Nicaragua's co-president is taking intense heat from the State Department after the socialist revolutionary declared that the Central American country he rules alongside his wife will no longer hold elections.The State Department on Tuesday condemned Daniel Ortega, who has retained power as the country's leader for nearly 20 years, writing his "declaration that under his family’s dictatorship Nicaragua will never again hold elections lays bare their true authoritarian nature and that, "Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have abandoned even the pretense of popular consent.""Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega, along with their enablers, continue to threaten our national security interests in our region.Their facilitation of illegal immigration, deepening of adversarial relationships, and abuse of human rights and repression of Nicaraguans destabilizes our hemisphere, in defiance of the Trump Administration’s efforts to generate safety and prosperity," a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital."The Nicaraguan regime is an enemy of humanity."Ortega, now 80, said on Monday that he would cancel future elections to stop opposition parties from taking power in Nicaragua, which he classified as attempts to "seize the government."Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega said officials in the Central American country will no longer hold elections.
(REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)From the 1960s to the 1990, Ortega was a leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), a radical far–left guerrilla movement inspired by Marxism, the Cuban revolutionary politics and anti-imperialism.When the Sandinistas overthrew the U.S.-backed Samoza family dictatorship in 1979, Ortega emerged as a leader.
The country aligned itself with Cuba and Russia during the Cold War, and nationalized banks and industry.NICARAGUA'S ORTEGA SAYS COUNTRY WILL 'NEVER AGAIN' HOLD ELECTIONS, SHUTTING OUT OPPOSITIONOrtega assumed power after the revolution, and led the country u...