The outlandish theater set up for July 19, 2022, enlivened by the verses of Rosario Murillo, cumbia dances and dictatorship propaganda, could not hide a fact that hits hard the pride of Ortegaism, and it is the evident isolation that lives the regime, despite its desperate attempts to show that the so-called second stage of the Sandinista Popular Revolution supposedly has friends in the world.
That day, a rambling Daniel Ortega literally turned his back on his supporters and dedicated his 45-minute speech to the only president who accompanied him at the event for the 43rd anniversary of Nicaragua’s victory over the Somoza dictatorship: Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a small island with a little more than 100 000 inhabitants, whom Murillo called “Uncle Ralph”in an attempt to demonstrate false familiarity.
Even key representatives of the dictatorship before the international community such as the lawyer Paul Reichler, who worked for 20 years as Nicaragua’s international legal adviser before the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, resigned in the course of 2022 due to the impossibility of defending and justify the abuses of the regime.
“You are no longer the Daniel Ortega whom I respected so much, admired, I loved and proudly served for so many years. It is inconceivable to me that the Daniel Ortega, whom I proudly served, would have destroyed democracy and established a new dictatorship, not unlike the one he himself helped overthrow,” Reichler wrote in his resignation letter to Ortega.
So did Arturo McFields, Nicaraguan ambassador before the Organization of American States (OAS), who resigned in full session of the Permanent Council.
“I take the floor on behalf of the political prisoners imprisoned by the Daniel Ortega regime and the more than 350 deaths as a result of the repression of the regime and its paramilitaries. I take the floor on behalf of the thousands of public servants at all levels, civilian and military, forced by the regime to pretend, to fill vacancies and repeat slogans, because if they don’t they lose their jobs. Denouncing the dictatorship of my country is not easy, but continuing to remain silent and defending the indefensible is impossible, ”said McFields during his intervention at the OAS session.
Nicaragua continues to be a formal member of the OASuntil the completion of the resignation process scheduled for November 19, 2023. Due to this, the political and human rights crisis in the country was once again addressed during the last General Assemblyin which the serious isolation suffered by the Ortega dictatorship was recorded.
The 32 delegations present at the General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution demanding the dictatorship release “immediately all political prisoners” and “cease the repression and arbitrary detention of the leaders of the Catholic Church.” The resolution had no indications against it.
Alliances with Russia, China and Iran
Faced with this isolation from the international community, Ortega opted to vindicate his political and ideological alliances with the diminished block of Alba in Latin America, in addition to Russia, China and Iran.
In May of this year, the regime signed a cooperation agreement with Iranian oil authorities, which among several points highlighted the recovery of the construction project of the “El Supremo Sueño de Bolívar” refinery. Neither this nor any of the other agreements signed were executed during the course of 2022.
The case of China is not very different. The dictatorship expelled and confiscated the diplomatic representation of Taiwan, its most loyal cooperator in 14 years, to embrace the promises of the People’s Republic of China.
One year after the reestablishment of diplomatic relations, a special report from CONFIDENTIAL detailed the poor exchange trade between China and Nicaragua, in addition to the meager miscellaneous aid that the regime received from the Asian country.
The dictatorship strengthened cooperation ties in military, intelligence and espionage matters with Russia, prompting the US warningDaniel Ortega’s main antagonist in his political speeches and ironically, Nicaragua’s number one trading partner.
The only trip that Ortega made outside the country was to participate in the Alba Summit, held in Cuba, in which he defended the alleged “aggressions” against the regime of this island and Venezuela, and lashed out at the United Nations, in a event that had no political or economic significance on the international agenda. The dictator closes the year lonelier and more isolated, receiving crumbs from the few friends he has left in the world.
