Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have imposed on Friday afternoon a reform of articles 23 and 25 of the Political Constitution of Nicaragua regarding the loss of nationality. The new law, in a new repressive turn against the population of Nicaragua, establishes that citizens who have obtained a second nationality automatically will lose the Nicaraguan. The decision, after approval by the loyal Sandinista deputies, has plunged an entire country in the an entire country for two key questions. Is it retroactive application? Will it imply confiscation of goods, as has happened to the more than 400 opponents of all kinds?
“Nicaraguans will lose their nationality by acquiring another nationality,” reads now in article 25, amended less than three months after the “co -presidential” couple almost totally modified the Political Constitution to impose an increasingly totalitarian family power system. The Ortega and Murillo regime justified this last reform citing writings by Augusto C. Sandino, founding figure of Sandinism. They argue that nationality is a “sacred pact of loyalty” and that there cannot be double fidelity.
“Whoever acquires another nationality and swears loyalty to a foreign state, breaks the legal and moral link with Nicaragua. There can be no double fidelity: the homeland demands exclusive commitment,” he cites the reform initiative signed by Ortega, which has been in power for more than 18 uninterrupted years, and his wife.
Until before the reform of articles 23 and 25, Nicaraguans could acquire a second nationality without any consequence. Even citizens with dual nationality could opt for a position of popular election, as long as they renounced the second citizenship four years in advance. However, all that is repealed and thousands of Nicaraguans with dual nationality appear to the most absolute uncertainty. To this is added that Nicaragua is a country marked by an unprecedented exodus, with tens of thousands of exiles who fled from the repression and systematic persecution of the regime.
Apart from violating the principles of international law on nationality, what is the most alarm the immediate background: the repressive strategy used by Ortega and Murillo against more than 450 opponents, journalists, activists, businessmen, religious, students, peasants, writers and a long list of critics against whom the dispossession of nationality has been accompanied by the confiscation of all their assets and freezing of bank accounts. All, in addition, were declared “traitors to the homeland” and fugitives of justice.
“The guard reads as you want”
Although the reforms ordered on Friday afternoon detail nothing about it, everyone fear for the unpredictability and discretion of the co -presidential couple. Specifically, if this new law will be applied retroactively, that is, if it will affect all those who have obtained a second citizenship before today. Or if it will only apply from its entry into force.
“I do not know if the constitutional reform directly implies the confiscation of assets, but there is an antecedent, jurisprudence can say the regime, which could open the door for it,” Juan Carlos Gutiérrez, sociologist and political analyst and also one of the denationalized and confiscated by the Ortega-Murillo tells El País. “Although these people have not been declared traitorous to the homeland, the simple loss of nationality can leave them without legal protection against the State. The argument of the regime could be that they are no longer Nicaraguan nationals, and therefore have no rights over properties in the country. In summary, everything lies in the same thing: the guard reads as he wants,” he says.
“The Guard reads as you want” is a well -known phrase in Nicaragua. It arose, as counted from an incident in which a guard of the Somocista dictatorship read the identity document of a citizen. When he pointed out the error, the officer replied: “The guard reads as he wants.” “The expression has become a metaphor of absolute power: when the regime desires it, it does what you want, as you want and when you want,” says Gutierrez to contextualize the questions that opens this reform of articles 23 and 25.
“In legal terms, that has resulted in the arbitrary use of laws according to the political interest of the moment. They are applied, ignored or even de facto eliminated regardless of their validity,” Gutierrez insists. “Then, the regime creates a new regulation that seeks to give appearance to decisions already made. A clear example is the cancellation of nationality to 315 Nicaraguans: they were judged, denationalized and expropriated without legal procedure, in open violation of the constitution in force. They adjust or apply the law as agreed in their political interest. ”
Repressive movement
The lawyer in exile Juan Diego Barberena explains to El País that the 1987 Constitution established that Nicaraguan nationality was lost by voluntarily acquiring another nationality. However, that provision, more typical of a country at war, was modified in the constitutional reform of the year 2000 – known as “the reform of the pact” between Ortega and the former corrupt president Arnoldo Alemán – to allow dual nationality. The objective of this reform was not to electorally inhibit those who had exiled in the seventies and eighties and had acquired another nationality, but wanted to return and participate in politics. It was required that foreign nationality renounced four years in advance of an election to be enabled as candidates.
“What the regime does now is to reverse that reform of 2000 and return to the spirit of the Constitution of 87. What implies this? That in addition to the figure of ‘traitor to the homeland’, now a new cause of electoral disqualification is added: having acquired a second nationality. It is a double interdiction,” Barberena argues. “That is, if you have taken away nationality for considering you ‘traitor’ and you also have a foreign citizenship – as the Spanish in many cases – you are automatically disabled to opt for positions of popular election.”
According to the jurist, this seeks to further shield the system against any opposition figure, even in exile. “In addition, it is likely that after this constitutional reform in the first legislature, they approve a reform of the Migration and Foreigners Law, advancing the effects of the new provision although it has not yet been ratified in the second legislature. That would cause a double unconstitutionality: apply a reform that has not yet been officially incorporated into the Constitution. Something normal in them,” Zanja.
For more updates, visit our homepage: NewsTimesWire
