The Colombian government advocates the release of 21 imprisoned opponents in Nicaragua as part of a humanitarian effort that has not yet borne fruit, Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva said on Friday.
The government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua has not made any statements to confirm these humanitarian efforts.
Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president in the history of Colombia, received criticism for his country’s absence from an extraordinary session of the Organization of American States that dealt with the situation of human rights in Nicaragua.
Leyva confirmed this Friday in an interview with W Radio that among the prisoners they seek to release is the bishop of the city of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, accused of allegedly organizing violent groups and inciting them “to carry out acts of hatred against the population,” according to the Ortega government.
“Unfortunately, it has not been achieved, much less with the pressure that is being felt at the moment with these questions,” Leyva said, referring to a motion of censure that opponents are promoting in the Colombian Congress to account for the country’s absence. at the OAS session.
On August 12, the OAS Permanent Council approved a resolution on Nicaragua in which it expressed concern about its refusal to comply “with its human rights obligations” and indicated that the “environment of oppression (in Nicaragua) has aggravated” with arrests, forced closure of non-governmental organizations, repression of journalists and attacks on members of the Catholic Church.
Arturo McFields, Nicaragua’s former ambassador to the OAS, told the AP earlier this week that if Petro was trying to negotiate the release of political prisoners in Nicaragua it would be just the latest of several attempts.
The diplomat, who denounced the Ortega government during an OAS session in March and was immediately fired, said that Argentina, Bolivia and Mexico had tried to do the same without success.
McFields sees it highly unlikely that Colombia will achieve what he calls a “miracle.” He added that in order to negotiate the release, he would have to offer Ortega something in return, and Colombia had nothing to offer.
He was also skeptical of Petro’s motivations, suggesting that the new leftist president wanted to take on the role of the late former Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, in uniting Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The opposition in Colombia questions the shift in relations with Ortega and the lack of forcefulness in denouncing alleged human rights violations. Iván Duque, president from 2018 to 2022, broke relations with Nicaragua and called Ortega a “dictator.”
During the interview, Leyva said that his country condemns the violation of human rights.
“In no way are we with Mr. Ortega. One thing is a humanitarian action and another a confusion that unfortunately has been growing because we have a pending legal situation”, he explained.
Colombia and Nicaragua have a current lawsuit in the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations, to establish the limits between an alleged extended continental shelf that Nicaragua claims to have beyond its 200 nautical miles.
Former President Duque said Wednesday, in a Twitter message, that “a century of tensions is preferable to handing over Colombian territory to the Daniel Ortega dictatorship.”
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