The Colombian government responded this Friday to the Nicaraguan government that the democracy of that country “has the size of its dictator,” while requesting that the international community apply sanctions to President Daniel Ortega to prevent further violations of human rights.
“Today the democratic quality of Nicaragua has the size of its dictator,” said the Colombian Foreign Ministry in a statement in response to Ortega, who accused Colombia of being a “narco-state.”
Nicaragua has been experiencing a political and social crisis since April 2018, accentuated after the controversial elections on November 7, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth and fourth consecutive term, with his main contenders in prison.
The Colombian Foreign Ministry adds that the world’s democracies “will continue to urge the international community to apply economic and personal sanctions to all members of the Nicaraguan regime that prevent them from buying time to continue profiting, destroying national wealth and trampling human dignity. , as happened to Venezuela ”.
The day before, Ortega said that Colombia “is a narco-state” and criticized his Colombian counterpart, Iván Duque, for questioning his government in international forums on matters such as human rights.
Regional concern
In the statement, Colombia also expressed its “deep concern” over Ortega’s actions to “distract the attention of an international community that vehemently rejects the new dictatorship that is installed in the Central American country.”
These situations, says the Colombian Government, generate the “repudiation of neighboring countries and regional concern for the risk that the Nicaraguan people will experience the horror of exodus, uprooting, loss of freedom and the brutal impoverishment that the people are experiencing today. Venezuelan and the Cuban people ”.
The Colombian pronouncement adds that in the face of the multiple international demands for transparent elections to be held, the legal status of opposition political parties be restored and the jailed opponents be released, Ortega’s “response consists of attacking Colombia to distract attention and international censorship on its total illegitimacy ”.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Colombia recognizes the suffering suffered as a result of drug trafficking and guerrillas and for that reason “our Government and the previous ones have concentrated on strengthening the legal framework and the institutions that safeguard democratic principles, guarantee the rights of all our citizens and , in particular, protect and promote human rights ”.
Finally, Colombia calls on the international community “not to allow the tricks of a regime that is threatened to make the suffering of its victims invisible and to abandon the hopes of a people who cry out for freedom.”
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