used to work in the, in this organization, my father and i want to tell him, you know, i hope his looking, you know, thank a see you, we've done with her what you always hoped. so personally for me sir. yeah, it's a big her, it's a big thing and very proud you can view how the entire vile, the old city has changed with these new renovations. and locals now have a sense of pride in the cities rich history and a renewed sense of hope that it could return to its former glory. now, emma used to live in the old city. she found out about the renovations on social media. if i brought my grandchildren to see the history, this change is amazing. i hope they ran away the entire city. 40 years ago when i lived here, the roads and homes were falling apart. this is a great beginning. libya has seen wrote of com since a nation wide ceasefire was signed last october. people here hope the hard one piece won't be short lived, so don't work can continue to maintain losers. historical psych,

latrina al jazeera, true blue. ah . this is al jazeera, these are the headlines. the world health organization says more than half of europeans are likely to be infected with corona virus. in the next 2 months, it recorded 7000000 new cases of on the chrome in europe. during the 1st week of january, china has ordered the logs own of a 3rd city to stem the spread of calls 19 doctors in and young, and her nan province detected 80 cases of micron over the weekends. 20000000 chinese are confined to their homes. and u. s. senate committee is hearing the federal governments take on how it's handling the pandemic. americans is suffering a massive surge and coven 19 cases with the highest number of hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic. britain,

this prime minister is facing renewed calls for his resignation at a new revelations about a garden party held during locked stone. for us, johnson has repeatedly denied breaking lockdown rules, but so the to e mail is reported to assure his private secretary invited around $100.00 government staff to the party and the un as launching as largest ever humanitarian appeal for a single country. it needs more than $5000000000.00 in aid for afghanistan. over half the population faces acute hunger and catholic stance. president says, russian troops will begin pulling out of the country within 48 hours for the folks withdrawal expected in 10 days. this, the 160 people have been killed and 10000 detained during days of anti government protests in the former soviet states. and that show up to date this, they witness inside story is up next. ah,

nicholas was president starts a 4th consecutive term after an election. the west hauled a sham critic se daniel ortega is a dictator, but his supporters reject this. so what's next for one of the poorest nations in central america? this is inside story. ah . hello and welcome to the program. i'm hammer jim's room to some. daniel ortega is a dictator who is ruthlessly crushed all descent in nicaragua. he won a 4th stray term as president last november after jailing opposition,

candidates and banning international observers and journalists from the country. but his supporters say he standing up to bullying from the west, the u. s. and e, you imposed new sanctions just before ortega was sworn. and again on monday, most countries stayed away from the ceremony. but artega found support from russia, iran, venezuela, and china. nicaragua. recently switched diplomatic ties from taiwan to beijing. our latin america editor lucio newman reports. ah, this was daniel ortega's 4th consecutive swearing in ceremony flanked by his wife, reciting moody you his vice president. he vowed to improve conditions in nicaragua, the 2nd poor's country in the americas, after haiti rest go home for me. so we are here again with a clean slate to build peace, to assure that nicaraguans have a dignified life to eradicate poverty in this country with sovereignty and freedom . the presidents of cuba and venezuela were there, and also delegations from iran,

bolivia, russia, and china. but ortega was snubbed by almost every one else. november's presidential elections have been dismissed as illegitimate by much of the international community. the majority of ortega's competitors were imprisoned, so they could not run and thousands of others have gone into exile. and legitimacy is not an issue for ortega and he managed to essentially consummate. ah, he saw, she saw his plan to establish star. i'm a fool and classic latin american dictatorship in nicaragua, ours before the ceremony, the european union and the united states, and else new sanctions against high ranking, military and communications officials, as well as members of your take family, but exiled opponent, monica baltazar know, a former sandinista commander who once fought alongside, ortega, my shins,

their effectiveness. i will not go again as you know, if they demonstrate that the international community relies is what's happening in nicaragua. and that's why it imposed the sanctions. they have a moral effect, a kind of consolation. but in practical terms, they'll have little impact, one or take a celebrated his latest inauguration, some 170 political prisoners languished in what human rights advocates describe as cruel and to main conditions that are wrong with me. one of them is lawyer rocket reyes. not very elizabeth, young, and lack of things when from your school, my husband is losing his memory and he's in a deep depression after spending more than a 100 days in a punishment, isolation cell that he can't remember the names or faces of our daughters look if when ortega made no mention of his pre election promised to initiate a dialogue with his political opponents. that may explain why most nicaraguans, whom al jazeera consulted about, you know,

duration preferred to say nothing at all. do seeing human al jazeera daniel ortega is now in the 15th year of his 2nd stand in office. it's immense. his 4th term in a row. despite him leading an unpopular government, he came to power as a sandinista gorilla commander who helped overthrow a dictatorship and became president in 1985. in 1990 he lost to violetta chamorro, but return to power in 2007 and has been president ever since he consolidated his control using force to silence descent, while elevating his wife and loyalists to high positions. poverty, natural disasters, and the pandemic lead to a mass exodus of people from nicaragua to the border with united states over the past few years. ortega has been blamed for not doing enough to strengthen the economy. ah, all right, let's bring in our guests in the nicaraguan capital, managua danny shaw,

professor of latin american and caribbean studies at city university of new york. in chicago. hiero lugo, a condo director of executive education and graduate studies at northwestern university in other and in washington, dc, michael shifter, president of inter american dialogue, a warm welcome to you all. and thanks so much for joining the program today. michael, let me start with you. so hours before nicaragua present, daniel ortega was inaugurated the u. s. and e u, imposed sanctions on members of his government who was targeted and how were they targeted? well that the, this has been a continuation of a policy of targeting officials of the government for, for human rights violations. as your set up report indicated that there are political prisoners and in nicaragua, substantial number for all the opposition candidates for november. elections are in

jail and this is a highly repressive autocratic regime and so those. ready who have been responsible for those human rights violation senior officials and the government i have been sanction. so that is the policy to try to apply pressure by the united states and by the european european union against these officials. obviously there is a very, very serious human rights crisis in their garage where the likes of which latin america hasn't seen for many, many years. and so that has been the response. whether that changes the situation at all on the ground remains to be seen. but certainly there is, you know, there are those. ready who are responsible for this, for this terrible situation, and they've been sanction hiero, as michael was just mentioning,

the international community has issued sanctions against or take us government in the past. were those sanctions in the past in any way effective? and do you think that these sanctions that were issued and just before the inauguration will be effected? well, i agree with a b, b, somebody who's b a c. and nobody puts in prison every single pony, and it can run against him in an an election because it can be call them. and that's precisely what he does. so now we'll say that they have different base base to lot of other out across the regions like a more economically because it was the economy. it has not gone back and to like, you know, make

a standard that's actually good. and b, this has been a reduction in poverty. we can, the b is that it's 50 percent in the past in years now, but there happens to be a hole in developing an interesting into now networks, for example, he now close relationships with taiwan and china established embassy there that recently in was that came with lots of, of a and r and commercial trade with china now buying locally. and because troubles i've got, but still given them a release from us and you've been expansions and the other base of power that have to come to get this is that see some of the solution because i have never

relinquish the power in the are remember that even with one of the lectures in $1090.00, a brother, k j, b are courses and that power all the time we start all over the on forces has continued to go in same way that a lot with a strong hole, which is why i don't think the sanctions are going to be got to pick. danny, are you her dumb hiero? they're talking about the alliances between present ortega and venezuela president and the cuban president. the venezuela president, the human president. they were both there at the inauguration show their support, china, russia, iran. they also sent delegations. there is a lot of talk right now about international isolation, but ortega still has support as well. correct greetings for mom and i will. we

don't live in that same unipolar world of 1990 in 1991 with the collapse of the soviet union. nicaragua, as in depend on the u. s. i think you are sanctions at this point in the intensification of, of sanctions are not going to be as crew is they've been in the past against cuba against venezuela because we now have this cleary polar world. we have china as a camp, russia, as a diplomatic economic camp, the boulevard ian countries. we have thing shifting to the left across south america. and she lay in honduras in purdue. so i don't think that these blockades, one 4th of the world's people wake up every morning under us blockades. these blockades are not as effective as they were. for example, in 1091 in cuba with cuba was left with absolutely no other trading partners. michael, your secretary of st. anthony blinkin, has said that the u. s. and its partners will deploy diplomatic and economic tools to support the restoration of democracy and respect for human rights in nicaragua.

so i want to ask you, i mean, what else? as far as by the us can be done at this point and what kind of pressure can be applied by the u. s. and by other countries to try to make a difference. well 1st let me say that i, i think that is very, very difficult, frankly. so this is a regime as your set of p showed that's quite intrenched. i agree with the analysis that you know, rely on forces as a pillar of take a support. i think i don't think he's popular, the polls the relying, the polls that i've seen shows that he has about 2025 percent of the nicaraguans who support him and, and then as well. and my daughter has about 1213 percent. mm hm. and the ties with people's republic of china and broken with taiwan. he does rely on russia. but the fact of the matter is that, you know, the situation is deteriorating. you know,

170000 nicaraguans left in the last year about 80000 of those to the united states that unprecedented the going to costa rica. so people the fleeting, the regime, this is a wide spread sense of fear and terror. and in that context, the tools available or not, you know, are not, are not great and sanctions. i don't disagree with what's been said that it's unclear how effective the going to be to understand why the they're being the being invoked and applied. but you know, i'm certainly not confident that's good, that's going to make a change in or take his behavior. but i think there has to be more, you know, i think international pressure is important. it's good. but we know from experience that international pressure is only successful to the extent that there's an internal national opposition force in nicaragua. and today that opposition

forces largely in jail. the leaders are in jail out with no due process with no serious charges with just a system that's completely controlled by the repressive regime. and so 1st of all, the need to be a regrouping of some sort of opposition force internally and the role that international external actors can play, i think is, is limited, but it can be helpful to that end. and so i think there needs to be implemented as more can be done with the organization of american states that have been taught solutions. but i think this could be more in a pressure internally. and i'll just take one other thing that i think is important that you mentioned honduras, honduras will have a new government. and that government i think, is going to be less supportive of ortega than the previous government, want

a lender on a lender and this and that may affect my nickel ability to get funds and financing from the central american bank. if it, with a change in government hunters, so there are pressures, i think, from financial institutions in diplomatically that can make a difference. but i agree. it's extremely, extremely difficult. hiero, i saw you nodding along somewhat. michael was saying that when he was talking about that from his perspective, there needs to be some sort of regrouping when it comes to the opposition in nicaragua, i want to ask you if you think that's something that's possible, whether in the short term or the long term this for those who still the same thing as for g or b, q and b or we've been review. it was an open and trying to put in election in any of these countries the government to anybody any. but now having

said our own data is a different creature to do. and can i live in cuba in the sense that he does have a segment support he, you know, mike and i was mentioning he's, he's a support, is it being higher than other out to fax in the region? but having said that, there's no, there's no doubt 0. it's not true that if there was an open balance election or thing i would lose, which is why he put in prison. if for seen one of the person who could actually compete against him in the, in the, in the pocket. and these gun shows is essential for say, how to work and people always try to cancel less. let's not dismiss them. let's remember the fashions were able, what were the tools that i'm able to get rid of that our gate system is not

always principal to. ready the previous military intervention, nobody wants to, nobody wants to buy in this case, but there is the need for the international community to act quickly to counter the a w. b, do nice is continue to be is finally, despite the fact that united states continues to be the main provider of we got our, i was not self sufficient. the latest report from united states to your department and highlights the fact that there is a record. please include pushy from the united states for a particular grade to to me got our in house in the previous year. so the united states actually will have an effect on the cut over there's no doubt about. and the question here is more european union, the chinese, they really are too far away. i wrote this hiero, i'm, i'm,

i'm sorry to interrupt. let me get back to you about that point that you're making about the other sanctions. well, in just a moment cuz we are starting to run out of time. danny, let me ask you, you know, hi ro was just saying that if elections had been held properly, that prison or take a would have lost. i want to ask you what your viewpoint is on that. how popular is ortega in nicaragua right now, and are there credible achievements that are being ignored by the international community? i feel like hiero in michael directly, deacon sexualized reset nicaragua, history, and over a century of nicaraguan history. the u. s. is done everything to intervene in nicaragua was the 1980s contra war. one of the great crimes of the 20th century, 2018 was the u. s. proxy war. who's an international as the civil war? were bandits were terrorists with us backing? some are related to n g o that header,

at least on the surface. an innocent appearance they attacked and burn sandinista university's sandinista homes. so nick, i was been under great duress. it's nick at i was right to protect itself through its armed forces through the police. against these would be cool mongers, they resisted a coin. 2018 indicate i will continue to develop women's projects present projects in i've been traveling, snickered i was, says 2005. and i see something completely different than what hydro and michael have described. i roy, i saw you are reacting to what was a say is basically saying that every single kind of a position is a cia agent or something. and this is the additional say that people say about this with everybody is a member of the c, as in everything is a conspiracy. i'm absolutely aware of the stuff you know says walker invaded because you said you want to talk about invasions about using division. nobody

wants us intervention, but the truth is, no, this candidates are members of the cia all warning against that. there was a way even left wing and the all him. how can you explain that? i you say that one of them are cia agents in there. all of them are part of an individual like dora. maria tay is, was a terrorist, she bomb buildings and she had shrugs of armed bandits. the u. s. would put those individuals in jail or maybe they wouldn't because we have the case of january 6, but no people is allowed to lead a violent who against a democratically elected. ready government, as we saw in 2018, but they resisted that proxy war. michael, let me ask you at his inauguration, president ortega announced the nicaragua and china. i just signed a series of strategic agreements that would include officially incorporating nicaragua into beijing's global belt and wrote initiative as well as other trade

programs. how much do you think that's going to help nicaragua, and how much does that concern the united states? well, the united states, obviously there are global tensions with china and i think china's an increasing influence, an expansion in all of latin america is something that's certainly high on the agenda. political policy, gender in the united states. and united states has to be, you know, competitive with china and has to make a better offer than, than china. i just think that the prospects for economic development are not great, no matter who is involved in nicaragua, given that incredible deterioration in the country. if people are leaving in droves and it's. ready it's turned into a complete police state. this is not lethal, not break conditions for investment in economic prosperity. these are conditions

for a country that's going to continue to decline economically socially. what people that want to leave economic opportunities and the like. i think the significance of the china shift is more geopolitical and, you know, there could be major projects that, that china provides in nicaragua, like it's been in other countries. but this is no substitute for economic development. and if you're interested in social economic development and the improvement of people's living standards, this is not a formula to do it. this is a police state, it's support, it's turned into to a prior. you may defend it, but it's, you know, on principle and the dignity of the nicaraguans, but the fact is they're the humanitarian conditions. there are very dire and are only likely to get worse, no matter what happened. so i think one has to focus on that on the garage when people and they wouldn't be leaving in droves. why they are today if the warrant

for the economic problems and the political repression. and people just being very, very frightened. danny looked to me like you were reacting some when michael was saying that when he was talking about the worsening humanitarian and economic crises going on in nicaragua, go ahead. whenever we talk about the subject of migration, you have to put it in its proper context. which essentially is of colonialism in new colonialism in the reality that the money in the north, it is worth more than the money here across central america in latin america. but i see that i would very different than the diatribes or the cost of the location that we hear from the new york times. the wall street journal, the cnn. in fox, i see a nick that i, when people continue to build an alternative system, an anti capitalist system. i see a nick that i will fortified every day by these new relationships with vietnam. china, russia no longer in the us control the world and realize it's unipolar. ready hedge

a monic dreams because of this constant growing unity among the blockaded states. so we see iran trading with been as well as well, finding russia, russia, finding nichol. i went on in on a hiero. let me ask you, we've talked in this program about the countries that have taken a stance against present ortega, we've talked about the countries that are supporting them right now. are there other countries that are trying to make diplomatic inroads with ortega and trying to sway him in that way through diplomacy? yeah, be player here in the 1st one can actually have any and although has been an ally, you know, open now i'm anyways a, if he was going to go for the migration, i'm all in a position to do a very important role to play,

to a back to the table of middle stage, i just want to make 2 additional points for what i've been, because here, 1st of all, the, the, the role of china. now, panama, simply, china, could be a because the biggest i'm project is a 2nd. come out in the canal, only cut out would you will unify the pacific in atlantic county. got our and the people who are less interested. you are the attorney because the already control the higher my. hi ron, i'm very sorry. we have run out of time. so we're gonna have to leave the conversation there, but thanks so much, all of our guests, danny shaw, hydro logo, a condo, and michael shifter, and thank you to for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al jazeera dot com, and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. you can also join the conversation on twitter or

handle this at ha, inside story from him, how much i'm sure the whole team here, bye for now. ah and with ah,

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