The European Commission was somewhat surprised by Nicaragua’s sudden decision to remove the post of ambassador from the ambassador appointed by the EU to represent the Twenty-Seven before the Ortega-Murillo regime. The community executive, who wants to avoid a total sever ties with Managua, takes time to analyze Tuesday’s unexpected diplomatic maneuver. For now, he’s limited to saying he’s “taking note” of a decision he hopes will only be “temporary.”
“We note the decision of the government of Nicaragua to suspend the appointment of the ambassador-designate of the European Union,” said Fernando Ponz on Wednesday, the spokesman for foreign affairs of the European executive, Peter Stano. Asked if the EU plans to reciprocate the measure, as it did in a previous diplomatic crisis last October, Stano has evaded a straight answer, claiming that Brussels interpreted Managua’s gesture as a “tentative decision” from which he hopes it can be undone.
“We remain convinced that full diplomatic relations and constructive dialogue should continue to be the norm in bilateral relations,” he said.
Brussels has thus committed itself to prudence so as not to further aggravate relations, which have been very tense since the violent crackdown on the protests in Nicaragua in 2018. In fact, the trigger for the new wave of outrage from Managua’s leadership was a brief European statement released on Tuesday commemorating the “sad” fifth anniversary of the start of those pro-democracy demonstrations that ended in “systemic repression.” , which has been exercised by the regime ever since.
With a rotating EU presidency that Spain will take over in just over two months, a country determined to put itself at the helm of the European bloc during its semester to converge and strengthen ties with Latin America, the idea is to be avoided a new pulse leading to another diplomatic crisis like the one in October. At that time, Brussels reacted to the expulsion of its ambassador Bettina Muscheidt from Managua with the persona non grata declaration of the Nicaraguan representative before the European institutions, Zoila Yanira Müller Goff, and the extension by one year until mid-October 2023 of the sanctions that have been in force since the end of 2019 against 21 citizens (including a son of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo) and three Nicaraguan units because of the “deteriorating political and social situation” in the country.
In Managua, European reactions and comments on his decision earlier this year to release and immediately deport more than 200 political prisoners, whom he stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship, have not been at all fond, as he did shortly thereafter with almost another hundred dissidents, from from whom he also confiscated property. Since then, Brussels has urged Nicaragua to “revoke” its decision, recalling that these actions constitute “a violation of the fundamental rights” of those affected and “international law”, which does nothing but “continue to isolate” Managua internationally.
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Something that is deepening for MEP Javi López with the renewed diplomatic setback in Managua. “Ortega’s diplomatic escalation against the European Union is another example of his international isolation and authoritarian drift,” said the Spanish socialist. For the President of the European delegation in the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (Eurolat), “only a comprehensive dialogue with the support of the main actors in the region will bring the country back to democratic standards”. Meanwhile, in statements to EL PAÍS, he assured: “The European Parliament will continue to denounce the very serious violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms under which the country lives and from which Nicaraguans suffer.”
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