US says it will use regional body to isolate Nicaragua

The United States says it will use the Organization of American States to isolate Nicaragua after lawmakers approved constitutional changes that sharply restrict political opposition.

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war on democracy

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the move in a statement, accusing President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Co-President Rosario Murillo, of waging a “war on democracy” that “threatens our hemisphere’s stability and prosperity”. Washington plans to use an upcoming OAS meeting to press countries across the region to stop doing “business as usual” with Nicaragua.

Nicaraguan lawmakers passed the constitutional reform package on Tuesday. The measures largely ban opposition parties from participating in elections and extend the presidential term from six to seven years. The package would also dissolve political parties that receive foreign funding and exclude opposition members described by the government as “traitors” or “coup-plotters”.

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threatens our hemisphere’s stability and prosperity

The OAS decided last month to convene a meeting on Nicaragua, calling the situation “a problem of an urgent nature and of common interest to the American States”. Nicaragua withdrew from the organization in 2022 after repeated criticism of the Ortega government’s human rights record. The withdrawal took full effect in 2023.

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There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power.

Ortega said in July, after the proposed reforms were sent to lawmakers, “There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power.” The OAS was founded in 1948 with US backing to promote cooperation in the Western Hemisphere. Nicaragua’s foreign minister praised the country’s withdrawal as an exit from what he called “all the deceitful mechanisms of this monstrosity”.

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all the deceitful mechanisms of this monstrosity