Miami (USA), November 19 (EFE). – The US government described this Sunday Nicaragua’s withdrawal from the Organization of American States (OAS) as “desperation” and a strategy by President Daniel Ortega to evade justice for “atrocious human rights violations.”
The country’s withdrawal from the OAS – which takes effect today – and human rights abuses in the Central American country “are an affront to the Western Hemisphere’s commitment to democracy,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
President Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, seek to “further isolate Nicaragua from the international community,” the spokesman said.
He added that this “demonstrates their desperation to thwart any efforts by the OAS or like-minded partners to hold them accountable for egregious human rights abuses.”
“Its abuses include the unjustified detention, sentencing and mistreatment of political prisoners, including Bishop Rolando Álvarez, attacks on independent journalists and the forcing of hundreds of civil society organizations and educational institutions to close or transfer their activities to the state,” it said Publication of the report.
The Nicaraguan government announced the decision to terminate the OAS charter – which initiates Nicaragua’s final withdrawal and exit from that organization – in November 2021, a few days after Ortega’s re-election to the fifth term in elections that the organization described as illegitimate.
The State Department emphasized today that despite Ortega and Murillo’s rejection of the OAS Charter, “Nicaragua remains subject to its human rights and governance obligations under remaining treaties and instruments, including the American Convention on Human Rights.”
Miller emphasized that the United States and other OAS partners will continue to “explore all available and appropriate tools to hold Ortega, Murillo and their deputies accountable for their actions.”
The spokesman called on the Nicaraguan authorities to fulfill their obligations and follow the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Nicaragua has been in a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has worsened following the November 2021 elections in which President Ortega, in power since 2007, was re-elected for the fifth and fourth consecutive times. EFE
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