Eight countries of the Organization of American States (OAS) promoted a draft resolution “on the situation in Nicaragua“to be debated during the virtual general assembly that started this Wednesday, with the pandemic and the global warming as a backdrop.
Canada presented the draft resolution on his behalf and on behalf of USA, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Antigua and Barbuda to ask the Permanent council to conduct “an immediate collective evaluation (…) to be completed by November 30 and take appropriate action.”
The text goes to the general commission, which debates it, and will be voted on Thursday or Friday. To be adopted, a simple majority of the votes of the Member States is required, that is, 18 out of 35.
Daniel Ortega won the elections Sunday in front of five unknown right-wing candidates accused of collaborating with the government and after having removed opponents who could overshadow him.
This draft resolution does not openly imply the activation of article 21 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, by virtue of which a member state can be suspended if it breaks the democratic order and diplomacy does not work.
But it could lead to its activation based on the conclusions of “the collective evaluation”.
In June the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, declared himself in favor of activating the mechanisms to apply Article 21.
In the text, the eight countries declare that the elections “were not free, fair or transparent and do not have democratic legitimacy.”
They reiterate the call “for the release of all political candidates and prisoners” and an end “to the arrest and harassment of independent media and members of civil society.”
Since June, the Nicaraguan authorities have outlawed three parties and detained 39 social activists, politicians, businessmen and journalists, in addition to the 120 imprisoned opponents who remain since the protests that in 2018 called for Ortega’s resignation and which resulted in hundreds of deaths. .
Part of the international community, especially the European Union (EU) and the United States, considers that the Nicaraguan elections were a sham.
In a dialogue on Wednesday with the delegations of the OAS permanent observers, Spain insisted that “together with the rest of the European Union it does not recognize the results of the elections.”
The American President, Joe Biden, promulgated a law that enables new sanctions against the Ortega government, which Washington considers a “dictatorship.”
Managua defends itself
The Nicaraguan Ambassador to the OAS, Arturo Mcfields Yescas, responded to the criticism: “It was voted freely, free of pressure, free of blackmail, free of interference and free of sanctions.”
The diplomat asked the OAS to look to the future and not “to the past with neo-colonialist and interventionist positions.”
There are few exceptions within the international community that support Nicaragua. Russia, Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela stand out.
The situation in Venezuela
In the dialogue on Wednesday, the situation in Venezuela also came to light, under the government of Nicolas Maduro since 2013 and mired in a political, economic and social crisis that, according to the UN, led to the emigration of more than 5 million people.
If democracy falters in a country, the entire region suffers, estimated Colombia.
“We cannot faint by denouncing these deviations, the outrages and outrages of the Maduro dictatorship,” said the Colombian vice minister of Multilateral Affairs, Maria Carmelina Londoño.
The OAS, made up of 35 countries – although Cuba is not an active member and Venezuela itself is represented by a delegate of the opposition Juan Guaidó, recognized as interim president by more than 50 countries, considers that the Maduro government is an “illegitimate regime” since his re-election in 2018.
Access to vaccines
The general assembly, which lasts until Friday, takes place for the second year virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
48% of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean is fully immunized against Covid-19, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), but there are many inequalities between countries in access to vaccination.
“An international plan for equitable access to vaccines and vaccination must be launched,” Almagro insisted.
Under the slogan “For a renewed America”, the OAS assembly will also address economic reactivation to attack the structural causes of migration, according to Guatemala, host country of the conclave, as well as the conservation of the environment and the eradication of hunger.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx