The hasty and forced removal of the Ambassador Arturo McFields from his position as representative before the Organization of American States (OAS) was just one of several diplomatic moves made by the regime in recent days.
Charles Midencewho was the Nicaraguan ambassador to Spain, was transferred to the diplomatic representation in Argentina, as established in presidential agreement 43-2022 signed by Daniel Ortega.
Midence was removed from his post in Spain under the argument of alleged “interfering pressure and threats” on the Nicaraguan diplomat, the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry reported at the time.
According to the press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Midence was being subjected to “continuous pressure” that “make the exercise of diplomatic work impossible.”
However, Spanish diplomatic sources explained to the Efe agency that the withdrawal of the Nicaraguan ambassador occurred after the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Midence, to ask for explanations for Managua’s refusal to return the Spanish ambassador to Nicaragua.
Subsequently, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, declared that Nicaragua’s decision to withdraw its ambassador in Madrid was nothing more than “one more chapter in (Daniel) Ortega’s flight forward” and warned that the measure It will not prevent your country from continuing to demand the release of political prisoners.
Midence replaces as ambassador Orlando Jose Gomez Zamora who was transferred to Caracas as Nicaraguan ambassador to Venezuela. This after presidential agreement 44-2022 will nullify the appointment of Yaoska Calderon Martin as diplomatic representative of Nicaragua to Venezuela.
Another appointment made by Ortega was that of Orlando Tardencilla in the position of “minister adviser to the president of the republic for international policies and relations”. Tardencilla previously served as minister counselor with consular functions at the embassy in Geneva, Switzerland. He had been placed in office on December 15, 2021, but by March 7, 2022, he was removed.
Embassies of Spain and the Vatican remain headless
These diplomatic movements maintain without formal representation of Nicaragua before Spain and the Vatican. A replacement for Midence in Madrid has not yet been named. In the Holy See, the regime, one day after the publication of the expulsion of the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertagcanceled the appointment of Sandy Anabell Davila Sandovalin the position of Minister Counselor of the Embassy of the Republic of Nicaragua.
Later, always as minister-counselor, she was appointed Yara Suhyen Perez Calero. This also leaves Managua without a formal ambassador to the Holy See. This confirmed the expulsion of the nuncio through a statement in which it stated that “”The Holy See has received with surprise and pain the communication that the Government of Nicaragua has decided to withdraw the approval (agrement) to His Eminence Monsignor Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, Apostolic Nuncio in Managua since 2018, forcing him to immediately leave the country after notifying him of that measure.”
All these movements take place in a context in which the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry is facing a severe crisis of defections and diplomatic clashes with other nations. In addition to the expulsion of the apostolic nuncio, the regime also expelled from the country the representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
After the McFields rebellion in the middle of a session of the OAS Permanent Council, CONFIDENTIAL also revealed the resignation of lawyer Paul Reichlerafter more than twenty years serving as Nicaragua’s international legal advisor before the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, first in the 1980s and then in 2007.
Reichler was also a legal adviser in the trial that Nicaragua won against the United States Government in the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 1987, and participated as a political adviser to Daniel Ortega in the negotiations with the armed opposition that led to the peace agreements. Peace of Sapoá, in March 1988, between the Government and the Nicaraguan Resistance.
In his resignation letter, Reichler questioned the state crackdown on peaceful demonstrations in 2018 that resulted in “hundreds of tragic deaths.” “It is inconceivable to me that the Daniel Ortega, whom I proudly served, would have destroyed the democracy in whose construction he participated decisively and would have established a new dictatorship, not very different from the one he himself helped to overthrow, with false elections,” he says. Reichler.
In addition, the two daughters of the Ortega deputy Walmaro Gutierrez, the main card of the regime in the Economic Commission of the National Assembly and sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury, also resigned from their diplomatic positions.
Maria Fernanda Gutierrez Gaitan resigned from her position as Counselor with Consular Functions of the Embassy of the Republic of Nicaragua in the Swiss Confederation. While, Maria Michelle Gutierrez Gaitan She did it from the position of Counselor of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Nicaragua to the United Nations Organization based in New York, United States.
All these resignations take place when Nicaragua faces high-level diplomatic tensions with Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain and the Holy See, in addition to international isolation after the votes of November 7 last year, denounced for their lack of transparency and the elimination of the opposition.
