- Roma stroll past Udinese as fans protest De Rossi sacking
- Horschel outduels McIlroy to win PGA Championship play-off
- Audiences summon 'Beetlejuice' to top of N. America box office for third week
- Stones salvages point for Man City against 10-man Arsenal
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- Last-gasp Boniface gives Leverkusen victory, Stuttgart outclass Dortmund
- Scholz's party beats far-right AfD in east German state vote: projections
- Olympic champion Evenepoel retains world title in 'toughest time trial'
- Horschel's eagle beats McIlroy in PGA Championship play-off
- Mourners at commander's funeral express loyalty to Hezbollah
- Norris hails his 'mega' McLaren after dominant win at Singapore
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- Scholz's party narrowly leads far-right AfD in east German state vote: exit polls
- New leftist president vows to 'rewrite Sri Lankan history'
- UN adopts pact to tackle volatile future for mankind
- Leclerc hails Ferrari fightback from torrid Singapore GP qualifying
- Belgian Evenepoel retains world title in 'toughest time trial'
- Sosa rescues point for Forest against Brighton
- Last-gasp Boniface gives Leverkusen victory over Wolfsburg in seven-goal thriller
- Swiss voters reject environment, pensions reforms: official results
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- New French government instantly under pressure on multiple fronts
- Australia's Brown adds world title to Olympic time trial gold
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- UK's Starmer rules out austerity as Labour conference opens
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- Israel says 'landed blows' on Hezbollah as Lebanon violence intensifies
- Roma CEO steps down amid anger over club icon De Rossi's sacking
- Incoming French government under pressure on multiple fronts
- Hezbollah rockets strike near Israel's Haifa as UN warns of 'catastrophe'
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- All-rounder Ashwin powers India to 280-run Test win over Bangladesh
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- Lebanon strikes send Israelis to shelters as UN warns of 'catastrophe'
- Far-right AfD eyes new win in east German state vote
- Tony Popovic set to become new Socceroos coach - reports
- All-round Ashwin powers India to big Test win over Bangladesh
- NZ chase 275 to win first Sri Lanka Test after Patel bags six
Nicaraguan envoy berates own president as 'dictator'
The Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) on Wednesday publicly lashed out at his country's president, describing Daniel Ortega's rule as a "dictatorship."
Ortega, the 76-year-old former leftist guerrilla, won a fourth successive election last year after all his challengers were jailed, in a vote widely dismissed as a farce.
In a surprise speech to the Washington-based OAS, Arturo McFields said that "denouncing the dictatorship of my country is not easy, but continuing to remain silent and defending the indefensible is impossible.
"I have to speak, even if my future and that of my family are uncertain," he said.
"There are no independent political parties, there are no credible elections, there is no separation of powers."
Ortega's government has started the process of pulling Nicaragua out of the OAS regional body, after it rejected his reelection.
A firebrand Marxist in his youth, Ortega first governed from 1979 to 1990 when the United States backed armed opposition to his Sandinista movement, before returning to power in 2007.
He rebranded himself as a business-friendly pragmatist, but turned increasingly authoritarian, quashing presidential term limits and seizing control of all branches of the state.
Ahead of elections last year, dozens of opposition figures -- including all seven presidential hopefuls -- were detained on accusations of undermining "national integrity."
More than 100 others have been in jail since anti-government protests in 2018 met with a crackdown that resulted in 355 deaths and more than 100,000 people fleeing into exile, according to rights groups.
"There is no freedom to publish a simple tweet, a comment on social networks," said McFields, adding many NGOs were closed or expelled.
Main opposition figure and would-be presidential challenger Cristiana Chamorro was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison after being found guilty of financial crimes.
McFields said that he had tried to get at least 20 elderly political prisoners released, but "in the government, nobody listens and nobody speaks."
"I want to tell you that people inside and outside are tired, tired of the dictatorship and its actions, and more and more people are going to say 'enough,'" he said in the video speech.
OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro applauded McFields' "courage," saying in a tweet that "this is the ethically correct position."
The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Ortega, his wife who serves as his vice-president, and his associates.
K.Brown--BTB