Former foreign minister arrested in Nicaragua’s brazen crackdown

Ortega is sweeping up not just political rivals but a newspaper columnist and election geek' as well

It has been a fortnight since Georgiana Aguirre-Sacasa last heard from her elderly father: a terse WhatsApp message in which Nicaragua's former foreign minister said border guards had stopped him leaving the country and seized his passport, and that he was on his way home.

What????", she replied from her home in Denver, Colorado. Why????" No answer came.

By then Aguirre-Sacasa believes Nicaraguan police officials on motorcycles had intercepted her father's vehicle on the highway as he headed back to the capital, Managua. After searching it, they placed the 76-year-old retired diplomat in a pick-up truck and spirited him away to an unknown destination.

We are in this nightmare," his daughter said this week as she desperately sought news of her father. Right now, I just need proof of life."

Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa is the oldest target of a brazen political crackdown being waged by the government of Daniel Ortega ahead of the Central American country's next presidential election on 7 November. Police have arrested at least 32 people since late May, including important opposition figures who were challenging the revolutionary hero-turned-autocrat as he seeks a a fourth consecutive term.

Related: Nicaragua rounds up president's critics in sweeping pre-election crackdown