Nicaragua deepens isolation with new expulsions and diplomatic ruptures

The Nicaraguan government this week deepened its international isolation by expelling the EU ambassador, breaking off diplomatic relations with the Netherlands and rejecting the arrival of the new assigned ambassador from the United States.

According to a diplomatic source, the ambassador of the European Union (EU) to Nicaragua, Bettina Muscheidt, left Nicaragua this Saturday, after being declared non grata by the Ortega government.

Muscheidt, who had taken office a year ago, will make a stopover in Mexico before taking a flight to Paris, a diplomatic source told AFP, who assured that the ambassador was "guarded" discreetly by civil police outside his residence before leaving, since "received instructions from the Nicaraguan authorities to stay at his home".

The government did not make an official statement on the expulsion of Muscheidt, who was reportedly summoned Wednesday by the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry to notify him verbally that he had to leave the country.

"It goes outside for non grata"tweeted however the official deputy Wilfredo Navarro.

The departure of Muscheidt, who was accompanied to the airport by European diplomats, occurs amid strong questions from Ortega against the EU, which has repeatedly called for an end to repression against opponents and applied sanctions against dozens of officials, relatives and relatives of the president. .

It also coincides with the government’s strong attack against the OAS, the UN, the United States, the Vatican and countries that have questioned the fourth consecutive term that Ortega obtained in 2021, with his rivals imprisoned or in exile.

In this context, Ortega announced on Friday the rupture of relations with the Netherlands, whom he accused of "interventionists" for criticizing its democracy and suspending funding for a hospital.

"Faced with the reiterated interfering, interventionist and neo-colonial colonialist position of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (…), Nicaragua informs the Government of that country of our decision to immediately discontinue diplomatic relations"reported the Foreign Ministry.

Shortly before, Ortega had assured in an official act that his government did not want to have relations "with that interventionist government".

"The severance of diplomatic relations is an exceptional and highly unusual step. Nor is it the wish of the Netherlands"a spokesman told AFP this Saturday, who regretted the reaction "disproportionate" from Managua.

The breakup occurred after the Dutch ambassador to Central America, Christine Pirenne, said Thursday during a visit to Managua that they would not finance the hospital.

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The measure upset Ortega, who exclaimed: "Get out!… Let him shout whatever he wants, all his miseries… get out".

A spokesman for the State Department said this Saturday that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, deposits "your utmost confidence" in the designated ambassador for Nicaragua, Hugo Rodríguez, whom the Ortega government did not authorize to act as such.

On Friday, the Nicaraguan vice president and first lady, Rosario Murillo, had stated that due to her positions "interfering"Rodriguez "It will not be admitted in our Nicaragua under any circumstances (…) so the imperialist gentlemen are clear: Hugo Rodríguez does not enter here".

Managua had expressed its opposition in July to that appointment to replace ambassador Kevin Sullivan, but the US Senate confirmed it on Thursday. In that hearing, Rodríguez reflected "accurately political positions" of the United States, said the aforementioned US spokesman.

Rodríguez, who has described the Ortega government as "dictatorship"also advocated removing Nicaragua from Cafta (Free Trade Agreement between Central America, the Dominican Republic and the United States).

The United States has also applied dozens of sanctions to officials and associates of Ortega for human rights violations and corruption.

Muscheidt was expelled after an EU delegation on Monday urged Nicaragua to "end the crackdown" against opponents, priests and independent media.

More than 200 opponents are imprisoned in the framework of the political crisis that Nicaragua has been experiencing since the opposition protests of 2018, which the government linked to an alleged failed coup promoted by Washington.

Among those detained are seven former presidential hopefuls and at least seven clerics, including Bishop Rolando Álvarez, a government critic under house arrest since August 19.

Ortega, a former guerrilla fighter re-elected three times since 2007, has described the Europeans as "fascists", "colonialists", "descendants of Franco" Y "hitler brothers".

Ortega’s latest decisions are added to the expulsion of the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag last March.

In November 2021, Nicaragua announced its withdrawal from the Organization of American States (OAS) and five months later it closed the organization’s office in Managua and brought forward the departure of its representatives from the country.

This year it also expelled the resident delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Thomas Ess, among others.

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