On Sunday, the government of Daniel Ortega closed the office of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Managua and brought forward the departure of the representatives of Nicaragua before that organization, from which He had already announced his retirement in November 2021.
(Also read: Debanhi Escobar’s family suspects rape and requests a new autopsy)
According to Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada, his country immediately stops participating in the OAS and withdraws the credentials of its representatives in Washington. “Nor will this infamous body, consequently, have offices in our country. Its local headquarters have been closed,” he said.
“Nicaragua expels the Organization of American States,” he assured. After the announcement, police officers remain for “protection” on the outskirts of
what was the headquarters of the OAS in Managua. No movement is observed inside the premises, according to photos and videos released by official media.
In a letter read through an official broadcast, Moncada said that “as of this date” Nicaragua ceases to be part “of all the deceitful mechanisms
of this monstrosity, call them the Permanent Council, call them commissions, call them meetings, call them the Summit of the Americas”.
“We will not have a presence in any of the instances of that diabolical instrument
misnamed OAS,” he said. The government of Ortega, a 76-year-old former guerrilla fighter in power since 2007, had announced at the end of last year the withdrawal of Nicaragua from the OAS, who ignored his election for a fourth consecutive term in November 2021, with his rivals and opponents imprisoned and accused of conspiring against him.
However, according to the protocols, the departure had to take place within a period of two years, so that Nicaragua could complete the pending commitments it might have with the organization.
The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) supported “the dignified, sovereign and coherent” decision of Managua to expel the OAS, according to a statement released by related government media. Venezuela, meanwhile, hailed Nicaragua’s resignation from the hemispheric organization as “brave,” calling it an “instrument of US imperialism.”
On March 23, the then permanent representative of Nicaragua to the OAS, Arturo McFields, surprised during his speech at a session of the Permanent Council, during which he described Ortega’s administration as a “dictatorship” and denounced the precarious conditions in which his opponents were arrested.
“I cannot understand the government’s motives, but this withdrawal takes place one month after my speech to the OAS,” McFields said this Sunday, in conversation with AFP. Although, for him, Ortega’s decision to withdraw early “is a great moral victory for the people of Nicaragua and for the political prisoners who are in the El Chipote prison.”
AFP
More news
President of Peru proposes controversial castration project for rapists
A divided France and a weak European Union: Macron’s challenges
#Nicaragua #expels #OAS #Managua #withdraws #organization