Former Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel D’Escoto Dies
HAVANA TIMES – The priest and former Nicaraguan foreign minister, Miguel D’Escoto, died on Thursday of a long illness, informed the first lady, vice president and official government spokeswoman, Rosario Murillo, reportó dpa news.
Speaking to the media, Murillo expressed the “deep sorrow and pain” of the Government over the death of D’Escoto, 84, who was one of the four priests sanctioned by the Vatican for supporting the Sandinista revolution (1979-1990).
Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann was born in Los Angeles, California, on February 5, 1933. Son of a diplomat very close to dictator Anastasio Somoza, he was ordained a priest of the Maryknoll Order and embraced Liberation Theology in the 1970s.
Prior to the overthrow of Somoza by the guerrillas of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in 1979, he was part of the Group of Twelve, a civic organization of noted opponents of the dynastic regime.
In 1984, while serving as foreign minister of the first government of Daniel Ortega, the Vatican forbade him to exercise the priesthood for refusing to leave his position as a government minister. Ernesto Cardenal (Minister of Culture), Fernando Cardenal (Minister of Education) and Edgard Parrales (representative to the OAS) received the same punishment.
After the Sandinista defeat at the polls (1990), D’Escoto was one of the few figures who remained loyal to Ortega, who upon returning to power in 2007 appointed him Nicaragua’s representative at the United Nations. In 2008, D’Escoto chaired the UN General Assembly for a one-year term.
Thank you, I corrected that error.
I agree with Paul Baker Hernandez regarding the importance of the D’Escoto and Nicaragua in challenging the US in the International Court of Justice in the Hague in 1986. Important also was his time chairing the UN General Assembly from 2008 to 2009. As the US CIA contra war raged on in Nicaragua in 2005, D’Escoto went on 30-day hunger fast. Then in February 2006 he engaged in a Via Crucis walk of 300 kilometers from Jalapa at the Honduran border to Managua. I was fortunate enough to accompany D’Escoto and the other participants for a day in the region of Esteli. As Paul says, Hasta siempre, compañero”.
As Foreign Minister, Padre Miguel also, and most importantly, challenged the United States in the World Court of Justice for its Contra War. In 1986 the Court condemned the US for terrorism, and called on it to pay Nicaragua at least US$17 billion in damages. True to its self-proclaimed role as world leader in democracy and freedom, the US refused to pay, pointblank. As Padre Miguel would often observe sadly, ‘Today, with reasonable interest, that would be worth, what? 50 billion 100 billion? Much, more more than our GNP. Just imagine how much Nicaragua could do with that, for the impoverished, for justice, for the planet.’ Hasta siempre, Companero.