The candidate for ambassador of the United States (USA) in Nicaragua, Hugo Rodríguez, promised before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to continue denouncing the abuses of power by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, in order to help to the Nicaraguans who suffer every day all kinds of violations of their rights and not with the intention of interfering in the internal affairs of the country, as the regime argues.
Rodríguez stated that, if ratified as ambassador to Nicaragua, “I promise to work with Congress, inter-institutional colleagues and international partners to press for the return to democracy, respect for human rights and the freedom of political prisoners in Nicaragua. ”.
Similarly, the candidate for ambassador emphasized that the US will continue to speak out against the abuses of the Ortega regime, since “it is our commitment” within the framework of the Inter-American Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS). . “The Inter-American Charter obliges the hemisphere to defend the democratic rights of the Nicaraguan people,” he stressed.
Rodríguez recalled that with the electoral farce of last November, Ortega and Murillo “deprived Nicaraguans” of the opportunity to freely elect their rulers and the hopes of democracy and prosperity of Nicaraguans “vanished.”
The Nicaraguan regime currently has more than 180 people imprisoned in inhumane conditions for political reasons, including seven presidential hopefuls, human rights defenders, student leaders, journalists, and representatives of civil society.
The regime, too, “closed civic space at an alarming rate,” the ambassadorial candidate commented. A total of 1,280 NGOs have been canceled from December 2018 to date. 94% of these illegalizations occurred in the almost seven months of 2022, when Ortega intensified the dismantling of civil society.
“As a result of the escalating climate of repression, fear, and hopelessness, coupled with the Ortega-Murillo government’s failure to address people’s basic needs, hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans are now refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants across the country. region,” Rodríguez commented.
Finally, the candidate for ambassador expressed that despite not agreeing with the actions of the Ortega-Murillo regime, the relationship between the two countries “is much deeper than political leadership,” since “more than 400,000 people of Nicaraguan descent live in the US, about 6,000 Americans visit Nicaragua each year and another 20,000 reside there.”
In that same order, Rodríguez commented that the United States has long supported economic development throughout Central America, with the purpose of helping it consolidate itself into a prosperous, stable and democratic center.
“That is why, if confirmed as ambassador, I will engage with voices from across Nicaraguan society to share our vision of inclusive economic growth, as expressed by the president (Joe Biden) at the recent Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. . ‘We will seek to support civil society groups that provide essential services in the areas of health, education and poverty alleviation, including the organizations that the Government of Nicaragua has targeted,’ Rodríguez said.
“We will do what we can to offer the Nicaraguan people a better future in their own country. We know that addressing the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement, throughout Central America and Nicaragua included, implies guaranteeing respect for human rights, generating economic opportunities and improving citizen security”, he concluded.
