10 de octubre 2022
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The approval by consensus of a resolution on Nicaragua during the 52nd General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), on October 7 in Lima, Peru, is perceived by Nicaraguan analysts as evidence of the isolation of the Ortega-Murillo regime by the international community.
The resolution calling on the dictatorship to “immediately release all of its political prisoners” and “cease the repression and arbitrary detention of Catholic Church leaders,” was approved by consensus by the 32 delegations present at the regional meeting, although the delegations of Honduras, El Salvador and St. Vincent and the Grenadines requested to add clarifying notes.
Countries such as Mexico and Argentina, which had refused to condemn the Nicaraguan regime in international forums, have stopped alleging self-determination to overlook the human rights violations. “Ortega has surpassed all limits that could be ignored, limits that are laxer than those we Nicaraguans have. However, now, he no longer has those friendships in the hemisphere,” assessed the former deputy, Eliseo Nunez.
The effects of this unanimous support in the OAS will be seen “in the medium term,” believes Nunez. The Inter-American system does not have “any tool that will allow the use of force.” But if trade relations with the Ortega regime begin to cool off, it will have to face “many hurdles” for the approval of loans in organizations such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, where “these countries have governors,” he added.
A new attempt at dialogue
In the context of the OAS General Assembly, the delegations of Chile, Canada, the United States and Costa Rica also promoted an initiative to make further efforts to engage in dialogue with the Nicaraguan regime.
Chile’s Foreign Relations Minister, Antonia Urrejola, pointed out during her speech in the General Assembly on Friday, October 7, that the initiative entitled “Political crisis and Human Rights in Nicaragua” contains the proposal to create a high-level commission with the mandate to offer the Nicaraguan government a space to discuss all relevant matters.
Urrejola, who is closely familiar with the situation of Nicaragua and who served as president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), described the situation in Nicaragua as one of the “more serious regional crisis.”
“We want to call attention to the most serious regional crises, beginning with Nicaragua and the gradual increase of people arbitrarily deprived of their freedom for their ideas, the closure of media outlets, annulment of civil organizations, persecution of members of the Catholic Church, journalists, and human rights defenders,” Urrejola highlighted.
Eliseo Nunez noted that the creation of this high level commission is “something positive,” because “if Ortega accepts it and there is a negotiation, then be it welcome, because there would be the possibility that the prisoners will get out and of an opening, because that is what the commission would request. If Ortega does not accept, he will simply make a position clear that he does not want to negotiate with anyone,” he commented.
Unanimous condemnation
Meanwhile, former Nicaraguan Ambassador to the OAS, Arturo McFields, who publicly rebelled against the Ortega regime, celebrated the way the resolution on Nicaragua was approved, something he recalled had not been seen “since 2018,” when the regime brutally repressed the massive protests, leaving a trail of more than 350 dead, a thousand political prisoners and more than 100,000 Nicaraguans in exile.
The resolution was approved “more than unanimously, by consensus, there was no need to put it to a vote,” noted McFields. Although “El Salvador, Honduras and St. Vincent and the Grenadines were not really pleased and placed comments expressing their concerns… but it is a day of victory because the dictatorship was dealt a hard blow,” he added.
The former ambassador recalled that this week the Argentinian justice system also opened a criminal investigation against Ortega and high-level officials of his regime for committing crimes against humanity. Furthermore, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Court/IAHR) this week demanded the immediate release of 45 prisoners of conscience.
- You can also read: OAS condemns harassment of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua
“It is a victory for the Nicaraguan people. Will Ortega leave tomorrow? No, because a fifteen-year dictatorship will not leave in 15 minutes, but we are winning, we are advancing and the dictatorship will not last forever,” McFields pointed out.
Nunez emphasized that “today you find an Ortega much more isolated, more fissured, but he still has the capacity to remain in power.” However, he warns, “if this isolation we are currently seeing does not stop, Ortega will finish off the money from the loans he currently has and won’t have anywhere to get more from” to support himself in the medium term.
This article was originally published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times
