The debate in the European Parliament on the situation in Nicaragua, this December 14, began and ended with the intervention of the high representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security, Josep Borrell, who called “caricature of the Caribbean dictator” to Daniel Ortega. In tune with the words of the diplomat, in the speeches of the majority of the MEPs, adjectives such as “usurper”, “criminal” and “autocrat” were heard to describe the Sandinista leader, for whom they demanded to apply a direct sanction.
Of the 19 MEPs who spoke, only two – the Spanish Manu Pineda and the Irish Mick Wallace – highlighted the “progress” under the government of Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo. Both MEPs belong to the Left group.
The debate in the European Parliament was a step prior to a vote, which will take place this Thursday, December 16, on a resolution that – according to the document’s proposal – “rejects the legitimacy of the results of these false elections and, therefore, the democratic legitimacy of any institutional authority that arises from this rigged vote ”.
Borrell appeared before the MEPs to report on the EU’s relations with Nicaragua after the elections on November 7, in which Ortega and Murillo were re-elected and that the community bloc did not recognize for their irregularities and imprisonment of opposition candidates.
Borrell’s words
“(In 1979) the current president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, represented for many the force of freedom of a people that overthrew a dictatorship, and won for many the admiration and became the image of how a people can get rid of a tyrant, Anastasio Somoza ”, commented the head of European diplomacy.
“Now Daniel Ortega has become the caricature of the Caribbean dictator, he has become the mirror of the dictator who fought against him then,” he added.
Borrell thus pronounced on Ortega “leaving aside the contention that is supposed to be part of diplomatic activity,” given the tone used by the Nicaraguan leader to refer to the EU or the high representative himself.
“Daniel Ortega has spoken out against the European Union and its high representative, in the most violent terms that one can imagine every time we have criticized him,” commented the Spanish socialist politician.
He said that “after the elections, Ortega attacked the EU and the countries deeply involved in the Nicaraguan situation, crossed a line of decency that he should never have crossed, and used insulting terms to refer to political prisoners, completely dehumanizing them.”
In his act of electoral celebration, on November 8Ortega attacked the EU and the United States, whom he called “fascists” and “Nazis.” In addition, he called the political prisoners, among these seven presidential candidates, “sons of bitches of the Yankee imperialists”, as well as his customary epithets of “traitors and homeless vendor.”
Democratic clause
In the parliamentary debate, almost all the groups showed their rejection of the dictatorial drift of Ortega and Murillo. The MEP of the conservative Popular Party Leopoldo López Gil highlighted the high abstention in the last elections, which he called a “pantomime with the appearance of an electoral process”.
“The European Parliament condemns the installation of authoritarianism in Nicaragua at the hands of the dictator Daniel Ortega. This institution will never be an accomplice of the pantomime, with the appearance of an electoral process that took place on November 7, therefore it does not recognize the results of the process, and consequently the authorities emanated from them ”, said the Spanish politician .
He asked that the EU activate the democratic clause contained in the Association Agreement (AdA) between the European bloc and Central America, so that only the Nicaraguan government is penalized.
In the draft resolution, the MEPs reiterate “their demand that, in light of the current circumstances, the democratic clause of the Association Agreement be activated”.
Borrell explained in any case that activating the democratic clause would mean suspending trade preferences for Nicaragua: “I don’t think the regime will be unfazed by 300 million (euros) of exports, but many Nicaraguans who work in those sectors would be affected.”
In addition, he recalled that the political clauses of the AdA cannot be activated because Belgium still needs to complete the ratification process. “If this Agreement were ratified, if we could use the political clauses on human rights, these are the disadvantages of going through long processes of unanimity,” he explained.
Sanction for Daniel Ortega
The liberal Soraya Rodríguez Ramos, who also requested more support for human rights defenders in Nicaragua and that “no funding from the EU and its member states reaches the hands of this corrupt regime.”
“As Ernesto Cardenal wrote, about (Anastasio) Somoza, also today every night in Managua, the Presidential House is filled with shadows,” said Rodríguez, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament and spokesperson for rights humans.
José Ramón Bauzá Díaz MEP said that “Ortega has managed to plunge Nicaragua into a repression that has not been known since the worst times of Somoza.”
“Ortega is a criminal and as such he should be treated, and we must hit him where it hurts the most: in his pocket and in that of all his front men who are also here in Europe. Let’s sanction Ortega once and for all, but let’s also focus on the international financing of the regime; we must freeze the disbursements that reach the regime until we can ensure that democracy has already returned to Nicaragua, “he said.
“Ortega must know that our pulse will not shake when facing one of the worst dictatorships in the world,” said Bauzá.
Since 2019, the EU has sanctioned 14 senior regime officials, including the vice president and first lady, Rosario Murillo. None of them can enter Community territory and their assets and shares in the EU have been frozen.
According to the draft resolution, the European Parliament “welcomes the inclusion of Rosario Murillo, along with several others, in the list of sanctioned renewed until October 2022; asks that Daniel Ortega be added to the sanctioned list without delay ”.
Ortega and Murillo are “usurpers”
The also liberal Izaskun Bilbao Barandica joined the requests and called the last elections a “farce” and asked to investigate the leaders and release the prisoners “for defending a democracy worthy of the name.”
“Nicaragua has become a dictatorship, standing as a candidate for the elections carries a prison sentence. Defending human rights, opposing bad environmental practices, the destruction of indigenous communities, denouncing abuses and pointing out those responsible, entails the harshest repression, aggression and harassment, “said the MEP.
“In these circumstances, the last elections have been a sham, that is why the current leaders are no longer the legitimate rulers of the country, they are usurpers, who deserve to be treated as such; sanctioned and dispossessed of the economic performance of their corrupt practices ”, he added.
The socialist Javi López considered that Ortega “has violated all international standards and (the electoral process) has taken place in a context of great violence and intimidation.”
“The Ortega and Murillo regime has thus completed the last step for the conversion of the country into a true dictatorship. At the same time that it betrayed the founding values of the Sandinista revolution of 1979 ”, the MEP stressed.
“Maximum solidarity with the Nicaraguan people, who see first-hand how they assassinate their democracy,” he said.
Release of political prisoners
In the motion for a resolution, MEPs reiterate “their call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, opposition activists, human rights and environmental defenders and arbitrarily detained journalists”, and demand “the nullity of the legal proceedings against him ”.
MEP María Leitão Marques said that “some might think that after the theatrical elections in Nicaragua, the repressive drift of Daniel Ortega would subside, but this has not been the case.”
He denounced that, a few weeks ago, the regime imprisoned the former Nicaraguan ambassador to the OAS, Edgar Parrales, “which shows Ortega’s lack of political will to change his autocratic behavior.”
This Tuesday, December 14, during his speech at the XX Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), Ortega again rejected the demand for release of political prisoners expressed by the international community.
“Now it turns out that because they are detained, they are imprisoned, they are being processed, they have to be released, and the Europeans say it, the Yankees say it, they do have the right to do justice, we do not have the right to do justice. There is a judicial system in Nicaragua, there are laws, Europeans give themselves the right to imprison whoever they want, ”said Ortega in Havana, Cuba.
* With information from Efe
