The anti-Sandinista forces were hopelessly divided, Ortega having engineered a corrupt deal with old-line Liberal boss Alemán in which the latter agreed to legislation lowering the threshold under which the front runner could be declared the victor without a run-off. [...] The business community, which had been a staunch opponent of the Sandinistas in the 1980s, cut an implicit deal with Ortega. [...] Without even the trappings of democratic legitimacy, crude repression, either in the streets or in the courts, has been Ortega’s principal recourse. [...] And the current wave of arrests, coming as Nicaragua has been hit hard by the coronavirus and attendant global economic turmoil, shows he is taking no chances ahead of the presidential elections in November. [...] But outrageous as the 2018 killings and current round of arrests are, we should remember that Ortega crossed the Rubicon when he stole the first election in 2008.
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- Canada
