The Government of Joe Biden confirmed this May 6 to the voice of americawhich maintains “bilateral communication” with the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, one day after the North American newspaper New York Times revealed that Laureano Ortega Murillo, son of the presidential couple, would have sought dialogue with the United States with the aim of obtaining “sanction relief for his family.”
“We will not comment on specific interactions between the US government and the Ortega-Murillo regime, but we maintain a range of bilateral communication with the regime, and we will continue to press for the release of political prisoners,” he explained to La Voz de America a State Department spokesman.
“The immediate release of political prisoners (…) continues to be one of the main priorities of the United States in Nicaragua,” reiterated the source consulted.
Related news: Laureano Ortega sought rapprochement with the United States to negotiate the end of the sanctions on his family
He assured that the opponents of the Ortega regime were arrested and prosecuted “for wanting nothing more, and demanding nothing less, than democracy, justice and respect for human rights.”
The State Department spokesman indicated that the United States government remains “open to frank discussions on steps to return to democratic norms and respect for human rights in Nicaragua, the Ortega-Murillo regime has not shown seriousness in its purpose towards a genuine dialogue.
In its publication, The New York Times revealed that “shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the most prominent son of Nicaragua’s autocratic president, Daniel Ortega, quietly approached Washington to restart the dialogue, according to officials and diplomats familiar with the approach. ».
He stated that “a high-ranking US State Department official was sent to Managua to meet with Laureano Ortega in March, but the meeting never took place because the Ortegas apparently chickened out.”
Laura Ortega was intended to secure sanctions relief for the Ortega family and their inner circle in exchange for the release of the political prisonersa priority for the Biden administration.
On January 27, 2022, State Department spokesman Ned Price said that “the United States was willing to support a negotiation process with the Nicaraguan government to seek a way out of the current political crisis.”
The Voice of America maintained that this rapprochement of the Nicaraguan regime occurs five years after the United States imposed the first sanctions against the Ortega-Murillo administration.
According to the most recent report of the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners, the Ortega dictatorship keeps 182 opponents imprisoned in the different prisons of Nicaragua.
