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On the table of the National Assembly of Nicaragua is the initiative of the General Law of Convergent Telecommunications that seeks to replace the General Law of Telecommunications and Postal Services, and that hides among its 154 articles, the intention to know what they see, what they hear and the messages sent by citizens in the country.
With the implementation of this legislation, citizens will feel watched by the regime every time they enter the web. Like the eye of providence (the all-seeing eye), Ortega plans with this law to have the power to access as much information as possible from whomever he wants and whenever he wants.
Obligated to provide information
While the explanatory memorandum states that the main objective of the initiative is “to reach a level very close to the so-called 4G regulation and to provide high-speed, quality and affordable connectivity to all users in the country”, experts assure that the main background will be greater control.
Article 109 is one of the most alarming, as it obliges telecommunications service providers to supply any information requested by the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Services (Telcor):
“The operators of public telecommunications services and providers of audiovisual communications services are obliged to supply all the information required, including statistical and georeferenced information, periodically or as a result of specific requirements of Telcor, in the exercise of its regulatory powers. For such purpose, the required information must be provided in a detailed, accurate, truthful, timely and verifiable manner”, states the bill.
Being so broad in its interpretation, with this provision, the regime can deepen the search for “traitors” within the ranks of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, or enable Telcor to request information even on what a user sees on television, consumes on social networks or searches the Internet.
Control and surveillance of operators
Not only will citizens be more closely monitored in Nicaragua, telecommunications operators will also be much more closely monitored and will have to act as Telcor dictates.
Telcor will be responsible for the importation of technological equipment by the operators. In addition, each operator must allow any inspection in its facilities, even if they are carried out by force.
In fact, the draft law obliges telecommunications operators to join the radio and television networks and make their facilities and services available to the government free of charge in the event of a national or regional emergency.
If they refuse or fail to comply with any provision of the Law, operators will face penalties ranging from 0.5% to 2.5% of their gross income derived from the previous year for violation of the law.
Renewal of licenses in play
The proposal contemplates a maximum term of six months after the entry into force of the new Law to replace all enabling titles or licenses of operators that are already approved under other laws in Nicaragua. This would oblige all operators and service providers to undergo a process of renewal of their operating licenses, something that until now had been automatic.
This situation will have two favorable consequences for the regime: the first is that it will be able to take away licenses from those who are not aligned with its vision without having to give a justification, and the second is that it will receive new revenues, since all operators will have to pay again for their licenses.
The approval of this law is practically a fact before a National Assembly dominated by the Sandinista Front, so that the restrictions on citizens are further extended in a country considered by Freedom House as the country that in the last 10 years has had the largest drop in rights for its citizens and is ranked in the region, along with Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti, as a country without citizen freedoms.
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