Daniel Ortega defies the world. The former Sandinista guerrilla has taken a further step in his authoritarian one-upmanship and his logic of isolation by directly attacking Western diplomats. In recent days, the Nicaraguan authorities have thus expelled the ambassador of the European Union, severed diplomatic relations with the Netherlands and refused the entry of the ambassador of the United States.
Three days after being declared “persona non grata”, the European Union (EU) ambassador to Managua, Bettina Muscheidt, left the country on Saturday 1er October by a flight to Mexico, then Paris, announced a European diplomatic source. It was convened on Wednesday September 28 by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Denis Moncada. Nothing had officially filtered from their exchanges. But according to the local press, Mr. Moncada had motivated the decision to evict him by “interference and disrespect for national sovereignty” by the European Union.
“She was notified, orally, that she had to leave the country the same day, in complete violation of the Vienna Convention, explains the diplomatic source consulted by The world. Finally, she got to leave only on Saturday, but she was forced to stay at home until then, therefore de facto house arrest. » On Saturday evening, the EU’s external service had not yet reacted to the expulsion of its ambassador.
Severance of diplomatic relations with the Netherlands
On Monday September 26, before the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the EU delegation urged the regime to “to return the sovereignty of Nicaragua to the Nicaraguan people”, at “restore democracy” and to “release immediately and unconditionally” political prisoners. A speech that would have angered Managua. Some 200 opponents are currently in prison or under house arrest. In recent days, twenty-three of them have started a hunger strike.
On Friday, it was the Netherlands that came under fire from a beleaguered president, whose dozens of senior officials and relatives, including his own wife, Vice-President Rosario Murillo, are targeted by European and American sanctions, in retaliation for the government’s constant human rights violations.
Managua has thus decided to sever diplomatic relations with the government in The Hague, described as“interventionist” of “neocolonial” and of “pro-imperial” after its ambassador, Christine Pirenne, had informed that her country was giving up financing the construction of a hospital within the framework of the cooperation. Mr. Ortega accused Mr.me Pirenne, who returned to Costa Rica on Friday where she is based, for having held “a speech trampling on dignity” of the Nicaraguan people.
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