The Nicaraguan ambassador in Panama, Marvin Ortega Rodríguez, was removed from his position on Wednesday, two weeks after the Panamanian government questioned the decision of President Daniel Ortega to strip of nationality to 316 opponents.
The measure was adopted through a presidential agreement published in the official gazette The Gazette. The diplomat will be replaced by the journalist Consuelo Sandoval Meza as counselor minister of the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama with consular functions, he indicated.
However, the measure comes after the government of Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo questioned the Nicaraguan president’s decision to strip 316 opponents of their Nicaraguan nationality, 222 of whom were released from prison and deported to the United States.
Panama urged the Nicaraguan government “to guarantee the inescapable right of people to maintain a nationality, as a right enshrined in the legislation of all our countries.”
Among the 316 Nicaraguans stripped of their nationality are seven former presidential hopefuls released as part of the 222 “political prisoners” exiled on February 9as well as 94 opponents, mostly exiles, such as the writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli, the former Sandinista commanders Dora María Téllez and Luis Carrión, as well as 22 journalists.
Ortega’s unprecedented decision provoked criticism from human rights organizations and the offer from seven countries (Spain, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Brazil) to grant their nationality to “stateless” Nicaraguans.
Just a few days ago, the Nicaraguan government announced that it had proposed to the Vatican the “suspension” of diplomatic relations, amid increased tensions with the Catholic Church and three days after Pope Francis referred to the Ortega administration as a “Hitlerian dictatorship” and “rude.”
Nicaragua has been experiencing a serious political and social crisis since April 2018, when a civic revolt against the government was violently put down by the police and paramilitaries, causing 355 deaths, more than 2,000 injuries, 1,600 detainees at various times and at least 100,000 exiles. according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
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