Four former Latin American presidents demanded that the region deepen the isolation of the Daniel Ortega regime, who has been re-elected in voting without political competition, after the imprisonment of opposition presidential candidates and under repression of the general public.
Former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazil), Laura Chinchilla (Costa Rica), Ricardo Lagos (Chile), Juan Manuel Santos (Colombia) and the Secretary General of International IDEA, Kevin Casas, called for the suspension of Nicaragua from the Organization of American States (OAS) under the application of Article 21 of the Democratic Charter, after a process that they consider illegitimate.
Cardoso, Chinchilla, Santos and Casas sued in a statement titled “Let’s prevent Ortega from consolidating his dictatorship” to the countries of the region that prioritize Nicaragua on their agendas given the seriousness of the events that occurred, which they describe as the itinerary in which a democracy becomes an autocracy, in the face of the OAS General Assembly, organized in virtual mode in Guatemala for the next 10 and 12 November.
Likewise, they demand that “all programs or negotiations within the international and regional financial institutions be suspended as long as the minimum conditions for the validity of democratic institutions do not return to Nicaragua. This without altering the humanitarian assistance programs in favor of the Nicaraguan population ”.
Systematic human rights violations in Nicaragua
The ex-governors explain that the human rights violations have marked the illegitimate reelection of Ortega for a fourth consecutive term and his intention to perpetuate himself indefinitely in power. “
They vehemently denounced the intensification of Ortega’s authoritarian offensive that led to the arrest of 39 political, civic and business leaders, including seven presidential candidates, who have been deprived of their rights and isolated in police prisons.
Part of the demands, expressed in the same statement, correspond to the demand for the immediate release of all political prisoners, but also the full enforcement of human rights, the cessation of the police state, the restoration of constitutional order and the urgent reopening of “a negotiation process to seek a peaceful and electoral solution to the crisis.”
Since September 2018, Nicaragua has lived under a police state that prevents protests by opposition citizens, who have also denounced harassment by the public force at the doors even of their homes.
Nor has the State investigated human rights violations and abuses by the Police and paramilitaries whose violence left 328 murdered, 2,000 injured in the context of the demonstrations arising from a social disagreement with the approval of a reform without consultation of Security Social.
“Four decades ago the people of Nicaragua embarked on a path to rescue democracy after long years under an extreme oppressive dictatorship. Today those dreams are stifled by a president who, installed in power, took the same path and prevents his people from freely choosing the future of their future. Faced with this, the peoples and governments of Latin America cannot be indifferent, ”they urged in the joint statement.
