The government of Sandinista Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua announced this Sunday the withdrawal of its representatives from the Organization of American States (OAS), Orlando Tardencilla, Iván Lara and Michael Campbell, at the same time that it announced the closure of the organization’s offices in Managua. .
The OAS has requested the release of all political prisoners in Nicaragua and insisted on a solution to the political situation that the Central American nation is going through.
The announcement of the withdrawal of the representatives appointed to the OAS was made by Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada, during a surprise Press conference in which he reiterated the decision of the Ortega administration to leave the organization, which he called “a colony of the United States.”
The OAS headquarters in Nicaragua is in Managua, however, according to your website does not have a representative assigned to the Office of the General Secretariat.
“We ratify our invariable decision to leave the OAS, as expressed on November 19, 2021,” Moncada said. He also said that the organization is a “calamitous, truculent and lying dependency of the State Department of Yankee imperialism.”
“Nor will this infamous body, consequently, have offices in our country. Its local headquarters have been closed,” the foreign minister said.
Moncada also indicated that Nicaragua will abandon the OAS forums and mechanisms such as the Permanent Council, commissions, meetings and the Summit of the Americas.
Also read: Bukele, Ortega and Giammattei: A “very hard moment” for democracy in Central America?
The government’s announcement comes just one month after the complaint made by the until then Nicaraguan ambassador to the OAS, Arthur McFieldswho denounced what he classified as a “dictatorship” in Managua.
On Sunday, McFields reacted to the announcement on his Twitter account.
Following McFields’ denunciation at the end of March, the Ortega government had appointed Orlando Tardencilla as his new representative, but this Sunday he was removed from office.
Nicaragua is suffering from a serious sociopolitical crisis that began four years ago with the anti-government protests due to the increase in social security contributions.
The government assured that the demonstrations were an attempted coup against Ortega’s mandate, which has been in power for more than 15 consecutive years.
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