( Spanish) – The White House decided to extend for one year the declaration of Nicaragua as an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. according to an announcement published this Friday.
The statement, which was originally issued in 2018 during the first administration of today’s president-elect Donald Trump, it will remain in force for another year after November 27, 2024 by decision of Joe Biden, indicates the statement released by the White House.
The document justifies the position of the US government due to the violent response of the Nicaraguan authorities to the protests that began on April 18, 2018, the continued dismantling and systematic weakening of democratic institutions and the undermining of the rule of law by the government headed by Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, as well as their use of indiscriminate violence and repressive tactics against civilians.
Washington’s decision comes one day after the Nicaraguan Assembly generally approved a partial reform to the Nicaraguan Constitution, which grants practically absolute powers to President Ortega and his wife, Vice President Murillo, and opens the door for subordination of all the political bodies of the country to the presidency.
For it to come into force, the project must be approved in the next session that begins in January 2025.
The The UN criticized this Friday constitutional reform and warned that the proposed changes further aggravate the human rights crisis that Nicaragua is going through.
The human rights situation in Nicaragua has “worsened” because “it persecutes its own people, perpetrates crimes against the opposition and eliminates the social mobilization initiative,” said a report by an independent group of experts commissioned by the UN, released in February of this year.
On November 14, the Vatican confirmed the exile of Monsignor Carlos Enrique Herrera, thus becoming the third bishop expelled from Nicaragua for criticism of the Ortega and Murillo government. The religious had complained that the local authorities of Jinotega, his diocese, played the music too loud during his homilies. then sent a request for comment to the Nicaraguan government on this issue, with no response so far.
has once again requested a comment from the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry to find out its position on the recent accusations against the government. Previously, Ortega has disdained international criticism and even decided in 2021 to withdraw from organizations such as the OAS for “interference in internal affairs.” Rosario Murillo referred to the “paths of struggle against that ignominious poverty that the imperialists and their servants imposed on us” in her daily message, published this Friday on the official portal El 19 Digital.
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