Washington, United States | AFP | The United States believes that Nicaragua will consolidate a “dictatorship” with the foreseeable victory of Daniel Ortega next Sunday in elections that are “a sham”, and that all legal and diplomatic weight will be needed to restore the democratic path.
“These elections will have no credibility, they are a sham,” Patrick Ventrell, director of Central American Affairs at the State Department, said Thursday.
“We are heading towards the scenario of a dictatorship to which we will have to respond,” he said during a forum organized by the Wilson Center and the Atlantic Council, two think tanks based in Washington.
The situation in Nicaragua, where some 150 opponents, including seven presidential candidates, were detained by “coup leaders” and three parties were outlawed, will be debated next week at the general assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), which could even suspend the country’s participation in the regional bloc.
Analysts predict that the Nicaraguan political crisis, exacerbated after the protests against Ortega that erupted in 2018 and whose repression left more than 300 dead, will also be present at the Summit for Democracy organized by Biden in December, and at the Summit of the Americas that it will host the United States next year.
It is “a really clear case of a breakdown of the democratic order. It is something that we will talk about extensively in these multilateral forums because Nicaragua is really a sobering story,” Ventrell said.
The official assured that Joe Biden’s government will promote coordination with like-minded countries, such as Canada, the European Union (EU) and Latin American and Caribbean partners, to “increase the pressure” against “a regime determined to cling to power at any cost.” .
– More penalties –
The United States will also use “absolutely” all available instruments, including economic sanctions, visa restrictions and other punitive measures, to democratize Nicaragua, Ventrell said.
To this end, Biden is poised to enact the RENACER Act, passed Wednesday with unanimous support from Democratic and Republican lawmakers and offering an arsenal of measures to address what the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, has called “the grim road. of authoritarianism “in Nicaragua.
“There are a variety of things that can be done,” Democratic Senator Bob Menéndez, sponsor of the initiative, told reporters on Thursday, calling for an evaluation of Nicaragua’s suspension of the free trade pact between the United States, Central America and the Dominican Republic (CAFTA -DR).
Menéndez recalled that this treaty was signed with countries committed to democracy and respect for human rights, “not with imprisoning” candidates for the presidency and leaders of the private sector.
He also considered that measures such as the freezing of assets to Ortega, and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, “can be very effective.”
The United States has already imposed economic sanctions on Murillo and three of the couple’s children, as well as heads of the Central Bank, the Police and the Army, for corruption and serious human rights violations.
In addition, it canceled the visas of a hundred Nicaraguan officials accused of being complicit in state abuses.
The new RENACER Law expands the supervision of loans from international financial institutions to Nicaragua, after the NICA Act of 2018 instructed US representatives at the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to oppose new loans for That country.
– “North Korean style” –
Ortega’s Nicaragua is seen as a threat to Washington’s national security, not only because of Managua’s proximity to Moscow, but also because of the risk of increasing irregular migration to the southern US border.
A fourth consecutive term for Ortega, in power since 2007, is also a problem for the stability of Central America, warned Laura Chinchilla, former president of Costa Rica (2010-2014), speaking at the forum.
The repression of the protests that began in 2018 has already forced the exile of more than 100,000 people, the majority to neighboring countries, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
In addition, Chinchilla stressed, the Nicaraguan crisis “will create a disruption” in regional trade and plans for economic recovery from the covid-19 pandemic.
For Isabel De Saint Malo, former Vice President of Panama (2014-2019), Nicaragua should be a concern for the entire international community.
“On Monday we need a strong and committed response, an immediate condemnation of the outcome of the process, and a non-recognition of this mandate,” he emphasized.
“In the heart of the Americas, we are about to have a North Korean-style regime,” Chinchilla warned.
