"He's taken steps with impunity. And each one gets further and further down the path of dictatorship," said the AS/COA vice president.

The hemisphere has a short window to show another dictatorship will not be tolerated, writes Panama’s former vice president.

By denying the Ortega regime of the legitimacy it seeks, Washington and the international community can discourage other budding dictators, writes AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth for Univision.

"The international community can and must acknowledge that the elections are fraudulent," said AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth in Univision.

"There is no way that anybody with an objective view would consider today's election exercise to be anything but a charade," said the AS/COA vice president.

"La comunidad internacional tiene que prepararse para subirle el costo a las decisiones [autocráticas] de Ortega", dijo Eric Farnsworth de AS/COA a La Nación.

"Se trata de que el pueblo nicaragüense tenga la oportunidad de ejecutar sus libertades políticas…es un problema de democracia regional", dijo Eric Farnsworth de AS/COA a El País.