Daniel Ortega
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Daniel Ortega is the president of Nicaragua, and the subject of one of John Kiriakou's sharpest distinctions between protests he regards as manufactured and protests he regards as earned.

Discussing the 2021 Cuba protests, which he had just called a test run, Kiriakou volunteered Nicaragua as the contrasting case. "I've been following these demonstrations in Nicaragua. They started off because of a shortfall in the social security system, and the government raised the price of bread. And if you're poor and the price of bread goes up, that's a pretty big deal. But this social security thing was a very big problem, and it began to weaken the government of Daniel Ortega."

The arrests

What moved his assessment was the treatment of the opposition before the vote. "So the election comes up, there's supposed to be an election this year, and so far eight opposition leaders, that is the leaders of eight opposition parties, have been arrested and imprisoned. So now there's nobody to run against Ortega."

His conclusion is stated as a judgement rather than a prediction: "now to me, that necessitates a real honest-to-god uprising."

See also

- The 2021 Cuba protests
- Haiti
- Sanctions Effectiveness
