Nicaragua Expels Organization of American States
On April 24 the foreign minister of Nicaragua, Denis Moncada, announced that his government had expelled the Organization of American States (OAS) from the country and shut down its offices in Managua. He also confirmed Nicaragua’s decision of November 19, 2021 to exit the OAS after an interfering resolution was passed by its Permanent Council rejecting the results of Nicaragua's November 7 general election. In that election Nicaraguans overwhelmingly reaffirmed their support for the Sandinista National Liberation Front government and re-elected its leader Daniel Ortega as their president, by a large majority. The resolution, instigated by the U.S. and Canada, asserted that the elections "were not free, fair or transparent and have no democratic legitimacy." At the same time the U.S. and Canada piled more economic sanctions on Nicaragua.
In his statement, Minister Moncada said Nicaragua was immediately ending all participation in the OAS, whether in the form of meetings, commissions, committees or events, including the Summit of the Americas. "The People and Government of Nicaragua do not and will not recognize this instrument of colonial administration, which does not represent at any time, the sovereign union of Our Latin and Caribbean America, and that on the contrary, is an instrument of Yankee Imperialism to violate rights and independence, sponsoring and promoting interventions and invasions, legitimating coups of different kinds and by different means with the aim, which they have not accomplished, of disintegrating our national sovereignty through humiliation, submission and surrender," Moncada said.
He stated with special emphasis that Nicaragua was not a colony of anyone, and would not be part of a [U.S.] Ministry of Colonies, the term coined by Fidel Castro in the 1960s to describe the OAS. He made a point of expressing Nicaragua's respect, affection and recognition to "Heroic Cuba and Venezuela and to the peoples who bravely wage their struggles and have accompanied us and continue to accompany us, in the battles that have been fought and are being fought, for justice, the rights of the peoples, sovereignty, dignity and peace."
Response to Nicaragua's Action
The General Secretariat of the OAS responded by reminding Nicaragua that as stipulated in the organization's Charter, its withdrawal would not enter into force until the end of 2023, "subject to this country having complied by then with all the obligations that the Inter-American System imposes on all its members."
Whatever those obligations entail, it is certain the OAS Secretariat had no intention to reciprocate by fulfilling its own obligations under the Charter which include "not to intervene in matters that are within the internal jurisdiction of the Member States." It is guaranteed that, as they did with Venezuela during its two-year withdrawal process, the U.S. and Canada together with the lackey OAS Secretary General will not stop their dirty work against the Nicaraguan people -- defaming and attempting to isolate and delegitimize their elected government as well as threaten and make demands of it that they have no business making. All the while they will apply pressure of all kinds on other member states to go along with that plan.
Evidence of this was swift in coming. The U.S. Mission to the OAS issued a communiqué calling for "concrete responses" to Nicaragua's "attack" on the OAS. It said it was essential to continue meddling in Nicaragua's internal affairs and trying to force regime change there. It cynically called this "standing up for the rights and well-being of the long-suffering Nicaraguan people."
For its part, the Trudeau government had already issued a statement in the name of its foreign minister after learning the results of last November's election. In the statement, Mélanie Joly, speaking like the understudy of the U.S. Secretary of State that she is, told the Nicaraguan people that their government had not respected their "will." She said it had "stolen" the election from them, for which Canada would "hold the oppressive regime and its enablers to account."
Support for the totally justified action taken by Nicaragua to defend its sovereignty and dignity in face of these circumstances was quick to come as well -- from Cuba, Venezuela and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples' Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP). In its statement ALBA-TCP, which brings together four Latin American countries and six nations that are members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), called the decision of its member Nicaragua dignified, coherent and sovereign.
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 5 - May 21, 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2022/Articles/M5200517.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca