Nicaragua withdraws ambassador to Colombia amid tense relations

Nicaragua has revoked the appointment of its ambassador to Colombia, Harold de Jesús Delgado, in a move that further strains already tense bilateral relations. The presidential decree, published in the official gazette La Gaceta, nullified Delgado's ambassadorship to Bogotá, a position he assumed on February 19, 2024.

This diplomatic action comes just two weeks before Colombia's president-elect, Abelardo de la Espriella, is set to take office. De la Espriella's designated foreign minister, Omar Bula Escobar, had previously announced that Colombia would not establish diplomatic missions in either Cuba or Nicaragua, stating, "We do not want to support dictatorships. Let that be very clear."

The relationship between Nicaragua and Colombia has been fraught with tension, exacerbated by a dispute before the International Court of Justice concerning their continental shelf in the Caribbean Sea. Relations further deteriorated in September 2024 when then-Colombian President Gustavo Petro expressed solidarity with Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli after her property was expropriated. Petro likened Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

In response to Petro's comments, Ortega publicly denounced him as "trash," "traitor," and an "agent of the Yankee empire." Earlier in August 2023, Nicaragua rejected Colombia's "interventionist" stance on the closure of the Jesuit University of Central America (UCA) in Managua, calling it "insolence and vulgar ignorance" after Colombia's Foreign Ministry had voiced concern over the confiscation and condemned measures limiting freedoms in Nicaragua.

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basura