The OAS asked the Nicaraguan government this Friday to “cease all violations of human rights” and release political prisoners, in a resolution adopted unanimously during its annual assembly in Washington and involved in controversy over objections from Brazil.
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Hundreds of opponents were detained in Nicaragua in the context of the repression that followed the 2018 protests against President Daniel Ortega, re-elected in 2021 elections, with his rivals in jail or in exile. In protest against the refusal of the Organization of American States to recognize these elections, Nicaragua asked to leave the organization, which will take place in November.
In the resolution, the supreme body of the OAS calls on the government to “cease all violations of human rights and respect civil and political rights, such as religious freedoms and the rule of law, and to refrain from all forms of intimidation.” against the press, religious communities and NGOs. It also urges him to “immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners,” as the OAS bodies have asked him to do, and to “rescind the rules” that deprive opponents of their nationality, such as the 222 former exiles. this year to the United States.
The country must cooperate, he adds, with international human rights organizations, “including through access to its territory.” The OAS, which has already adopted similar resolutions in the past against Ortega, declares itself “deeply concerned by reports of persecution” of religious communities that “suffer arbitrary detention, harassment, and unjustified expulsion.”
– “Alarm” –
Consequently, it asks him to “refrain from repressing and arbitrarily detaining leaders of the Catholic Church and to provide information on the physical and psychological health of Bishop Rolando Álvarez,” who “is kept in isolation.” The bishop was arrested in 2022 and sentenced to 26 years in prison for, among other charges, “undermining national integrity.”
The Vatican’s charge d’affaires has left the country and diplomatic relations between Managua and the Catholic authorities are on the verge of breaking off after statements by Pope Francis, who described the Ortega government as a “rude dictatorship.”
The OAS also declares itself “alarmed” by the prohibition and confiscation of the assets of more than 3,000 NGOs in the country and private universities, accused of violating the laws. And he comes out in defense of the press by demanding that Nicaragua avoid “all forms of intimidation and harassment.”
As the organization’s general secretary, Luis Almagro, explained at a press conference, the text “is binding” because to leave “you have to be up to date with all your obligations, both quantitative and non-quantitative, and you are not up to date on any of them.” . Once approved, the US ambassador to the OAS, Francisco Mora, called for “maintaining pressure on the Nicaraguan government” and asked “the regime to take immediate steps to restore democracy.”
– More pressure –
The president of the General Assembly, Dominican Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez, affirmed at a press conference that the resolution contains the two paths to follow: “Continue with the political dialogue at the highest level” and an “increased pressure.” The resolution aroused controversy after Brazil introduced changes to the initial draft presented by the United States, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, and Antigua and Barbuda that made it less forceful but without altering its essence.
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has undertaken what he considers a path of dialogue on several fronts, such as the war in Ukraine after the Russian invasion, and with two governments accused of human rights abuses: that of Ortega and of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro. He did not join the declaration signed by more than 50 countries that denounces “crimes against humanity” in Nicaragua, according to a report by a group of UN experts.
