Daniel Ortega’s regime suffered a political defeat on Friday in the General Assembly of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of American States (OAS), in which 25 countries approved a resolution declaring the November 7 voting “without legitimacy” that the Sandinista leader was reelected for the fourth consecutive time, without political competition and without democratic guarantees.
The OAS Foreign Ministers established November 30 as the deadline for the Permanent Council to carry out a “collective assessment” of the country’s situation, “in accordance with the OAS Charter and the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” and that it “ take the appropriate actions ”, which would put the Ortega regime before a possible suspension of the organization.
They also agreed “reiterate its previous calls for the release of all political candidates and prisoners, the restitution of their democratic rights, and an immediate end to the arrest and harassment of independent media and members of civil society“.
The resolution was presented by the delegations of eight countries: Canada, Antigua and Barbuda, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay. The only vote against was that of Nicaragua, seven countries abstained and one was declared absent.
According to the voting record, he scored CONFIDENTIAL During the broadcast, Mexico, Honduras, Belize, Bolivia, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia abstained, while the country that was “absent“ It was Saint Kitts and Nevis. One of the most curious details was that Argentina, although it declared itself concerned about an anticipated condemnation of the Central American country, voted in favor of the resolution, when in previous votes it abstained.
“The actions of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo are contrary to everything that this organization defends: democracy, human rights, security and development. They have shown that they do not respect either the OAS Charter or the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and their actions must have consequences“said the interim permanent representative of the United States in the OAS, Bradley Freden, who again demanded the freedom of political prisoners and the restoration of democracy.
According to Breden, “possible dynasty“ de Ortega y Murillo closed independent media outlets, locked up journalists and business leaders, and frightened civil society leaders into closing their doors, which has resulted in the presidential couple being “andnormally unpopular“ and rule “as autocrats, not unlike the Somoza family that Ortega and the Sandinistas fought to overthrow four decades ago“.
The Foreign Minister of Costa Rica, Rodolfo Solano, celebrated the OAS resolution, demanded the freedom of political prisoners and recognized the role of the body and the countries that constitute it in favor of democracy and the protection of human rights.
“From this space, we will continue to use all the diplomatic tools available to the inter-American system so that Nicaragua can resume the path of reestablishing democracy for the benefit of the Nicaraguan people.“Solano added.
Regime responds with insults
The Nicaraguan representative to the OAS, Michael Campbell, described the resolution as an attack “to democracy“ and focused his criticism initially on the OAS, of whom he said was not “our Supreme Electoral Council“, referring to the electoral authorities controlled by the ruling party.
“The OAS does not have the authority to constitute our Vote Receiving Boards, OAS officials are not and should not be political party prosecutors, the OAS is not an arbitrator or auditor of the electoral process; each town establishes these authorities“, said Campbell, who defended that in the country “I respect“ the popular will and there was a 65% participation, although the real winner was abstention.
According to Ortega’s representative at the OAS, what the country experienced on November 7 was an electoral process in which “the democratic and civic spirit“ of the nationals, which showed that “a path of no return to democracy has been undertaken“.
Among his main arguments to defend the farce was that all the political parties that were on the ballot participated in the formation of electoral structures, they were not attacked or attacked during the campaign. What Campbell did not mention is that these political groups are accomplices of the regime and filled their lists of candidates with strangers and relatives of these, which helped eliminate any competition in the process.
“No one can deny this, absolutely no one! unless they have an interest in justifying, proposing or committing unworthy acts of aggression against our country, ”insisted the Nicaraguan representative at the OAS.
With the resolution on Nicaragua, the regional body joined the representatives of at least 40 countries that have denounced the November 7 votes as illegitimate, because they were not fulfilled the minimum democratic guarantees in the process.
Campbell directed his criticisms against Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, the United States, Brazil, Ecuador and Panama. For each of them he had insults under the logic that these nations criticize “Nicaragua’s democracy as its political system falls apart“.
The Nicaraguan official kept silent about the serious human rights violations committed by the regime, including the existence of political prisoners and the general disrespect for fundamental rights.
Criticism of Brazil
Campbell singled out the United States for interventionism; Colombia for crimes against indigenous leaders and drug trafficking; to Brazil for racism and discrimination; Costa Rica for corruption and even cited the case of the investigation of the “Panama Papers“ to attack that country, Ecuador, Chile and Uruguay.
“The abuses and negligence of its Government (of Brazil) are also notorious, evidently having committed crimes against humanity against its own people, due to its denial of covid-19, and which has resulted in the death of more than 600 thousand Brazilian sisters and brothers“, he pointed out to the Brazilian Administration.
An investigation of CONFIDENTIAL demonstrated that the Ortega regime has downplayed the pandemic, hidden more than 6000 deaths of the same in the country between March and August 2020, while the official figures register 210 deaths in 20 months since the first case appeared in Nicaragua.
The representative of Brazil in the OAS, Fernando Simas Magalhães, rejected Campbell’s questions, whose words he described as “rough“ and “unfriendly“.
“It is actually a piece of fiction, where he talks about intimidation, and he must be talking about the hundreds of prisoners of political prisoners in his country, including (especially) all the presidential candidates who were deprived of their political rights and to freely participate in elections in Nicaragua“said Simas, who further argued that Campbell, speaking of “denialism“Surely he was referring to the denial of the rights of Nicaraguans.
The Nicaraguan electoral process, which the regime defends as a free act, developed without political competition, after the justice system under Ortega’s control arrested 39 opponents since May — seven of them presidential candidates—, while harassment of the general population has intensified. The electoral structures are also in the hands of the ruling party.
The resolution approved at the OAS regrets that the Ortega regime has ignored the efforts of the international community to help the country overcome the crisis. In the organization, a working group was even created since August 2018, five months after the crisis caused by the repression against thousands of protesters who called for a change of government, dissatisfied with Sandinismo, broke out.
The resolution was presented by Canada that, since Thursday, through his foreign minister Melanie Joly, regretted that the president removed the Central American country of the democracies of the hemisphere, prompting a sour response from the Nicaraguan representative, Michael Campbell, asking for “respect” from Nicaragua.
Since November 9, one day before the General Assembly meeting that ended this Friday, the general secretary Luis Almagro he had questioned the electoral process and had pointed out the government’s control over electoral structures, but also the complicity of the parties that appeared on the ballot and that analysts identify as government allies. The questions had also focused on the count without the slightest transparency, in which the only clear thing so far was the triumph of Ortega with 75% of the preferences.
So far, in addition to the pronouncements of the countries, five former presidents, Laura Chinchilla (Costa Rica), Luis Guillermo Solís (Costa Rica), Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazil), Juan Manuel Santos (Colombia), Jorge Tuto Quiroga (Bolivia) They have spoken out because the countries of the continent give an urgent response to what happened in Nicaragua.
Ortega has been described by Chinchilla and Quiroga as a new Kim Jong-Um (North Korean dictator) in Central America. In general terms, the Nicaraguan regime has defended its “sovereignty”, while it rages against political prisoners whom the ruler considers traitors, without a country, “sons of bitches” as he said on the day of the celebration of his “victory.” .
