Eight presidents of Costa Rica issued a joint statement expressing their disagreement with the current president Rodrigo Chaves for supporting the candidacy proposed by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo to occupy the general secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SICA).
The former presidents point out that the position taken by the Chaves government “would be highly inconvenient in light of the principles that have guided our foreign policy, the regional instruments that ensure the security and stability of Central America, and the security interests national of our country.
The joint statement was signed by former Costa Rican presidents Oscar Arias Sánchez, Abel Pacheco de la Espriella, Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier, Laura Chinchilla Miranda, José María Figueres Olsen, Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría and Carlos Alvarado Quesada.
This Thursday June 23 during a virtual meeting, the foreign ministers of Central America reached a consensus to elect Nicaraguan Werner Vargas Torres as the new secretary general, ending a year-long impasse caused by repeated attempts by the Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo regime to put political chips without regional diplomatic experience in his place.
This consensus was finally achieved after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica Under the Chaves government, he will begin negotiations with his peers in the region to unblock the crisis in SICA caused by the Ortega proposals.
“Costa Rica’s foreign policy has had among its fundamental pillars the defense of democracy, the promotion, protection and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the promotion of peace and disarmament,” cites the letter from the former presidents Costa Ricans.
“These pillars have guided the actions of the Costa Rican State in matters of international politics, regardless of changes in government. Therefore, it would be incongruous with those values that Costa Rica defends and promotes, to endorse the election of a candidate proposed by the despotic and oppressive regime that governs Nicaragua, to occupy the main position of the Central American integration system,” he adds.
The rotation agreed upon by the Central American countries established that Nicaragua was responsible for assuming the general secretary of SICA for the period 2021-2025. However, this coming June 29, the body will be headless for one year due to this impasse.
They recommend that Costa Rica break consensus to stop appointment
The former governors recommend that during the meeting of presidents of the region, in which, according to the Tegucigalpa protocol, the agreement of the foreign ministers must be approved, Costa Rica declares its opposition to break the consensus and stop the appointment of Werner Vargas. This meeting is expected to take place on July 1.
The letter from the former presidents rescues the denunciations made by the United Nations about the outrages of the Ortega regime, as a context for their argument of their disagreement with the position of the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry.
“In its most recent report from last March, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights documented the cases of 43 people still detained in the context of the 2021 elections and the death of one of them in prison (General of retired brigade Hugo Torres), 34 people sentenced to jail without procedural guarantees, 92 cases of legal status canceled to universities, NGOs, foundations and about 150,000 Nicaraguans who fled the country in 2021 alone, ”says the letter .
Another of the concerns expressed by the former presidents is what they call an “arms escalation” undertaken by the Ortega regime.
“It is evident that Nicaragua is in flagrant and gross violation of all these principles (military balance) as confirmed by the data on the acquisition of heavy weapons – tanks, towed artillery and rocket launchers – in recent years, and in open provocation to those fair aspirations by recently announcing authorization for the entry of troops into its territoryincluding some from Russia, which has launched an unjustified and ferocious attack on the people of Ukraine”, they add.
Another point they argue is that the support of Chaves would be “harmful to the national security” of Costa Rica due to the political positions taken by Werner Vargas from other regional positions.
“The candidate that Daniel Ortega has promoted for the General Secretariat of SICA, held positions in the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry and in the Central American Court of Justice, when that country invaded Calero Island in 2010. Both institutions They produced actions that seriously damaged the sovereignty, security and tranquility of Costa Ricans and caused environmental damage of considerable dimensions, all of which was documented in the resolutions issued by the International Court of Justice that ruled in favor of the interests of our country. ”, they point out.
