MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Opposition leaders are calling for “civil disobedience” and “general rebellion” against the government of President Daniel Ortega following the latest rulings by the de facto Sandinista Supreme Court, which includes two judges whose terms expired last month but who refuse to hand in their gavels.

This week, Sandinista judges emitted a resolution to nullify an April 20 congressional session held inside the Holiday Inn hotel in Managua, and to revoke the legal immunity of seven opposition lawmakers. The opposition lambasted the Sandinistas' move as another “illegal barbarity” and “shameful disrespect for the constitution.”

The Sandinista magistrates are trying to overturn the results of a controversial legislative session that was convoked by opposition lawmakers last month inside the Holiday Inn in order to avoid Sandinista mobs waiting outside the National Assembly (TT, April 23).

During the extraordinary session, the lawmakers – who were able to achieve quorum without Sandinista lawmakers being present – introduced a bill to the Assembly Judicial Affairs Commission to overturn President Daniel Ortega's polemical Jan. 9 executive order that extended the terms of 25 top judicial and executive officials.

Sandinista judges had passed a separate resolution earlier in April forbidding the National Assembly from trying to overturn Ortega's decree. The opposition, however, argues the Supreme Court has no legal right to forbid the National Assembly from passing laws, and went ahead and presented the bill.

The Sandinista judges – including ex-Magistrate Rafael Solís, whose term ended April 11 but who has refused to give up his seat – struck back yesterday by passing another resolution to nullify the actions taken during the April 20 session. The Sandinistas judges also sought to punish opposition lawmakers for their disobedience by stripping legal immunity from the seven congressmen who sit on the Judicial Affairs Commission.

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