Nicaragua’s OAS ambassador rebels against Daniel Ortega

In an unprecedented event, Arturo McFields, Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), rebelled against the Ortega regime and called it a dictatorship, during a session today of the Permanent Council of that organization.

During his participation, McFields said he was speaking on behalf of more than 170 political prisoners currently imprisoned and the more than 350 people killed by the repression of the regime and its paramilitaries, which occurred against citizen protests between April and September 2018.

McFields opened his intervention saying: “I speak on behalf of thousands of public servants at all levels, civilian and military, of those forced by the regime to simulate, to fill up the plazas and repeat slogans, because if they do not do so, they lose their job. To denounce the dictatorship in my country is not easy, but it is impossible to continue to remain silent and defend what is beyond defense.”

“I have to speak out, Mr. President, even if I am afraid, even if the future of my family is uncertain. I have to speak because otherwise the stones themselves will speak for me,” said McFields.

The motives that led McFields to take this position are unknown, but the incident caused a stir among the ambassadors. The Permanent Representative of Uruguay to the OAS Permanent Council, Washington Abdala, called the incident of “major relevance.”

“When one enters an official meeting like today’s, one does not imagine that this could happen. I have nothing but words of respect for what the Nicaraguan Ambassador just did. He described his country as a dictatorship, a position on which I agree. Secondly, because I am aware of the dangers, risks, and threats that this entails for him from this very moment,” said Abdala.

This article was originally published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times