Former Nicaraguan opposition ambassador detained
Managua, Aug 9 (EFE).- A former Nicaraguan ambassador to Costa Rica was detained on Monday after leaving an appointment at the Public Ministry, said his opposition Citizens for Freedom Party (CxL).
Mauricio José Díaz Dávila, 70, a former deputy in the Central American Parliament and 2017 Managua mayoral candidate, was intercepted by police officers as he was driving home, according to the complaint.
“He was intercepted and captured by the police, after beating his son and his lawyer who accompanied him. They took him away to an unknown destination,” CxL said.
The National Police confirmed that they apprehended Díaz, “who is being investigated for carrying out acts that undermine independence, sovereignty, and self-determination, inciting foreign interference in internal affairs, requesting military interventions, organizing with financing from foreign powers to carry out acts of terrorism and destabilization,” among other things.
The police, who did not offer any evidence for the accusations, cited the Law in Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-Determination for Peace, approved by the National Assembly in December.
The controversial law disqualifies “traitors to the country” from running for public office.
Díaz, a spokesperson of CxL, a party whose legality was canceled by the Supreme Electoral Council last Friday for allegedly violating the Electoral Law, had been detained that day at the Peñas Blancas border post where, he said, the immigration authorities confiscated his passport and notified him that he was under immigration detention, without explaining the reasons.
The Nicaraguan expert on international politics is the 32nd opponent to be arrested since May 28, ahead of the general elections on Nov. 7, in which the country’s president Daniel Ortega will seek reelection.
Ortega, 75, is a former Sandinista guerrilla who returned to power in 2007 after coordinating a government junta from 1979 to 1984 and presiding over the country for the first time from 1985 to 1990. He seeking his fifth term, the fourth in a row and second alongside his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo. EFE
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