Nicaraguan business leaders arrested in Ortega’s pre-election crackdown

Ortega has detained 39 opponents ahead of November election

Daniel Ortega's pre-election crackdown on the Nicaraguan opposition has claimed another prominent scalp with the arrest of one of the Central American country's top business leaders.

Michael Healy, the president of Nicaragua's leading business federation, the council for private enterprise (Cosep), was detained in the capital, Managua, on Thursday, in what opposition activists called an illegal kidnapping". The group's vice-president, Alvaro Vargas, was also arrested.