The Colombian government urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday to act against the “violations” of the Daniel Ortega government in Nicaragua after it stripped more than 300 of its opponents of their nationality, the Foreign Ministry said in a release.
“The authoritarianism that has been imposed in the sister republic has violated rules… The Prosecutor of the Court is asked to take action on such an alarming matter,” appealed the written message from the Foreign Ministry, alluding to the fact that these rules are “in force, non-derogable, absolute, peremptory, immutable in essence” and “precisely those whose violations the International Criminal Court should know about”.
Colombia He has stressed that he “rejects the dictatorial procedures” de Ortega after having “surprisingly and inhumanely exiled fellow citizens” and offered Colombian nationality to those who want it, joining countries like Chile and Mexico. The day before, the writer Sergio Ramírez Mercado, former vice president of Nicaragua in the 1980s, accepted Colombian nationality. On Thursday the also writer Gioconda Belli accepted the Chilean.
Colombia makes the request to the prosecutor despite the fact that Nicaragua has not ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, a judicial body that prosecutes serious crimes under international law.
The Ortega government released, exiled and then shipped to the United States 222 people, including political leaders, priests, students, and activists, and days later declared another 94 opponents “traitors to the homeland.” to those who took away their nationality and ordered to confiscate their real estate.
In the region, more governments have spoken out about the situation in Nicaragua. Ecuador called on Ortega to release the “political prisoners” and restore democracy, while he condemned the decision to confiscate the assets and withdraw the Nicaraguan nationality of the exiles.
“This legal aberration goes against the principles that regulate the life of nations and human rights,” Ecuador added in a statement on February 17.
The government of Chilean Gabriel Boric was also forceful with its rejection of Ortega’s actions through a statement in the press by his foreign minister Antonia Urrejola: “Every day it is more about a totalitarian dictatorship.”
From Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador remained cautious when talking about the situation in Nicaragua, but expressed that “nationality cannot be lost by decree” and offered asylum or nationality to the Nicaraguans who lost it.
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