The surprising announcement made by the Nicaraguan representative to the Organization of American States (OAS), the journalist Arturo McFields, denouncing the police state and the oppression of the Ortega regime against public servants, triggered a media offensive by the propaganda apparatus of the dictatorship to undermine the official’s complaint.
After McFields’ intervention before the OAS Permanent Council shake up Nicaraguan politicsthe regime’s first reaction was to ensure that the diplomat was no longer Nicaragua’s representative before the regional body, which was massively replicated by the dictatorship’s propaganda media.
“Mr. Arturo McFields does not represent us, so none of his statements are valid. Our representative before the OAS is Ambassador Francisco Campbell Hooker, duly accredited,” says a brief statement issued by the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the incident.
However, a review by CONFIDENTIAL and consultations with political analysts, reveals that this information is false, and that the regime violated diplomatic procedures to officially ensure that Campbell Hooker is the accredited representative before the OAS.
McFields tests as ambassador to the OAS
This Monday, March 21, the regime, through its propaganda media, reported the participation of McFields as a representative of Nicaragua in the OAS session on Wednesday, March 23, within the framework of the V Inter-American Week of Afro-descendants in the Americas.
“Nicaragua’s ambassador to the OAS, Arturo McFields, stressed that within the framework of these important celebrations, the Permanent Mission to the OAS will be presenting stories of Afro-descendant characters, paintings, and films of men and women from our beautiful Caribbean Coast,” he quotes. a publication of El 19 Digital, the regime’s propaganda portal, this Monday.
? #NOW | But a publication made two days ago on the official website El 19 Digital still cites Arturo McFields as Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States. @OEA_oficial ➡ https://t.co/OOjXALgWsf pic.twitter.com/Wm8a98Uo8S
— Confidential Nicaragua (@confidencial_ni) March 23, 2022
the propaganda media of the dictatorship, they also recorded the appointment of McFields and the delivery of credentials to the Secretary General of the OAS, Louis Almagro on November 5, 2021.
What’s more, the presidential agreement 183-2021signed by Daniel Ortega, cites “appoint Comrade Arturo McFields Yescas, as permanent representative of the Republic of Nicaragua, with the rank of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)”.
Removal was as Minister Counselor
McFields was removed from office and was as Minister Counselor of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Nicaragua to the OAS, according to La Gaceta of October 29, 2021.
However, diplomatic sources explained to CONFIDENTIAL that this removal is not linked to McFields’ position as “permanent representative of the Republic of Nicaragua, with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary” established in agreement 183-2021, a position he holds to date, when he made his speech before the Council Permanent, denouncing the outrages of the dictatorship.
McFields even intervened as Nicaragua’s representative to the OAS on February 18, 2022, when the OAS Permanent Council met to address Nicaragua’s sociopolitical crisis. In this intervention, McFields, in tune with the position of the regime, disqualified the session of the organism.
“The delegation of the Republic of Nicaragua before this Permanent Council rejects in the strongest and most categorical manner this infamous call for a new Session of the OAS Permanent Council to address the situation in Nicaragua,” McFields said that day.
“We want to make it very clear that we are not an issue on Washington’s ideological agenda, we are not a political experiment, we are not anyone’s backyard, nor are we part of the ministry of colonies, we are the sovereign homeland of Augusto César Sandino and Benjamín Zeledón . Our sovereignty and validation do not come from this dying and shameful organization, but from the Nicaraguan popular will, from a free homeland, where the people are and will be president,” he added.
Speech by Arturo McFields before the OAS on February 18, 2022
Regime establishes family feud in the OAS
Another irregularity is related to the announcement of Francisco Campbell Hooker as accredited ambassador to the OAS made by the regime.
The presidential agreement 181-2021, published on October 20, 2021, reports the appointment of Michael René Campbell Hooker, as “alternate permanent representative of the Republic of Nicaragua, with the rank of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)”.
This means, according to diplomatic norms, that in addition to McFields, the other really accredited representative before the regional body is Michael René Campbell Hooker.
In addition, Michael René Campbell Hooker is the son of Francisco Campbell Hooker, which leaves the Nicaraguan mission to the OAS as a family feud promoted by the Ortega regime.
Fed up inside the regime is credible, says analyst
For the political analyst and former deputy Eliseo Núñez Morales, the complaint made by McFields about the pressures that exist within the regime to prevent any flexibility with the police state imposed in Nicaragua, is plausible.
“It is credible that within the regime there is already a weariness of all this authoritarian drift that affects both the opponents, as well as those who are inside the regime,” he said.
During his speech at the OAS on Monday, McFields reported that a few days before announcing the beginning of the process of leaving Nicaragua from the OASexposed in a virtual meeting with the Foreign Ministry and a team of presidential advisers the alternative of releasing 20 elderly political prisoners and another 20 with severe health problems.
“This would be something humanitarian and politically intelligent, since no one should die in jail being innocent or due to lack of minimal or non-existent health conditions. Nobody paid attention to me. At that moment I was told, ‘we’re not even going to take note of that comment, because you could lose your job and right, the more you give him, the more he wants.’ In the Government nobody listens and nobody speaks. I tried several times, for several months, but all the doors were closed to me, ”said McFields in his intervention.
“That Foreign Ministry meeting shows how pathetic this regime is. It shows the terrible fear that there is inside to propose things. Credit to McFields’s bravery. Surely the regime is already looking for anything to affect Arturo or his family in Nicaragua. What he cannot deny is that this incident is a symptom that there is hope, since the people inside the regime are fed up,” added Núñez Morales.
