The member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) approved this Wednesday a resolution that concludes the working group for Nicaragua created in 2018 and to which 12 countries of the organization belonged.
The OAS, however, reiterated that it will continue to “monitor the situation in Nicaragua” through dialogue with local and international actors, including Nicaraguan authorities.
The adopted resolution also establishes a voluntary group open to the participation of all OAS member states that will have the purpose of “paying special attention” to the country, “without generating costs for the Organization’s budget.”
The mandate that created the working group in 2018 argued that it was intended to “contribute to the search for peaceful and sustainable solutions.”
Sebastián Kraljevich, Peru’s ambassador to the OAS and main proponent of the resolution, explained that Nicaragua’s departure from the international organization makes “new instruments” necessary to deploy efforts.
“The resolution helps us continue defending democracy in the Americas,” Kraljevich said.
Nicaragua ceased to be a member of the OAS on November 19, 2023, two years after Daniel Ortega decided to withdraw the country from the organization after accusing it of “interference and intervention.”
The Peruvian ambassador highlighted three especially worrying aspects that have happened in Nicaragua: the political imprisonment of 1,614 people, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; the deprivation of nationality of more than 300 people, and the legal cancellation of more than 3,000 civil society entities, churches and others.
Despite its approval by acclamation of the resolution called “Monitoring the Situation of Nicaragua”, countries such as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines assured that they differ from it by considering that a voluntary group is an “unwelcome intrusion” in the internal affairs of Nicaragua after the country has decided to leave the OAS voluntarily.
Bolivia, for its part, supported the end of the working group mandated in 2018, however, it said “it does not support” the creation of a voluntary group.
Countries such as Costa Rica, Canada, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and the United States expressed their support for the resolution adopted on Wednesday.
“What the body just did today is probably the most intelligent thing we could do because admitting Nicaragua’s motu disconnection from the inter-American system of rights is aberrant,” said Washington Abdala, Uruguay’s ambassador to the OAS.
Abdala stressed that this was a way to “tell Ortega” that the international community “is going to continue insisting on him.”
The American delegation, led by Ambassador Francisco Mora, recalled that this April marks six years since the 2018 protests that marked the beginning of the political, social and human rights crisis in the Central American country.
“While the Nicaraguan regime has left the OAS, it remains subject to its international obligations and the members of the OAS today demand that the regime take action and we urge its compliance with international laws,” stated the US delegation.
Finally, under the current mandate, the organization requested the IACHR to continue providing reports on the situation in Nicaragua in order to “facilitate, when necessary, the consideration of all additional actions that may contribute to the effective exercise of representative democracy.” , the rule of law and the protection of human rights in the country.”
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