The United States is already in talks with other countries in the region to increase pressure on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega after Sunday’s elections, the head of Central America at the State Department, Patrick Ventrell, announced on Thursday.
Ventrell explained that Washington wants to work “multilaterally” and has started conversations with different partners in the region, in order to form a “broad coalition of countries” that can increase pressure against the Nicaraguan president and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo. .
“We will absolutely use the tools at our disposal,” said Ventrell, speaking at the event “Elections under Daniel Ortega: Implications for Nicaragua, Central America and Beyond,” organized by the Wilson Center and the Atlantic Council.
“Elections are a sham”
Ventrell also considered that next Sunday’s elections “will not have credibility because they are a sham.”
In the face of these elections, which have been questioned by different sectors after some thirty opponents were arrested, including seven aspiring presidential candidates, the official considered that Nicaragua is a state in “where there is a dictatorship,” and He warned that they will have to answer “as such.”
Ventrell considered Nicaragua “a warning” for the region and a “really clear case of a breakdown of the democratic order”, which the US will present in different multilateral forums, such as the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) next week and the Summit of the Americas, which this country will host in 2022.
Also on this day, the president of the Senate Foreign Committee, Democrat Bob Menéndez, advanced the possibility that the US will take more actions against Ortega and Murillo.
“Ortega’s actions, being a dictator, a tyrant, will not be accepted in the United States and there will be consequences,” said Menéndez, speaking to a group of journalists in Congress.
In the next few days, US President Joe Biden is expected to sign a law that has already been approved by the Lower House and Senate to increase sanctions against Ortega.
The so-called law to Enforce Compliance with Conditions for Electoral Reform in Nicaragua (Renacer) urges the Biden government to impose more sanctions and examine Nicaragua’s participation in the Free Trade Agreement with Central America (DR- CAFTA).
Asked about what actions Biden could take after the elections, Menéndez highlighted the possibility of imposing more economic sanctions against Ortega and Murillo, as well as reviewing Nicaragua’s membership of CAFTA.
“We have to look at our free trade agreement with Nicaragua. These treaties were made with a country that we hoped would be committed to democracy, respect for human rights and not to the imprisonment of all those who are running to run to represent the people, ”said Menéndez.
