Ortega Strips Yatama Indigenous Party of Legal Status

 The Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) canceled the legal status of the indigenous Yatama Party (Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Asla Takanka), according to a letter sent to Carla Evis White Hodgson, legal representative of the Multiethnic Indigenous Party (PIM) , which is another Caribbean group.

The cancellation comes days after the kidnapping of Brooklyn Rivera, deputy to the National Assembly and founder of Yatama, and Nancy Elizabeth Henríquez James, Rivera’s substitute deputy and president of the indigenous party.

In the letter from the Electoral Power, the reasons for the cancellation are not specified, it only indicates that Yatama’s legal personality is cancelled.”

The letter was signed by Julio Acuña Martínez, director of the Office of Attention to Political Parties of the CSE.

In statements to La Prensa, lawyer Anexa Alfred points out that it was “a mistake” to have notified Carla Evis White Hodgson of the cancellation, since she “does not belong to Yatama.”

Yatama’s legal representative is Nancy Elizabeth Henriquez James, who Alfred believes to be “missing” because the Police have not filed her as a detainee or charged her in the Courts.

Steps towards “single party model”

Félix Maradiaga, a released politician and former presidential candidate, was one of the first to react to the news on social networks. On his X account he called the stripping of Yatama’s legal status “an illegal act and one more step to establishing a single party,” system.

“This model,” he continues, “is a cancer for democracy and freedom, since it concentrates power in the hands of a few, silences dissident voices and limits the diversity of ideas and perspectives necessary for a free society.”

Maradiaga emphasized that “what happened to YATAMA is simply proof that, in the dark game of complicity with criminals, those who serve well are rewarded with a bitter fate.”

This article was originally published in Spanish in CONFIDENCIAL and translated by Havana Times.