Daniel Ortega’s regime withdrew the signal from the air, without giving explanations. This year it has already closed several radio stations and newspapers.
The Nicaraguan government surprisingly blocked the broadcasts of the international news signal CNN in Spanish, without giving any explanation, the chain itself reported on its website on Thursday.
“The Nicaraguan government removed our television signal, denying Nicaraguans news and information from our network, which they have trusted for more than 25 years,” CNN en Español said in a statement.
The blocking of broadcasts occurred on Wednesday at 10:07 p.m. local time, and “the Nicaraguan government has not commented on why” it made that decision, added the chain, which It has been operating in the country for 25 years.
“CNN has tried to obtain some communication from both the government and the cable operators that carry the CNN signal in Spanish, without obtaining a response,” he added.
The news station recalled that the United Nations has expressed its concern over the attacks by the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega against “the Church, the independent press and human rights defenders in Nicaragua.”
“At CNN en Español we believe in the vital role that freedom of the press plays in a healthy democracy,” the network assured, adding that it will continue to fulfill its “responsibility to the Nicaraguan public” by offering its news through its internet “so they can have access to information that isn’t available any other way.
Finally, the information network expressed its endorsement of your journalists’ reports and reaffirmed its “commitment to truth and transparency.”
The opposition gagged
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has been accentuated after the controversial general elections on November 7, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with her main opponents in prison.
In this last stage of government, Ortega has closed at least 51 media outlets, including 23 last August, most of them owned by the Catholic Church, as well as 15 news outlets, and confiscated different media outlets, including La Prensa, the daily oldest and most influential in the country.
In addition, in the last year, the Nicaraguan Executive arrested more than 40 opponents and criticsand imposed sentences of up to 13 years in prison.
Among them are journalists and politicians Pedro Joaquín and Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, children of former Nicaraguan president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997) and murdered anti-Somoza journalist Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal.
Both were sentenced last March to 9 and 8 years in prison, respectively, for crimes considered “treason.”
This week, a group of 13 Nicaraguan opposition organizations accused President Ortega of establishing “a de facto state of exception and terror,” as well as a “single party” in Nicaragua.
“Ortega and Murillo’s strategy is to establish a de facto state of exception and terror against Nicaraguan citizens,” the organizations, including the Blue and White National Unity, and the Movement in Defense of Our Land, denounced in a statement. Lake and Volcanoes (Peasant Movement).
Ortega, close to turning 77, has been in power for 15 years and 7 consecutive months, amid allegations of authoritarianism and electoral fraud.
Source: EFE and AFP
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