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Rule of LawNicaragua

Nicaragua charges ex-beauty queen running for election

August 5, 2021

Berenice Quezada has been disqualified from running as vice president in the upcoming vote. She is the eighth candidate to be arrested since May.

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Nicaraguan presidential candidate Oscar Sobalvarro (r) and his running mate Berenice Quezada
Quezada was the running mate of the opposition presidential candidate Oscar SobalvarroImage: OSWALDO RIVAS/AFP via Getty Images

Nicaraguan prosecutors charged former beauty queen and opposition candidate for the presidential vote Berenice Quezada with inciting terrorism, the attorney general said Wednesday.  

Quezada was placed under house arrest a day earlier amid a crackdown against President Daniel Ortega's opponents ahead of the November 7 election. 

The charges against Quezada relate to her participation in the 2018 anti-government protests, which Ortega's regime had deemed a coup attempt. 

She was released pending trial.  

Quezada out of the race

Quezada's arrest came just one day after she officially registered herself as the right-wing Citizens for Freedom Alliance (CxL) candidate for vice president. 

The 27-year-old winner of the Miss Nicaragua 2017 beauty pageant was running alongside Oscar Sobalvarro, a former guerrilla leader who fought against Ortega's left-wing Sandinista party. 

Sobalvarro waves and Quezada holds the Nicaraguan flag during their nomination announcement
Quezada can no longer run for elections because of her chargesImage: AFP

CxL had officially registered the pair despite calls from some opposition parties to boycott the election instead of giving it a thin veil of legitimacy. 

A sweeping crackdown

In the past two months, Nicaraguan authorities detained dozens of opposition figures; Quezada was the eighth candidate to be arrested since May. 

Electoral authorities previously barred two opposition parties from running any candidate at all.

Unsurprisingly, the Sandinista party officially nominated Ortega for president and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, as his running mate.

The United States and the European Union have recently imposed sanctions against Murillo and other top officials, warning that the elections would not be free, with most contenders jailed. 

fb/aw (AP, dpa, Reuters)