Daniel Ortega’s regime will withdraw from Brasilia the ambassador it had in the Brazilian capital. This Thursday, the government of Nicaragua announced that its representative would end her functions. Itamaraty downplayed the gesture, implying it was just an exchange of diplomats. Government sources also said the post had already been informed that a process to approve a new representative was already underway, albeit in secret.
The Brazilian government points out that the diplomat has been in Brasília for ten years and will therefore be replaced at some point. With this Thursday’s decision, Ortega is removing Lorena del Carmen Martínez from office in Brazil and even changing a number of embassies around the world.
But Nicaraguan opposition voices immediately pointed out that the crosscontinental exchange comes at a time of tension between the Central American country and the international community. Ortega ousted his ambassador to Chile in January after Gabriel Boric’s government began accusing the regime of crimes and human rights abuses.
Brazil has not signed a joint statement by more than 55 governments condemning Ortega. Despite this, he was concerned at the United Nations about human rights abuses in the country.
Itamaraty also announced at the United Nations that it was ready to take in members of the Nicaraguan opposition who were the target of Daniel Ortega’s government’s decision to strip them of their citizenship.
But he avoided sanctioning the idea that there had been a crime against humanity, as the UN expert report states. The Brazilian government is looking for a negotiated way out of the crisis.
In February 2023, the Nicaraguan authorities stripped 222 people of their nationality and expelled them from the country, accusing them of being “traitors to the fatherland”. In the same month, the Managua Court of Appeal declared another 94 residents of Nicaragua and abroad to be “traitors to the homeland” and ruled that they should lose their nationality and have their property confiscated in favor of the state.
In a speech in Geneva, the Brazilian delegation stated that the government “has noted with extreme concern the decision taken by the Nicaraguan authorities to declare the loss of citizenship of more than three hundred Nicaraguan citizens”.
“The Brazilian government reaffirms its humanitarian commitment to protecting stateless persons and reducing statelessness and makes itself available to host the people affected by this decision under the terms of the special status provided for in Brazil’s Migration Law,” announced the Brazilian Ambassador the United Nations, Tovar da Silva Nunes.
Brazil also said in the UN Human Rights Council that it was “concerned” about human rights violations in Nicaragua. But the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva avoided naming President Daniel Ortega, despite UN allegations that his regime had committed crimes against humanity.
In its speech, Brazil did not even refer to the conclusion of the international experts and did not even signal support for the continuation of the investigation. Experts are calling for his mandate to be extended by a further two years.
Behind the scenes, the Brazilian government wants to exhaust the possibilities of dialogue with Managua before increasing the pressure. There is still a fear that such an attitude on the part of the international community could increase repression in the country and make international cooperation more difficult.
“The Brazilian government is following events in Nicaragua very closely and is concerned about reports of serious human rights violations and restrictions on democratic space in that country, in particular summary executions, arbitrary arrests and torture against political dissidents,” the delegation said. Brazilian.
But the government’s tone was to seek dialogue. “Brazil stands ready, in dialogue with the government of Nicaragua and all relevant stakeholders, to explore ways to address this situation constructively,” he said.