The government of dictator Daniel Ortega closed this Sunday (24) the Office of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Nicaragua and advanced his departure from the organization, something he had already announced in November 2021.
The announcement was made by the country’s Chancellor, Denis Moncada, in a letter read in an official broadcast. Nicaragua immediately ceases to participate in the OAS and withdraws the credentials of its representatives in Washington. “Neither will this infamous organization, consequently, have offices in our country. Its local headquarters have been closed.”
Moncada added that the country is no longer part of “all the deceptive mechanisms of this aberration, be it the Permanent Council, commissions, meetings, or the Summit of the Americas.” “We will not have a presence in any of the instances of this diabolical instrument of the ill-named OAS”, he assured.
The departure comes a few weeks after the then permanent representative of Nicaragua to the OAS, Arturo McFields, surprised during his speech at a session of the permanent council in which he described the Ortega government as a “dictatorship” and denounced the precarious conditions in which its opponents were arrested.
The entity’s offices “have historically been in our country and have been part of a historic process of pacification in Nicaragua. Offices representing the peace accords in Nicaragua have been closed. The government is closing a door to peace,” McFields said.
As detailed by McFields, the OAS offices in Managua currently operated with a core administrative staff.
The government of Ortega, a 76-year-old former guerrilla in power since 2007, had announced at the end of last year Nicaragua’s withdrawal from the OAS, which did not recognize his election to a fourth consecutive term, with his rivals and opponents arrested and charged. to conspire against him.
The departure, however, had to take place within two years, so that Nicaragua could fulfill any outstanding commitments it might have with the organization, in accordance with OAS protocols.
