The government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo replaced its ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Francisco Campbell Hooker, eleven days after appointing him to replace Arturo McFields Yescas, who rebelled against the regime and described it as a dictatorship, during a session of the Permanent Council of that organization, in an unprecedented event.
Instead of Campbell, Orlando José Tardencilla was appointed, according to a series of presidential agreements published this Monday in La Gaceta, the official newspaper.
After rescinding Campbell’s appointment, through presidential agreement 57-2022, the Nicaraguan president made several changes in his delegation to the OAS.
“Appoint comrade Orlando José Tardencilla, as permanent representative of the Republic of Nicaragua, with the rank of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)”says presidential agreement 58-2022, which was approved on March 30.
Ortega also appointed Iván Lara Palacios as alternate representative, with the rank of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to the OAS. Such an appointment would have occurred on March 25, one day after Campbell’s appointment, and three days after McFields complaint.
the new ambassador
Last March, Tardencilla was appointed to the position of “adviser minister to the president of the republic for international policies and relations.” He previously served as Minister Counselor with consular functions at the Embassy in Geneva, Switzerland. He had been placed in office on December 15, 2021, although by March 7, 2022 he was removed.
In June 2021, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada Colindres proposed Tardencilla for the position of secretary general of the Central American Integration System (SICA), but he was rejected due to his lack of experience in international politics.
Tardencilla, a former Sandinista guerrilla, has also been a deputy of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) three times in the National Assembly: from 1985 to 1990, and two continuous periods between 1997 and 2007. Since 2012 he has held a seat in the Central American Parliament (Parlacen ).
He also belonged to the Camino Cristiano Nicaragüense (CCN) party and founded the Alternativa por el Cambio party, which has been allied with the Sandinistas since 2011.
Tardencilla, a lawyer by profession who fought against the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, joined the then Salvadoran guerrilla Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in 1980 and was arrested in that country a year later.
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