The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, has denounced this Wednesday that the recent constitutional modification partially approved in Nicaragua, aimed at limiting participation at the polls and sidelining candidates labeled as "traitors to the homeland," transforms the Magna Carta "into another instrument to exclude dissenting voices."
Ramdin has explained on social media that "The proposed constitutional reform approved in the first instance in Nicaragua further restricts political participation, extends mandates, and closes democratic spaces. It is particularly alarming that those who are arbitrarily classified as 'traitors to the homeland' are prevented from holding public office. This reform turns the Constitution into another instrument to exclude dissenting voices."
The OAS official has lamented that the authorities of the Central American country "seem determined to demonstrate" that the perception of living "a political disaster in Nicaragua" is "correct, with terrible consequences for the Nicaraguan people."
In the same vein, he has emphasized that "These measures contravene the principles of representative democracy, political pluralism, and respect for human rights enshrined in the OAS Charter and the Inter-American Democratic Charter."
Ramdin has also stressed that the inhabitants of Nicaragua "deserve institutions that protect their rights, not restrict them, as well as the opportunity to freely choose their leaders among different proposals and to decide the future of their country."
The Nicaraguan National Assembly gave the green light this Tuesday, "unanimously" and in the first of the two required legislatures, to a partial reform of the Constitution that prevents those considered "traitors to the homeland" or "coup plotters" from participating in electoral processes.
The initiative also includes the extension of the presidential term from six to seven years, within a reform that will be applied once it receives final approval in a second legislature in 2027.