Lula government criticizes Ortega's statement on the end of elections in Nicaragua

"[The Brazilian government] recalls that holding free, periodic, plural and transparent elections is one of the pillars of democracy, a value to which Brazil is deeply committed", says a note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Calls on the country's authorities, therefore, to guarantee the Nicaraguan people the free exercise of their sovereign right to choose their rulers."

Daniel Ortega has governed Nicaragua for almost 20 years. The speech to which the Brazilian government refers was made during the ceremony celebrating the Sandinista Revolution last Sunday (19), in which the dictator participated after a period without public appearances.

"Forget it! There will be no more elections here so they can try to take over the government, take power", he said, in reference to what he calls "political parties created by the Yankees", declared Ortega at the time.

Three days after this speech, the National Assembly of Nicaragua, dominated by supporters of the dictator, stated that "it is beginning the necessary analyzes to develop a work plan that is in accordance with presidential guidelines."

The deputies' initiative was expected - the separation of Powers in the country, governed by Ortega for almost 20 years, is considered a facade. As an example, there is the 2014 episode in which the Assembly approved a constitutional reform that authorized re-election for an indefinite period in the country - something that, in practice, had already been approved by the Supreme Court, also equipped by Ortega.

More recently, in 2025, another reform of the Constitution gave his wife and vice-president, Rosario Murillo, the position of co-president. The movement was seen as a strategy to keep Ortega's family in power given the 80-year-old leader's fragile health.

In 2021, Lula, then out of Brazil's Presidency, advised Ortega to "not give up" on democracy, in an interview with Mexican TV last week. It was the first time that Lula took a stance in relation to the dictatorship in Nicaragua. At the time, it was already known that the Ortega government had arrested seven presidential candidates and 24 other members of the opposition and the press since May of this year.

Before that, however, Lula had a closer relationship with the Nicaraguan during the dictator's first two terms. The relationship between the two has changed over the past few years. The PT member tried to talk to Ortega after his meeting in the Vatican with Pope Francis to ask for the release of Catholic leaders that the dictator had arrested, but Ortega refused to speak.

Seeing no channel for dialogue, the Brazilian froze the activities of the Brazilian embassy in Managua as a form of reprisal. Later, after Brazil did not send representatives to an event celebrating Sandinismo, Ortega expelled the Brazilian ambassador, a measure responded in the same way by Brasília.

Since then, Ortega has made statements opposing the Brazilian president, even calling Lula a "suck-up".

"Servant, traitorous, kiss-ass governments, which presented themselves as very progressive, as very revolutionary, now say that it is necessary to repeat elections," he said, in reference to Brazil and Lula. At the time, he said that the Brazilian's stance on the election process in Venezuela was shameful - the Lula government did not recognize Nicolás Maduro's victory.

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