USA: Nicaragua’s departure from the OAS represents “another step away from democracy”

The State Department of USA said Sunday that the formal withdrawal of Nicaragua of the Organization of American States is “another step further from democracy”.

The OAS has long criticized human rights violations under Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. The president, who governs alongside his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, has rejected these criticisms and, in November 2021, began the two-year process to leave the OAS.

“The withdrawal of the Ortega/Murillo regime from the OAS is another step further away from democracy and further isolates Nicaragua from the international community”tweeted US State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Neither Ortega’s office nor the government commented on the matter on Sunday.

The OAS said it will continue to closely monitor democracy and human rights in Nicaragua, even after the country leaves the organization, to which it belonged since 1950.

According to a resolution at the beginning of the month approved by the permanent council of the OAS, the organization will continue “paying special attention to the situation in Nicaragua” and will try to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country.

Arturo McFields, Nicaragua’s representative in the OAS until he publicly denounced Ortega and Murillo in 2022, said earlier this month that Nicaragua’s withdrawal is a “hard blow to the fight to defend human rights and democracy.” But he felt motivated by the OAS resolution.

Ortega’s government has attempted to suppress critical voices since popular street protests in April 2018 turned into a referendum on his government. After the protests were violently quelled, with some 355 people killed and hundreds imprisoned, the government continued to silence institutions it perceived as supporting the protesters.

Among the targets have been private universities, the Catholic Church, civil society organizations and tens of thousands of people who have gone into exile.

The Ortega government began a two-year process to exit the OAS in November 2021, shortly after the body joined others in the international community in condemning the elections, widely considered flawed, that gave it the last mandate to Ortega. The last country to leave the OAS was Venezuela in 2019.