Nicaragua’s Ortega offers to send ‘fighters’ to Venezuela after disputed election

The offer from one strongman leader to another comes as Maduro comes under pressure amid allegations of fraud in last month’s vote.

Nicaragua’s strongman President Daniel Ortega has offered to send “Sandinista fighters” to Venezuela in support of his embattled fellow authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro, in case there is an attempt at an “armed counterrevolution” following July’s disputed presidential election. Maduro has been under some pressure since his declaration of victory in the vote sparked widespread suspicion among the opposition and abroad. Thousands of Venezuelans have since taken to the streets in protest and political violence has killed at least 24 civilians and one soldier. The government’s security forces have detained at least 2,000 opposition sympathizers. Ortega, speaking at a virtual summit with heads of state from other Latin American countries on Monday, offered his support to Maduro in the case of an “armed counterrevolution,” assuring him that if “battle were to come, they (Maduro’s government) will have Sandinista fighters accompanying them.” In Nicaragua, “Sandinista” generally refers to members of the left-wing political movement, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) that came to power in the Nicaraguan Revolution at the end of the 1970s. Ortega’s party is the FSLN. However, Ortega didn’t specify whether he was offering up police, soldiers from the military, or pro-government armed groups that rights groups have accused of conducting crackdowns alongside the police in Nicaragua, which Ortega has denied any links to. CNN has reached out to the Nicaraguan government for comment.