Ortega canceled trip to Panama

07-02-2009 | ACAN EFE

The Nicaraguan president stayed home to mourn dead Mayor.

Panama Star MANAGUA. Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega suspended his attendance to President Ricardo Martinelli’s inauguration ceremony.

Ortega will be staying home to mourn the sudden death of the Managua’s Mayor and ex boxing champion Alexis Arguello known as “The ring’s gentleman.”

Rosario Murillo, government spokesperson and President Ortega’s wife, did not give any details about the circumstances about the death of the mayor, but made official the suspension of Ortega’s trip to Panama.

Arguello died early Wednesday morning, and although it is rumoured that the ex boxer shot himself in the heart, the national police have given no confirmation.

His body is at the Nicaraguan Institute of Legal Medicine where the cause of death will be determined.

Arguello was three time world champion (lightweight, featherweight, and super featherweight) and won 65 matches with KO’s. He was elected mayor in 2008

Earlier in the week, the Panamanian Women’s Alliance expressed their disagreement over the Ortega visit to Panama. “Our organization has declared Ortega “persona non grata” said Haydee Mendez, activist from the Alliance. This was just another of the many international protests against President Ortega since he eliminated therapeutic abortion and introduced prison punishment for those women who abort in Nicaragua.

Back in 1998, Ortega was accused of incest and rape by his step daughter, Zoilamérica Narváez. The case was dismissed in Nicaragua since the case was older than 20 years. Although the charges were admitted at the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights, Narvaez retired the complaint for “confidential reasons”.

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MAYOR BOXER

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