The Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, called the Nicaraguan elections “illegitimate.”
The Organization of American States (OAS) inaugurates its general assembly this Wednesday in a turbulent context after Daniel Ortega won the elections in Nicaragua without strong opponents and with the pandemic very present for the second consecutive year.
The Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, dismissed the Nicaraguan elections as “illegitimate” and called for measures to be taken in the face of “the clear violation of the Democratic Charter.”
The United States considers that the Central American country has become a “dictatorship based on personalism and family power,” in the words of Ricardo Zúñiga, assistant secretary for affairs of the Americas at the US State Department.
“Autocratic regime”, “mockery”, “announced fraud” and “pantomime” are some of the terms used by the international community to describe Sunday’s elections, in which Ortega faced five unknown right-wing candidates, accused of collaborate with the government to validate the process.
Since June, the Nicaraguan authorities have outlawed three parties and arrested 39 social activists, politicians, businessmen and journalists. They join the 120 opponents imprisoned since the 2018 protests that demanded Ortega’s resignation and that resulted in hundreds of deaths.
There are few exceptions within the international community that support Managua. Russia estimates that the elections were held “in accordance with the law”, Cuba condemned a “cruel campaign” against the regime, Bolivia believes that democracy has been strengthened and Venezuela called for “rejecting Washington’s interference in Latin America.”
Faced with the Nicaraguan crisis, the OAS could adopt the suspension of the Central American country from the organization.
In June, Almagro declared himself in favor of activating the mechanisms to apply Article 21 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
Under this article, a member state can be suspended if it breaks the democratic order and diplomacy has not been successful in solving the problem. In this case, the country should continue to comply, however, with its human rights obligations and the OAS would continue working to restore democracy in the suspended state.
Virtual assembly
The general assembly, which runs until Friday, takes place for the second year virtually due to the covid-19 pandemic, which has exposed regional inequalities in vaccination.
According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the cases of covid-19 have been decreasing for several weeks in the region, where the International Monetary Fund (IMF) foresees a growth for this year of 6.3%.
Guatemala is the host country of this general assembly, under the motto “For a renewed America.”
A new America where economic recovery will only be possible within a framework of “full validity of rights and freedoms”, with governments with a democratic vocation, with legal, economic and social security, Almagro declared this Tuesday, during a private sector forum prior to the conclave.
To strengthen the region, Guatemala is committed to adopting the Inter-American Business Charter, whose draft resolution is included in the agenda of the general assembly.
This letter, promoted by Colombia, could “constitute a very important tool for the acceleration of the recovery and economic reactivation” in the face of the crisis derived from the pandemic, stressed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, Pedro Brolo, in the forum . (I)
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