Cassidy, Risch, Menendez Lead Colleagues in Calling Out Fraudulent Elections in Nicaragua

Statement

U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Jim Risch (R-ID), and Bob Menendez (D-NJ), today led a bipartisan group of senators in denouncing the sham elections in Nicaragua on November 7th. Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Tim Kaine (D-VA) joined Cassidy, Risch, and Menendez in releasing the following statement:

"We strongly condemn the Ortega-Murillo regime's fraudulent attempt to maintain power in Nicaragua through the sham elections on November 7, after arresting and imprisoning members of civil society and the political opposition. These elections were neither free, nor fair, and as such the results do not represent the will of the Nicaraguan people."

"Democratic nations in our hemisphere and around the world must recognize the regime as the crude dictatorship it has become. The United States must use every diplomatic and economic tool at its disposal in support of the Nicaraguan people's quest for freedom and to hold the Ortega-Murillo regime, and its enablers in Nicaragua, accountable. Member states of the Organization of American States must live up to their commitments to defend democratic governance in the region under the Inter-American Democratic Charter."

Source