Nicaragua\u2019s strongman President Daniel Ortega has offered to send \u201cSandinista fighters\u201d to Venezuela in support of his embattled fellow authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro, in case there is an attempt at an \u201carmed counterrevolution\u201d following July\u2019s disputed presidential election. <\/p>\n
Maduro has been under some pressure since his declaration of victory in the vote sparked widespread suspicion among the opposition and abroad. Thousands of Venezuelans have since taken to the streets in protest and political violence has killed at least 24 civilians and one soldier. The government\u2019s security forces have detained at least 2,000 opposition sympathizers. <\/p>\n
Ortega, speaking at a virtual summit with heads of state from other Latin American countries on Monday, offered his support to Maduro in the case of an \u201carmed counterrevolution,\u201d assuring him that if \u201cbattle were to come, they (Maduro\u2019s government) will have Sandinista fighters accompanying them.\u201d <\/p>\n
In Nicaragua, \u201cSandinista\u201d generally refers to members of the left-wing political movement, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) that came to power in the Nicaraguan Revolution at the end of the 1970s. Ortega\u2019s party is the FSLN. <\/p>\n
However, Ortega didn\u2019t specify whether he was offering up police, soldiers from the military, or pro-government armed groups that rights groups have accused of conducting crackdowns alongside the police in Nicaragua, which Ortega has denied any links to. <\/p>\n
Ortega also criticized other leaders of Latin American nations, including Brazil\u2019s Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva (also known as Lula) and Colombia\u2019s Gustavo Petro \u2013 both leftists \u2013 for not recognizing Maduro as the winner of what is set to be his third consecutive six-year term. The Nicaraguan strongman himself is serving a fifth term as president and has been accused of rigging elections in the past. <\/p>\n
During the summit, Ortega said it was \u201cshameful\u201d that Lula hadn\u2019t recognized Maduro and accused him of \u201cdragging\u201d himself before the US. The president made similar comments about Colombia\u2019s Petro. <\/p>\n
Petro responded to Ortega in a post on X saying, \u201cAt least I do not drag down the human rights of the people of my country, much less those of my comrades in arms and those fighting against dictatorships.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to Venezuela\u2019s electoral council, which is controlled by government sympathizers, Maduro won his reelection bid with just over 50% of the vote. But the country\u2019s opposition coalition, as well as electoral observers from the United Nations and the Carter Center have questioned the council\u2019s numbers. The US, the EU and various other countries and multilateral institutions have urged Venezuela to release granular data showing the results by polling station. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Nicaragua\u2019s strongman President Daniel Ortega has offered to send \u201cSandinista fighters\u201d to Venezuela in support of his embattled fellow authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro, in case there is an attempt at an \u201carmed counterrevolution\u201d following July\u2019s disputed presidential election. Maduro has been under some pressure since his declaration of victory in the vote sparked widespread suspicion <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}