of office will also increase from five years to six, and the already powerful Murillo will rise in rank, from vice-president to "co-president."

The reform, approved "unanimously" by the Nicaraguan Congress dominated by the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), establishes that the co-presidents will coordinate "the legislative, judicial and electoral bodies," previously recognized as independent powers.

Congress also approved a motion presented by the head of the legislative branch to make the rule on the government mandate retroactive, thus extending Ortega's current term until 2028 governing alongside Murillo.

'The destruction of the rule of law and fundamental freedoms in Nicaragua'

"These drastic changes mark the destruction of the rule of law and fundamental freedoms in Nicaragua," American lawyer Reed Brody, a member of a U.N. panel of experts assessing human rights in Nicaragua, assured to AFP.

Nicaragua is now defined as a "revolutionary" and "socialist" state, and includes among its patriotic symbols the red-and-black flag of the FSLN, a former leftist guerrilla group that overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979.

Congress "has sealed a new chapter in our history of blessing, of freedom, of national dignity, of national pride, unanimously approving the new Constitution," Murillo said, noting that Nicaragua is a "model of direct democracy."

UN expresses 'deep concern'

The Regional Office for Central America of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed in a statement its "deep concern" considering that the reform "deepens setbacks in civil and political liberties" in the Central American country.

Ortega and Murillo radicalized their positions and increased control over Nicaraguan society after the protests of 2018, which left 320 dead, according to the U.N., considered by the government a coup attempt sponsored by Washington.

The reform establishes that the state will "monitor" the press and the church so that they do not respond to "foreign interests," as well as private companies so that they do not apply sanctions such as those imposed by the United States on Nicaragua. It also officializes the withdrawal of Nicaraguan nationality from those considered "traitors to the homeland," as the government has done with some 450 critics and opponents in recent years.

More than 15,000 members of a 'volunteer police force' 

Another of the controversial rules in Nicaragua's constitutional reform is the creation of a "Voluntary Police" composed of civilians, as an "auxiliary and support body" to security forces, which stems from what happened in 2018.

With their faces covered with black hoods, more than 15,000 civilians have been sworn in by Nicaraguan authorities as "volunteer police" since mid-January, even before the reform was fully ratified.

During the protests of 2018, hooded and heavily armed men, which the government called the "people," intervened to control the demonstrators in the trenches which were set up by university students.

The 1987 Constitution has been reformed a dozen times by deputies aligned with Ortega, including the one that established indefinite presidential reelection.