A report released February 29 by the organization Freedom House presents Nicaragua and Venezuela at the top of its blacklist of countries by region where electoral manipulation was used, leading to a significant decline of political rights and civil liberties in the last 10 years.
“Global freedom took a big step backward in 2023,” noted Michael J. Abramowitz, president of Freedom House. “The world faces another crucial test in 2024, as billions of people go to the polls and multiple armed conflicts ([ncluding those in the Sahel, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and the Middle East) continue to violate people’s basic rights.”
The report, Freedom in the World 2024: The Mounting Damage of Flawed Elections and Armed Conflict, points to Nicaragua as the country where “conditions for political rights and civil liberties” declined to remain ranked as a country where there is no freedom, followed by Venezuela.
Freedom House indicates that “dramatic declines in freedom” have been seen in all regions of the world.
The report points out that electoral manipulation was a fundamental point for the deterioration of rights and liberties.
Nicaragua, “not free”
In the period between 2013 and 2023 Nicaragua transited to the score of -38 points, the lowest worldwide ahead of nations such as Azerbaijan, Libya, and Tanzania.
Nicaragua has been experiencing a socio-political crisis since 2018, when protests against Daniel Ortega erupted and were repressed, leaving more than 300 dead and thousands in exile, according to human rights organizations.
Freedom House, a Washington-based nongovernmental organization, said a “common method of pre-election manipulation” is also common in the Central American nation, consisting of “changing electoral rules in ways that help incumbents compete or simply allow them to run despite constitutional term limits.”
In Nicaragua, Ortega appealed in 2009 to the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) to request that a constitutional article prohibiting reelection be declared inapplicable. The Sandinista leader had returned to power in 2007, after multiple failed attempts.
Nicaragua’s Constitutional Chamber issued a favorable resolution to the appeal. Since then, Ortega has remained in power for more than 15 consecutive years and has succeeded in reforming the Magna Carta to reelect himself indefinitely.
In February 2023, the United States mediated with the Ortega regime for the release of 222 political prisoners, who were received in Washington under a humanitarian parole. But the Managua regime continued its onslaught against Catholic priests and clergy of different orders in the country.
From 2018 to date at least 18 clergymen, including two bishops and three seminarians have been deprived of their freedom. The U.S. has conditioned the lifting of sanctions on Managua with a commitment to greater freedoms in the country.
It is expected that in 2024 more than 75 countries will hold some 80 electoral processes, something that has made it to be called an eminently electoral year and that may not happen again for at least two decades. These worldwide elections may reach more than 4.2 billion people.
Venezuela: “change of rules”
The Freedom House report indicates that freedom at a global level decreased for the 18th consecutive year. In that order, Venezuela is one of the countries where “The manipulation of elections was among the main causes of the global erosion of freedom”, indicates the report.
Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro was singled out among those who “changed the rules” to secure their respective victories in “planned competitions.”
In a negative range of 0 to -40, Venezuela walked to an eighth place with -23, preceded by such markedly unfree nations as Burkina Faso and Sudan, to cite two examples.
“Opposition forces organized an independent primary to find a unity candidate to stand against authoritarian ruler Nicolás Maduro, in power since 2013. Not only did the Supreme Court bar the winner, Maria Corina Machado, from participating in the election, but a court also ordered the suspension of the entire primary process, in which 2.4 million people had participated, and authorities threatened the organizers with criminal prosecution,” Freedom House indicates to exemplify the Venezuelan case.
The United States has threatened to reverse the easing of the economic sanctions regime against Caracas following the banning of opposition leader Machado and the subsequent arrest of several political activists.
In the last week of February, the Maduro regime and opposition parties in Venezuela resumed their public negotiations amid a climate of distrust between the parties and with little progress — according to experts — on the political agreements signed 4 months ago.
The report also points out “The denial of political rights and civil liberties in disputed territories” as a burden for democracies.
In December 2023 Maduro revived Venezuela’s claim to the Essequibo, an oil-rich region of Guyana, then “law enforcement officials ordered the arrest of several politicians who allegedly opposed his efforts,” Freedom House criticizes.
“A proliferation of authoritarian land grabs has the potential to crush the freedoms of even more people in the coming years,” the organization concludes in its analysis of Venezuela and other countries as is the case of China with the territory of Taiwan.