Opposition Feels Ortega Won’t Negotiate Without Pressure

Central American Integration System remains silent, although North and South America and even Europe, condemn Ortega

The offices of the hotel where the OAS High Level Commission met with victims of Ortega repression were filled with Nicaraguan accents and pain

 

By Ivan Olivares (Confidencial)

HAVANA TIMES – Forcefulness. That was, no more no less, the request made by Nicaraguans who travelled to El Salvador to meet with the High Level Commission of the Organization of American States (OAS), which the regime of Daniel Ortega did not allow to enter the country.

Violeta Granera of the Blue and White National Unity, said they expect the report to be presented at the end of the 75-day term granted by the Commission, will be key to applying the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and separating the State of Nicaragua from within the OAS.

“Daniel Ortega has no will to dialogue, and will not do so if he is not pressured,” she said.

For his part, Marcos Carmona, Director of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH), recalled that “in 75 days, they will present a very objective report, based on the investigation they are doing, and we are confident that this report will be strong, as that of the United Nations.”

When considering the situation of more than 130 political prisoners who remain hostages of Daniel Ortega, and the tens of thousands of exiles that make up the new Nicaraguan diaspora, the strong opposition voice and former political prisoner, Irlanda Jerez, urged the governments of Central America to declare a humanitarian emergency in the region.

Felix Maradiaga, also of the Unity group, took the opportunity to regret “the silence of the Central American Integration System (SICA),” especially after the parliaments such as the European, Chilean, Canadian, and even the United States Congress in full have spoken condemning the regime, or directly applied sanctions.

Jerez’ expectation is that, given that the report been prepared by the High Level Commission “will contain blood, pain, grief and tears,” she hopes it will be “a forceful report.”

Violeta Granera explained that it is not only about making a request to the five representatives of the OAS, but that “we must work to make it so”, which is why they are providing the necessary information to achieve it.

And, if forcefulness is what they want, that seems to be what they will get.

Carlos Trujillo, United States Ambassador to the OAS, told the program “Esta Noche” (Tonight), which is transmitted online, that “we hope to meet with the Government, but it will not be necessary, because we have the necessary information to make the report,” which he labelled as “forceful.”

Nothing is normal

Far from the “normality” that the regime of Daniel Ortega intends to simulate by sending his police and his paramilitaries into the streets, the opposition leaders that met with the OAS Commission in San Salvador described to the press in that country the day-to-day life of the Nicaraguans.

Guillermo Incer of the Blue and White Unity told reporters that “nothing is normal in Nicaragua. It is true that there are no more hordes killing as in 2018, but the repressive apparatus that murders peasants in rural areas, which occupies media outlets and confiscates NGOs, remains intact.

In doing so, he recalled the theft of the facilities where Confidencial, Esta Semana, Esta Noche and Niu worked, as well as those of 100% Noticias, or the recent closure of El Nuevo Diario.

“In Nicaragua there is a total disrespect for any type of freedom,” he insisted, consequently he requested the support of the Salvadoran people to continue denouncing the Nicaraguan predicament before the international community.

“If this conference had been in Managua, there would be 40 police patrols stationed in the surrounding area” to prevent the (press) coverage, and when we left the conference, we would suffer persecution and detentions,” he said.

“The obstacle that exists between democracy and freedoms in Nicaragua, is the dictatorship,” he stressed.

Felix Maradiaga raised the alert level, explaining how the country has entered a new phase of repression, which consists in the criminalization of the opposition leadership at all levels, which acts as a breeding ground for radicals acting supposedly on their own account, to start killing opponents.

Maradiaga listed in this scenario, the recent assassination of the US citizen Ariana Enid Martinez Garcia, which occurred at the hands of a paramilitary who acts under the impunity guaranteed by the Ortega government. 

“Afterwards they will say that these people acted on their own, but we all know that no gunmen or hitman acts independently in the Sandinista Front,” he pointed out.

Faced with this increasingly bleak and hopeless panorama, the released university leader Nahiroby Olivas once again advocated for the unity of all sectors that oppose the regime.

“We need to achieve internal agreements that would allow us to create the opposition unity to give forceful blows to the Ortega regime,” said Jesus Tefel, also from the Unity group, declaring that “we need to generate a state of dialogue that allows us to reach consensus around the principles and values on which the country to be founded,” although the repression makes this task difficult.

Regional risks

More than a phrase for propaganda, assuring that Daniel Ortega and his paramilitaries are a security risk and a rupture of regional order, is something that has a legal basis, Felix Maradiaga warns, recalling the Framework Treaty on Democratic Security in Central America, which was signed in 1995 and approved by the National Assembly in June 1996.

“It is clear that insecurity and instability in a country affects the region,” said the political scientist, who recent history has proven right, especially when remembering that Central American trade was stopped for several weeks, as a side effect of the citizens’ decision to build roadblocks to protect themselves from paramilitary attacks.

The aforementioned Framework Treaty emphasizes that there can only be armed bodies mandated by the Law, so that the existence of an irregular paramilitary army in the country directly violates the spirit of that agreement.

Article three indicates that “in order to guarantee the security of the individual, the Parties commit themselves that all actions carried out by the public authorities be framed in their respective legal system and full respect for international instruments on human rights.”

Article four, for its part, details that “each of the Parties shall establish and maintain at all moments effective control over their military or public security forces, by constitutionally established civil authorities; ensure that these authorities fulfill their responsibilities within that framework and will clearly define the doctrine, missions and functions of those forces and their obligation to act only in that context.”