Chilean President Gabriel Boric this Saturday condemned the decision by Daniel Ortega’s regime to revoke the citizenship of 94 Nicaraguans, including writers, journalists and human rights defenders. Boric used his intervention during the Ibero-American summit taking place in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) to forcefully reject the Nicaraguan government’s decisions against its opponents. “It is unacceptable that we remain silent in front of the Ortega family dictatorship [Rosario] Murillo in Nicaragua, who has just stripped 94 opponents of their citizenship and deported more than 200 political prisoners,” he mentioned in his speech.
In February, the Ortega regime announced that it would strip 94 Nicaraguans living in exile under pressure from their government of their citizenship. A few days earlier, 222 political prisoners had been unexpectedly released and sent to the United States. They were also stripped of their nationality and rights as Nicaraguan citizens. The regime accused them of “treason” and has since considered them “fugitives from justice”. Boric then expressed his disapproval of Ortega’s decision via his Twitter account, calling him a dictator, a word most Latin American leaders have avoided uttering in one way or another. And less in public.
This is the first international forum in which the Chilean President has voiced his dissatisfaction, in the same forum and a few meters from where Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada listened to his speech. “[Ortega] It does not seem to know that the homeland is carried in the soul and in the blood and is not removed by decree. Gioconda Belli, Sergio Ramírez or Dora María Téllez and many others know that very well,” emphasized the President, naming some of those affected.
The Chilean recalled the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and its aftermath to argue for democracy. “The Chilean dictatorship brutally taught us the risks of relativising democracy and human rights. And we have never, but under no circumstances and under no pretense, learned that this should be allowed,” he said. Boric added in his message a reference to the lessons learned in his country: “Today we see new ones across the world Risks and threats that threaten the democracy that has taken so much to build […] the problems of democracy are solved with more democracy and not with less”.
Boric also used his speech to advocate for action to reduce the gender gap, mainly on the issue of unpaid care, and to try to use the alliance of Iberoamerican countries to take joint action that would allow safe migration to the Region. “It must make us angry that a few people are taking advantage of this crisis and coming to our countries with the intention of making migration a business,” he said. It has also joined the group’s environmental projects and the pursuit of sustainability in the region. Finally, the Chilean President has expressed his concern about the incursion of criminal groups into Latin America. “There is no possible prosperity if we are not able to enforce the rule of law,” he stressed.
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