Cuba’s Diaz Canel in Managua to Support Daniel Ortega

This Friday, March 29, the VIII meeting of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) is taking place. The only leaders present are Ortega, Miguel Diaz-Canel of Cuba, and Salvador Sanchez Ceren from El Salvador. The other Caribbean isles will all be represented by their foreign ministers or other delegates.

By Lucia Navas  (La Prensa)

HAVANA TIMES – Daniel Ortega, together with some of the few governments that are still allies of the Nicaraguan president, will participate today, March 29, in a summit in Managua.

In this meeting, it’s expected that the representatives will express their support for the Nicaraguan government’s negotiations with the opposition umbrella group Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy. 

The negotiations seek a way out of the socio-political crisis that the country has been sunk in for over eleven months due to the regime’s repressive measures against the population.

This Friday, the VIII meeting of the Association of Caribbean States will be held. Although the group is made up of 25 countries and nine other associated states, the only leaders present will be Ortega of Nicaragua, Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, and Salvador Sanchez Ceren, the outgoing president of El Salvador. The rest of the Caribbean isles will be represented by their foreign ministers or other delegates.

Sanchez Ceren and Diaz-Canel arrived yesterday in Managua and were received by a committee headed by Ortega’s son, Rafael Ortega Murillo, according to the official media.

Yesterday, the foreign ministers issued a declaration calling for “unity and political cooperation” among the Caribbean states, “as well as actions to confront the consequences of climate change.”

The declaration was read by Nicaragua’s deputy foreign minister, Valdrack Jaentschke. It included “a strong call for peace, for sustainable and durable economic development and for the protection of the Caribbean Sea.” There was also a call “to respect [the countries’] sovereignty and the people’s right to self-determination.”