20 de junio 2024
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The draft resolution on Nicaragua for the OAS General Assembly, which demands that Daniel Ortega’s regime “end impunity and release all political prisoners,” was approved “unanimously” by the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States on June 18.
A diplomatic source from the OAS Permanent Council explained to CONFIDENCIAL that, given the total consensus reached on the resolution, it is now sent “in a closed manner” for approval, without any modification, for the OAS General Assembly, which will be held between June 26 and 28 in Paraguay.
The resolution was promoted by Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda, the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru, and in the debates “had the support and active participation of the ambassadors of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia,” revealed the diplomatic source.
More Countries Participate in OAS Volunteer Group
This volunteer group was formed after Nicaragua left the OAS and is led by Canada and Chile as co-facilitators. More countries participated in the volunteer group than in the previous Working Group, and countries from all subregions joined the debates, including members of the Central American Integration System (SICA), such as Guatemala and Costa Rica, and Caribbean countries from Caricom, such as Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.
“The draft resolution had no opposition, and thus, something considered exceptional in the resolutions prepared by the Permanent Council for the General Assembly. The resolution was sent ‘closed,’ meaning consensually to the General Assembly plenary, and will not go to the General Committee for discussion but directly to the plenary for approval,” the source indicated.
The Content of the Resolution on Nicaragua
The initiative, known days ago, demands that Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s regime “immediately and unconditionally release all people who have been deprived of their liberty for political or religious reasons.” The number of these political prisoners is currently over 140.
Furthermore, it calls on OAS member states to “redouble their efforts to facilitate, through individual or collective actions, the cessation of human rights violations, ending ideological persecution whether political or religious.”
Additionally, it requests the recovery of democratic institutions and the rule of law in Nicaragua through a “constructive dialogue” that allows Nicaragua to fulfill its human rights obligations “including accountability by state institutions for failing to observe human rights.”
The text details the displacement situation of more than 270,000 Nicaraguans who have sought asylum worldwide; and express concern about the suppression of civic spaces through the cancellation of more than 3,000 civil society organizations, the stripping of nationality and political rights of more than 300 people, and the situation of at least 54 media outlets that have closed or were confiscated, and the more than 250 journalists forced into exile.
Restoring the Right to Enter and Exit the Country
The draft resolution called “Follow-up on the Situation in Nicaragua” emphasizes the need to restore the right of Nicaraguans to enter and leave the country without problems and insists “on the immediate end of impunity for state institutions and individuals who perpetrated serious human rights violations.”
It also calls on Daniel Ortega’s regime to respect all measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, “refrain from arbitrarily repressing and detaining evangelical church leaders, and provide information on the physical and psychological health of the 11 religious leaders of Puerta de la Montaña,” who are detained in maximum security facilities.
The draft resolution demands that the Government of Nicaragua “constructively engage with the inter-American human rights system, facilitating international scrutiny within the framework of international law, allowing the entry into its territory of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and its Special Rapporteur, Adherence Mechanism, as well as other competent international organizations.”
Nicaragua Outside the OAS
Nicaragua left the OAS on November 19, 2023, becoming the second Latin American country to voluntarily leave the organization, after Venezuela.
Nicaragua’s exit from the OAS occurred on the two-year anniversary of the Ortega-Murillo regime’s denunciation of the organization’s Charter. The dictatorship argued alleged and “constant interfering attitudes” of the regional organization, related to the approval of resolutions that condemned its abuses against the Nicaraguan people.
Human rights violations in Nicaragua make the OAS instruct the Permanent Council to stay informed within the framework of inter-American instruments about the situation in Nicaragua, “facilitating and articulating dialogue, negotiation, and visibility initiatives in pursuit of the objectives of this resolution, and within the limits of international law.”
This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.
