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Update: San Jose, Nicaragua: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was granted control of all state powers on Thursday under a constitutional amendment ratified by the country's legislature that also elevated his wife, Rosario Murillo, to the position of "co-president." Ortega, who is under Western sanctions for human rights abuses, had proposed the reform himself. The change extends the Central American country's presidential term from five to six years.The 79-year-old ex-guerrilla and his wife Murillo now have the power to coordinate all legislative, judicial, electoral, and supervisory bodies that were previously independent under the constitution."These drastic changes mark the destruction of the rule of law and fundamental freedoms in Nicaragua," said American lawyer Reed Brody, a member of a group of United Nations experts who evaluate the country's human rights situation. "Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have enshrined and solidified their absolute power," he added.The reform was "approved in its entirety," said the National Assembly, controlled by Ortega's ruling FSLN party, in a social media announcement.Ortega has engaged in increasingly authoritarian practices, tightening control of all sectors of the state with the support of Murillo as vice president. Critics describe it as a nepotistic dictatorship.He first served as president from 1985 to 1990 and returned to power in 2007.Nicaragua has jailed hundreds of opponents, real and perceived, since then.Ortega's government has shut down more than 5,000 NGOs since the 2018 mass protests. The United Nations estimates that more than 300 people died. Thousands of Nicaraguans have fled into exile, and the regime is under US and EU sanctions. Most independent and opposition media now operate from abroad.The revised constitution defines Nicaragua as a "revolutionary" and socialist state and includes the red-and-black flag of the FSLN among its national symbols.International concernMurillo hailed the reform as marking "a new chapter in our history... of freedom, national dignity, and national pride."Nicaragua is a "model of direct democracy," she said. The regional office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) voiced its "deep concern" about the reform, which it said "deepens setbacks in civil and political liberties."


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Edward Lance Arellano Lorilla

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Enjoy the little things in life. For one day, you may look back and realize they were the big things. Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

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