Ortega Regime Flings Insults at the Civic Alliance

The Ortega regime has opted to insult and discredit the members of the Civic Alliance, since they’ve been unable to force them to request the suspension of possible international sanctions against Nicaragua, especially the Nica Act.

Epithets such as liars, wretches, ridiculous and incompetents were mixed with Biblical allusions and calls for peace in the latest communique from the governmental delegation at the national dialogue.

Since last week, the regime has intensified the confrontation with the delegates from the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy, who this week demanded that the Ortega regime “lift the brutal sanctions on the population”, especially “the prohibition of free expression and movement and the liberation of the political prisoners.”

In the new escalation of offensive language and casting doubt on qualifications, the Ortega government has accused the Alliance, with no proof, of being the “responsible parties guilty of crimes and destructive actions” during the 2018 civic protests.

Rain of insults

In their statement on May 9th, the regime said that they had confirmed “the clumsy, infantile and wretched two-facedness of those at the table who speak one language [at the table] but on the outside continue in the perverse pretension of ripping away the Nicaraguan peoples’ rights.”

They accused the opposition delegates of “staging drama, lying, setting traps, offending and disrespecting the witnesses and accompaniment persons”, in this case the Vatican representative Waldemar Sommertag and the OEA representative Luis Angel Rosadilla.

“While denouncing the capricious and devious games of those who have only demonstrated a disposition for destruction and evil, we continue asking God with all our hearts to guide our steps, so that we will know how to see, hear and understand the valiant Nicaraguan people who don’t believe in the arrogance of ridiculous and incompetent characters from tales of fiction,” the regime characterized the opposition.

The offensive tone of the statements and the demand that the Aliance ask for a suspension of the Nica Act have both escalated since last April 29, when the government delegates and the Civic Alliance had nearly agreed on the early liberation of some 232 political prisoners on a reconciled list and the reestablishment of the public liberties such as freedom of expression and demonstration. However, at the last minute, the regime deauthorized its own negotiators and took a step backwards.

Personalized campaign

The Civic Alliance reported in a statement of their own that the regime “has forced” the public workers and other citizens to demand that Juan Sebastian Chamorro, a member of the negotiating team, leave his position at the negotiating table.  They complain that Chamorro signed a petition on the platform Change.org to have the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) annul a proposal that benefits the National Police.

“The regime doesn’t tolerate the existence of rights, diverse voices, or of actions outside its control,” noted the Alliance.

Over 10,000 citizens have signed the request that the CABEI not finance the purchase of some 20 minibuses and four outboard motorboats to fortify the “operational capacity” of the National Police.  The cost of the acquisition ascends to over US $500,000.

The petition warns the Bank of the dangers of “financing an institution that international organizations have accused of violating human rights”, and whose National Police Chief  Francisco Diaz, has been sanctioned by the United States, which holds him responsible for the violent repression during the civic protests that left nearly 325 dead and thousands injured.

An excuse to avoid compliance

Jose Pallais, a former foreign minister and also a member of the Alliance team at the dialogue table, told Confidencial that the regime “has pored through the Spanish language dictionary to select a new insult every day.”

He asserted that the Civic Alliance won’t respond to these provocations with “nasty words” or “insults” because the Ortega pair’s intention “is to excuse themselves from complying with the agreements and provoking a crisis” so that the opposition will walk out of the negotiations.

“We’re not going to fall into that trap. That’s not our style. We’re responding with our willingness to work and with proposals to arrive at accords, because the dimensions of the crisis are too large to fall into this kind of exchange of insults and discrediting,” the former diplomat commented.

He added: “If this negotiation fails, the situation is going to deteriorate still more, and the country could arrive at a situation similar to that in Venezuela.  For that reason, we continue on, despite the rain of insults.”

Advisor to Luis Almaro arrives in Nicaragua

Pallais indicated that the negotiations continue to be blocked by the regime. Although some ideas have been worked on, they’re still “distant” from becoming concrete. The government has continued its intransigence, demanding that the sanctions against Nicaragua be lifted, although they still haven’t complied with any of the agreements that were signed.

The former foreign minister mentioned the one positive note of the day: that the Alliance and the regime both met, although separately, with Luis Porto, senior advisor to the OAS general secretary in Strategic Counsel for Organizational Development.

“He came to encourage the functioning of the dialogue table, and to ratify that they (the OAS) are prepared to support an electoral reform, but within the framework of the negotiating table,” Pallais said.

The Organization of American States had been expecting to present their proposal for a calendar of electoral reforms around the beginning of the month, but hasn’t done so given the impasse that the negotiations are suffering.