– Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is up for re-election on Nov. 7 for a fourth consecutive term, with critics saying the former Marxist revolutionary has become the sort of authoritarian leader he once opposed as he suppresses growing dissent.
Following are the main events that shaped the rise to power of the longest-serving leader in the Americas and his consolidation of political control in the face of protests:
1961 – The Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN) begins campaign to seize power from the Somoza family, which had dominated Nicaragua since the 1930s. Ortega joins the Sandinistas two years later as a teenager.
1967 – Ortega is jailed for seven years after robbing a bank to fund the FSLN. Released in 1974 to Cuba, he trains in guerilla warfare before returning to Nicaragua.
1979 – The FSLN military campaign topples dictator Anastasio Somoza, replacing him with a junta that Ortega would come to dominate.
1984 – Ortega is elected president.
1990 – Ortega is defeated in his bid for a second term by Violeta Chamorro of the National Opposition Union.
2007 – Ortega returns to office after winning an election in November 2006. His government begins receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in oil funding from Venezuela.
2010 – The Supreme Court lifts a ban on consecutive presidential re-elections, allowing Ortega to run again.
November 2011 – Ortega wins a second straight term with more than 72% of the vote in an election which rivals said was fraudulent. International election observers say irregularities were not enough to alter the outcome, but the disputed process gave his Sandinista party a two-thirds majority in Congress – just enough votes to change the constitution.
January 2014 – Congress changes the constitution to remove term limits, allowing Ortega to run for office indefinitely.
November 2016 – Ortega wins a third term, again with over 72% of votes. Shortly before the election, the Sandinista-controlled Supreme Court replaces the leader of the main opposition party with someone with strong ties to Ortega.
April 2018 – Thousands of Nicaraguans begin demonstrations against a planned social security overhaul which morphs into a broader protest calling for Ortega to quit. Protests continue after Ortega abandons the reform and more than 300 people die and hundreds are arrested in the government’s heavy-handed crackdown, which is internationally condemned.
2019 – Nicaragua releases dozens of political prisoners under an amnesty law. Ortega rejects a proposal for early elections from the Organization of American States.
October 2020 – Nicaragua passes laws criminalizing what the administration considers “fake news”. The laws also bar people from seeking office if they are believed to have financed attempts to oust Ortega, or encouraged sanctions.
June 2021 – Police place opposition leader Cristiana Chamorro, a daughter of former President Violeta Chamorro, under house arrest. Arrests of other presidential hopefuls follow.
August 2021 – Prosecutors charge eight opposition leaders with conspiracy, including three who planned to challenge Ortega. Police raid the office of La Prensa, the only remaining independent newspaper, and arrest the manager.
October 2021 – Police detain two top representatives of Nicaragua’s biggest business association, accusing them of crimes “to the detriment of the Nicaraguan state.”
November 2021 – By the time of the election, 38 opposition leaders are either in jail or under house arrest.
(Reporting by Jake Kincaid; editing by Grant McCool)
