The OAS approved a resolution that concludes that Nicaragua does not comply with the commitments of the Inter-American Democratic Charter

File photo of the OAS General Assembly

The Organization of American States (OAS) approved on Wednesday a resolution to ask Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to allow a diplomatic mission to enter the Central American country to initiate a dialogue on electoral reforms and the calling of new elections. Furthermore, during the assembly it was established that the Sandinista regime does not fulfill the commitments of the democratic charter.

The resolution was approved with the vote in favor of 25 of the 34 active members of the OAS (Cuba belongs to the organization but has not participated in it since 1962), eight countries abstained, including Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia and Honduras, while Nicaragua was the only one to vote against.

The initiative urges the Ortega regime to “urgently and as a first measure” release all political prisoners and accept a high-level “good offices” mission that must be authorized by the Permanent Council of the organization.

The mandate of the diplomatic mission will be to reach an agreement on how to achieve three objectives, starting with a comprehensive electoral reform.

The second objective of the diplomatic mission will be to revoke all laws that restrict political participation and limit human rights in Nicaragua.

And the third will be to initiate a dialogue with all political parties and other actors in Nicaragua with the aim of holding “early” presidential and parliamentary elections that are free, impartial and transparent, with “credible” international observation.

File photo of Daniel Ortega at a political event in Nicaragua (EFE / Esteban Biba)

Ortega won on November 7 in an election in which his political rivals did not participate because, in the previous months, the authorities of the Sandinista regime dissolved three political parties and arrested more than thirty opposition leaders, including seven presidential candidates. , including Cristiana Chamorro.

In reaction, the General Assembly of the OAS, the organism’s most important political forum, approved a resolution in which it assured that these elections lacked “democratic legitimacy” and were neither free, nor fair, nor transparent.

Immediately afterwards, the Ortega regime accused the OAS of “interference” and announced that it intended to leave the organization, for which the OAS Charter, its founding document signed in 1948, denounced.

According to the body’s regulations, any country that denounces the OAS Charter has to wait two years for the withdrawal to become effective.

Beyond the diplomatic mission, the other key point of the resolution is that it resolves that “Nicaragua is not fulfilling the commitments assumed in the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” approved in 2001 to strengthen and preserve democracies in the American continent.

To “restore” compliance with the Inter-American Democratic Charter, the resolution asks the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, to request “urgently” a meeting with the Ortega regime to allow the diplomatic mission to enter the country.

Almagro must inform the OAS of his efforts no later than December 17, as established in the resolution.

Archive photograph of the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Uruguayan Luis Almagro (EFE / Lenin Nolly)

The Democratic Charter is a legal instrument that, in its articles 20 and 21, contemplates diplomatic procedures against a member state where there is “an alteration of the constitutional order” and, if these steps fail, it will smooth the process for its suspension, thereby leaving to participate in the agency’s programs.

To approve the suspension, the highest form of sanction that the OAS has, 24 votes are necessary, that is, two-thirds of the 34 countries that are active members of the organization.

In its 70-year history, the OAS has only suspended two states: Cuba and Honduras.

With information from EFE

Keep reading:

For the IACHR, Nicaragua has become a de facto police state under the Daniel Ortega regimeTravel forbidden: Daniel Ortega turns Nicaragua into a cage for his officials for fear that they will give information to the United StatesThey denounced that the Daniel Ortega regime hid between 6,000 and 9,000 deaths from coronavirus in Nicaragua

---