Things You Should Know About the Americas' Other Election This Week Erika Guevara-Rosas - Inter Press Service
go to original November 4, 2016

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega, right, and his wife and running mate Rosario Murillo. (Esteban Felix/AP)

Update: Nicaragua: Daniel Ortega Storms to Landslide Victory as Opposition Vows to "Fight" the Outcome (Al Jazeera)

Next week, millions of people around the world will be glued to their TV screens and social media feeds, watching as the USA decides who will lead the most powerful country on earth.

Around 3,000 kilometers away, in a much smaller nation in the middle of Central America, another election will take place just a couple of days earlier. Although Nicaragua’s presidential election lacks the fame of the Clinton-Trump race, it is every bit as controversial.

President Daniel Ortega, leader of the ruling Sandinista Front for National Liberation, will run for office for the third consecutive time. His wife, Rosario Murillo, is his running mate.

Both have been accused of leading a campaign to stamp out any form of opposition.

For the six million people living in resource-rich Nicaragua, political scandals are nothing new. They are symptoms of the deteriorating human rights situation facing one of the most invisible countries in the Americas – where basic natural resources such as land and water mark the front lines of a battle between the powerful few and the marginalized majorities.

See the four things you should know are taking place in the backdrop to Nicaragua’s elections at Inter Press Service

Related: Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega Headed for Third Consecutive Term Amid Questions About Democracy (The Washington Post)

Related: Two Candidates, Six Issues, and a Region Ignored (InSight Crime)

Related: Air Cocaine: The Wild, True Story of Drug-Running, Arms Smuggling and Nicaraguan Contras at a Backwoods Airstrip in the Clintons’ Arkansas (CounterPunch)

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