Ortega regime takes over headquarters of opposition newspaper, plans to turn it into ‘cultural center’

The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega on Tuesday took over the headquarters of a long-standing newspaper that was critical of the regime to turn it into a “cultural center,” reported Reuters. 

Last year, the offices of the newspaper “La Prensa” were occupied by Nicaraguan police forces as part of an alleged customs fraud investigation, and several of its executives were detained. Since then, the news outlet has continued publishing content through a team of exiled reporters, although only online. 

"For several days, (the regime) has been carrying out construction and moving some of (La Prensa's) machinery and equipment," the paper said on its website.

"With these actions, the Ortega-Murillo regime completes the de facto confiscation of the assets of the industrial plant of Editorial La Prensa," it continued. 

Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo announced that the headquarters of the newspaper will be turned into a “cultural and polytechnic center named after one of the country's most important poets, Jose Coronel Urtecho,” Reuters added. According to Murillo, the center will host hundreds of courses and workshops.

In March of this year, the director of La Prensa, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, was found guilty of money laundering by the regime of Daniel Ortega, a move critics believe is politically motivated. 

Chamorro claims he is innocent and was targeted solely for being related to Cristiana Chamorro and Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, political opponents of the regime who were sentenced to prison earlier this year. 

The move comes as the regime continues to crack down on groups it claims receive funding from abroad and conspire to remove Ortega from office. So far, the Ortega government has closed more than 1,000 NGOs and civic groups, including Mother Theresa’s Charity. 

The Ortega regime has also closed down the offices of digital newspapers “Confidencial” and the television channel “100% Noticias.”

In Nicaragua, no newspaper is currently in print, and the few media outlets that still operate online do so clandestinely, according to the organization of Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua (PCIN).