SAN JOSÉ, Jan 31, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Nicaragua's Congress on Thursday ratified
a constitutional reform elevating strongman Daniel Ortega's wife to the post
of "co-president" and giving the couple control of all state powers, the
legislature announced.

Ortega, who is under Western sanctions for human rights abuses, had himself
proposed the change, which also increases the Central American country's
presidential term from five to six years.

The reform gives the co-presidents the power to coordinate all legislative,
judicial, electoral and supervisory bodies, which were previously independent
under the constitution.

The reform was "approved in its entirety," the National Assembly, controlled
by Ortega's ruling FSLN party, announced on social media platform X.

Ortega, 79, has engaged in increasingly authoritarian practices, tightening
control of all sectors of the state with the aid of his powerful wife Rosario
Murillo in what critics describe as a nepotistic dictatorship.

The ex-guerrilla 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 2018 mass
protests in which the United Nations estimates 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.