US: Nicaragua’s elections ‘have lost all credibility’

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — The U.S. State Department says next month’s presidential elections in Nicaragua “have lost all credibility” because of President Daniel Ortega’s arrests of critics and seven potential challengers. Starting in May, Ortega began arresting almost any public figure who disagreed with him, including people who fought alongside him in the country’s 1979 revolution. On Thursday, families of 155 political prisoners said their loved ones have been subjected to “mistreatment and torture” in prison. The opposition said those moves have “ended any vestige of real electoral competition” in the Nov. 7 election, in which Ortega is seeking a fourth consecutive term.