Lawyer Paul Reichler He resigned from his position as Nicaraguan international legal adviser before the Inter-American Court of Justice, in The Hague, after being in the position for more than 20 years.
The resignation to continue working with the administration of Ortega and Murillo was made through a letter dated March 2, 2022, and which was disclosed in the first instance through the digital medium Confidential Nicaragua.
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“Reichler was part of the Nicaraguan legal team that denounced the United States before the ICJ for its financing of the counterrevolutionary war in the 1980s, which culminated in the historic ruling in favor of Nicaragua in June 1986. Furthermore, after In 2007, he was part of the team in the border conflicts of the country for the sovereignty of the San Juan River against Costa Rica and the maritime limit of the 82nd meridian in the Caribbean Sea with Colombia”, details the independent media.
In the letter, the now former advisor to the dictatorship greeted Daniel Ortega in the first instance and thanked him for “the immense honor” of having worked for his government. “—my deepest gratitude for the immense honor you have granted me for more than 40 years: the opportunity to serve Nicaragua as its international legal advisor.”
“This has been one of the greatest blessings I have received. You have made my life special, filling it with meaning, especially and above all by allowing me to join you in the fight for justice for the country and the heroic people that I have come to love so much.” He also dedicated most of the letter to overflow with praise for the dictator and remember all the work he did for Nicaragua.
Condemns repression against Nicaraguans
After the long greeting, Paul Reichler faced Ortega and explained that the reason for writing to him was to “terminate my relationship with you and your government.”
In a gesture of disappointment, the lawyer told Ortega that “I don’t know what made you change, but you are no longer the Daniel Ortega whom I respected, admired, loved and served with pride for so many years.”
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“That Daniel Ortega was a true hero, who with courage, nobility and selflessness served his country and his people, governing wisely and generously in their best interest and in the process, changing Nicaragua for the better,” he recalled.
However, Reichler stated that it was “inconceivable” that Ortega himself had repressed and “ruthlessly” attacked protesters who spoke out peacefully against his government in 2018.
“It is even more inconceivable to me that this Daniel Ortega would have arrested, confined in intolerable conditions and prosecuted more than 50 prominent citizens – from politics, the media, universities and business – with false charges that are nothing more than a pretext to eliminate dissidence and opposition,” he said.
He reiterated that 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 that he himself helped to overthrow, with false elections, a legislature submissive, a judicial system that is corrupt and incapable of imparting justice, and the silencing of freedom of expression and the independent media”.
He regrets the exile of thousands of opponents
As for the thousands of opponents who have decided to go into exile so as not to be repressed and targeted by the Ortega regime, the jurist stated that it is inconceivable that “the Daniel Ortega whom I served could have forced his most illustrious citizens into exile, including Sergio Ramírez, Luis Carrión, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, Edmundo Jarquín, Gioconda Belli, Mónica Baltodano, Julio Lopez Campos and many other Sandinista and non-Sandinista heroes, as well as thousands of Nicaraguans of all political persuasions whose freedom has been denied or threatened.”
He also pointed out and accused Daniel Ortega of having assassinated the retired general and political prisoner Hugo Torres. “It is unthinkable to me that Daniel Ortega would have assassinated Hugo Torres and sadistically led the other great patriots, now locked up in their cells, to the brink of hunger and death.”
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Paul Reichler’s letter concluded by assuring that he will continue to respect, admire and love the «first Daniel Ortega, «although he feels
hopelessness and pain because of the one who has taken his place. I will always treasure my service to the former, even when, for the reasons stated above, my moral conscience demands that I sever my ties with the latter and refuse to serve him. In the meantime, I will pray for the day that Nicaragua is free again.”
With the departure of Nicaragua’s international legal adviser, there are already two representatives of the Ortega regime who have turned their backs on him this March, the first to do so in a live broadcast during a session of the Organization of American States ( OAS) was Arturo McFields, former Nicaraguan ambassador to that organization and who also denounced the crimes against humanity committed by the dictatorship.
