(QCOSTARICA) In Costa Rica, on a self-imposed exile since 2013, Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo, the daughter Rosario Murillo and step-daughter of president Daniel Ortega, called the Nicaragua 2016 election a “farce, mounted by Daniel Ortega to ensure his re-election”.
Zoilamerica made her statement to the press in downtown San Jose, joined by fellow Nicaraguans dressed in blue and white and carrying the Nicaraguan flag, shouting “free and transparent elections yes, dictatorship no”.
The group of Nicaraguan expats in Costa Rica, in a protest organized by the Movimiento Cívico Democrático Nicaragüense, gathered in the area of the La Garantias Sociales park (by the Caja), marched to the park La Merced park (also known as Nica park) on the west side of the downtown core.
Zoilamerica called the low voter turn out in Nicaragua a sign of civil disobedience against a “dictatorship” that harms the nation.
Speaking to the international media and followed up on social media posts, Zoilamerica accused her step-father as using the same tactic on the Nicaraguan people in the same way he sexually abused her since 1977, when she was only 10 years old.
“It’s just another chapter of abuse of power,” she said.
“The scene reminds me much of those long nights of fear on hearing the steps of approach of my abuser,” writes Zoilamerica on her Facebook page, “Zoilamerica hoy“.
“I have seen my country move from a history of sexual violence towards another dictatorship,” she said. “Those responsible are the same,” she warned.
Ortega was accused in 1998 of sexual abuse occurring in 1977 and 1978.
