The head of the Southern Command of the US Army, General Laura J. Richardson, declared herself “concerned” about the association of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo with the totalitarian regimes of Russia and China, because, as she assessed, These associations generate “malignant activity” and turn the country into a “safe haven” for criminal organizations.
The US military chief gave these statements at a meeting with political actors organized by the Wilson Center in Washington, where the Nicaraguan opposition leader Félix Maradiaga participated.
The Nicaraguan opponent, when speaking, asked the general her opinion regarding the existence of “a Russian espionage center” in Nicaragua and the role of the Nicaraguan Army in generating rapprochements with China and Russia.
General Richardson expressed that, indeed, the dictatorship’s rapprochement with China and Russia raises concern because “when you have associations that encourage evil activity, they only attract more evil activity.”
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He added that those types of relationships make Nicaragua a “safe haven for additional malign activity or criminal organizations and that type of thing, to be able to thrive and operate.”
The head of the Southern Command explained that, in the hemisphere, the Ortega-Murillo relationship with China and Russia has to be addressed as “a problem that affects the region,” and should not be seen as an impact only for the United States. .
«I think that as partners we have to come together and also offer an alternative. Which is it? A way to offer something better than what the Russians are offering to Nicaragua. I am very concerned. I don’t like. “It attracts more evil activity and makes it harder for the region to prosper,” Richardson said.
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The military chief warned that the association of the Chinese, Russian and Nicaraguan dictatorships “is a cancer and the cancer spreads, so we have to be there, and we have to find alternatives.”
The Ortega-Murillo regime has strengthened its relationship with Russia, which is its main supplier of weapons and military advice. And more recently he has strengthened ties with communist China with whom he maintains a series of promises of investment in infrastructure and a Free Trade Agreement that came into effect in January of this year but has not yet produced visible fruits.
