Title: Oppression of the Nicaraguan People/President Daniel Ortega

Summary: Condemning the oppression of the Nicaraguan people under President Daniel Ortega, etc.

Full Text:
WHEREAS, running on a platform of peace and reconciliation, Daniel Ortega was again elected President of Nicaragua in 2006 and soon after his inauguration paid an official visit to Iran to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and WHEREAS, during that visit Daniel Ortega hailed the  twin revolutions  of Iran and Nicaragua in the  struggle against imperialism,  and praised the current Cuban administration as  brothers in our fight against imperialist scum,  while celebrating dictators with a record of human rights abuses, such as President Recep Erdo an of Turkey, and WHEREAS, in July 2009, Daniel Ortega suggested that he would like to see the Nicaraguan Constitution amended so that he could run again for president and a judicial decision issued by the Supreme Court of Justice of Nicaragua the following October effectively opened the door to his candidacy, and WHEREAS, Daniel Ortega was reelected president on November 6, 2011, with the Supreme Electoral Council reporting that he had received percent of the vote, and his reelection was confirmed on November 16, 2011, and WHEREAS, Daniel Ortega signed a deal giving rights to a large amount of Nicaragua s land to a Chinese company for years with an additional 50-year option, which would destroy indigenous communities and Nicaragua s environmental diversity and invite a foreign power to run the largest potential business in Nicaragua without involving local workers, and WHEREAS, Daniel Ortega cut pensions for retirees and those currently in the workforce and, as part of a broad culture of suppression of the Nicaraguan people in 2013, cracked down on students  free speech, and WHEREAS, in January 2014, the National Assembly approved constitutional amendments that abolished term limits for the presidency, allowing a president to run for an unlimited number of 5-year terms, and other constitutional reform that gave the president sole power to appoint military and police commanders, and WHEREAS, Daniel Ortega closely aligned himself with the late Venezuelan President Hugo Ch vez and many view them as being cut from the same destructive and authoritarian ideological cloth, and WHEREAS, in 2018, using governmental and paramilitary forces, Daniel Ortega launched a violent crackdown on unarmed protesters, many of them students and younger Nicaraguans, inflicting abuses that included beating captured protestors during arrests and in detention, at times denying them urgent medical attention; raping detainees, including the use of metal tubes and firearms; waterboarding; electric shock; acid burns; mock executions; forced nudity; removal of fingernails; and, in some cases, forcing detainees to record self-incriminating confessions, and WHEREAS, the Nicaraguan government has targeted reporters and raided the offices of independent media outlets, filed criminal charges against journalists, canceled the legal registration of nine civil society organizations, and expelled foreign journalists and international human rights monitors from the country, and WHEREAS, like Hugo Ch vez in Venezuela, Daniel Ortega has manipulated election laws; eliminated checks and balances in Nicaragua s government by controlling the national police; co opted the National Assembly and the Supreme Court of Nicaragua; curtailed freedom of expression; and quashed opposition leaders and other critics, NOW, THEREFORE, Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida: That the Florida Senate condemns the oppression of the Nicaraguan people under President Daniel Ortega.