Noel Vidaurre
Date of birth: 1955
Arrested on: 24 July 2021
Current: In exile in the USA since February 2023

Noel Vidaurre was born in Nicaragua in 1955. Until his arrest on July 24, 2021, he was the presidential candidate of the alliance “Citizens for Freedom”. On the day of his arrest, a group of police officers stormed his home and placed him under house arrest. Vidaurre is accused of “treason” and “conspiracy against the interests of the nation”. Noel Vidaurre was stripped of his citizenship and expelled from the country in February 2023, along with 221 other prisoners critical of the government. He has been in exile in the USA ever since.

Background

Vidaurre studied law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago de Chile, graduating in 1979. Later, he founded the law firm Munguía Vidaurre. During the term of office of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, he was Deputy Minister of Economy and Foreign Affairs. Vidaurre is already the seventh presidential candidate to be imprisoned by the government of incumbent President Daniel Ortega. There is now practically nothing standing in the way of Ortega’s victory in the Nicaraguan presidential elections in November 2021.

As of August 2024