Newsletter # 13 | The Esquipulas Accords’ relevance in the face of the Ortega Murillo’s totalitarian project

In September we commemorate the independence of Central America and the International Day of Peace, so it is a propitious time to remember the Esquipulas II Agreement, which was signed to seek a firm and lasting peace through democratization, ceasefire, dialogue, reconciliation and disarmament.

Esquipulas was not contemplated as a place of passage that we can forget, it is a destination of permanence and constant reference to ensure peace and regional stability that are currently at risk, because state violence imposed a real regime of terror in Nicaragua and at the same time destroyed the efforts of national reconciliation promoted by Esquipulas.

The Framework Treaty for Democratic Security in Central America rightly establishes that “the sustainable development of Central America can only be achieved with the creation of a regional legal community that protects, safeguards and promotes human rights and guarantees judicial security” and that “situations that break the peace and affect the security of any of the Central American States also affect all the States of the region and their inhabitants”.

This commits all the States of the Central American Integration System (SICA) to preserve and strengthen the values and principles of integration as a region of peace, freedom, democracy and development.

Only by revitalizing Esquipulas can we leave behind our history of confrontation, violence and pain. This is only possible with more democracy, respect for human rights, justice and progress for all. However, dictatorships and authoritarianism threaten our region once again.

The Ortega Murillo regime intends to strengthen its system of repression and crime by allying with the bloc of totalitarian countries in search of protection, financial and military support and backing for its model contrary to the design agreed in Esquipulas, at the cost of involving the entire region in a new cold war, where our peoples will be the victims and once again the aspirations and ideals contained in the Tegucigalpa protocol and other treaties and agreements that develop it will be left aside, pushing a new arms race that would affect the indispensable social spending for the less favored population.

The democratic rupture provoked by the Ortega Murillo family, with systematic violations of human rights, political prisoners, extrajudicial executions, torture, denationalization and statelessness, confiscation, absolute absence of freedom of expression and press and closure of all spaces for participation, affect all the nations of the isthmus. The impunity of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and the non-compliance with regional agreements constitute a bad precedent and threaten the peace that was so hard to achieve.

The Ortega Murillo dictatorship’s attempt to instrumentalize the General Secretariat of SICA, the Central American Parliament and other institutions of the system, at the service of its authoritarian model and strategic alliances with Russia and China, threaten the legacy of the agreements that allowed us to overcome decades of war, destruction and backwardness. Only the spirit of Esquipulas impregnated in each of the inhabitants of the region and defended by democratic governments can guarantee us the future we dream of.

In their recent tour of Central America, members of a delegation of the Nicaraguan Democratic Concertation (CDN), promoted the idea that peace is a regional asset that we must preserve and that can only be supported by the unrestricted respect for human rights and by a prosperous democracy with free and inclusive electoral processes that reflect the will of the people. We call on civil society organizations, political parties, workers, businessmen and the Central American people to prevent the Ortega Murillo’s pretensions from becoming a reality and to defend their freedom and their future in peace and prosperity.

The results of inclusive diplomacy

During the 57th session of the Human Rights Council, which concludes in October, Christian Salazar Volkmann, Director of the Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in reference to the interactive dialogue on Nicaragua: “We remain deeply concerned about the continuing and widespread regression in the human rights situation”.

Albert Einstein once said: “if you are looking for different results, don’t always do the same thing”. Bringing up this phrase of Einstein is valid, because since the beginning of the socio-political crisis in Nicaragua the constant is what Mr. Salazar stated: the systematic regression of the human rights situation. Each year the closure of the physical spaces is more serious than the previous one.

It should be acknowledged that thanks to the efforts of the governments of the United States and Guatemala -the latter received them-, 135 political prisoners were recently released from prison, their nationality was taken away and their assets confiscated, as was done with the 222 exiled in February 2023.

Apart from these two release operations and the departure of a group of religious leaders through negotiations with the Vatican, which have generated political gain for the regime, reduced sanctions and the silence of the Church, there is no other result of this inclusive, and one could say even permissive, policy that the international community has maintained towards Nicaragua during six years of crisis.

And while the international community continues to call on the Ortega Murillo regime to dialogue and return to the democratic path, it continues to consolidate its dictatorship and push for actions that jeopardize democracy in the region and the security of the United States. And it does so without paying any cost in the face of an ineffective international policy, which now allows these actions to be replicated in Venezuela.

Nicaragua’s exit from the Organization of American States (OAS) was not a light or emotional decision. In November 2021, after announcing its exit, it began a process of full incorporation into what they call the new world order, which is nothing more than a club of autocratic and dictatorial countries working in an organized and joint manner to strengthen themselves and weaken democracy. Underpinning this effort are Russia, China, North Korea, Belarus, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Nicaragua’s main interaction is with Russia and China, which use it as a bridge in the Americas to develop a political strategy against the United States and the democratic countries of the region.

As part of this scheme, the visits of Nicaraguan officials to Russia and China and vice versa, are recurrent, the political positioning of the Ortega Murillo family is of unconditional support to their speech and actions, they sign cooperation and training agreements, including in the military and security field, which allow these countries to use Nicaraguan territory to carry out espionage. In addition, Nicaragua leads the efforts for both countries to become relevant actors in the Central American institutional framework, even the promotion of the trafficking of irregular migrants to the United States is part of the joint strategy they promote.

The Ortega Murillos also promote a very active policy with other countries, especially in Asia and Africa, to get their vote in global political forums where they sell themselves as a “sovereign” country to avoid condemnation; and where they also seek new financing alternatives.

It is no coincidence that in recent months they have established relations with the fundamentalist Taliban who control Afghanistan or that they have appointed ambassadors in Vietnam, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Iran, Lebanon, Ghana, Togo, Niger, Benin and Burkina Fasso, among others. All countries with which there are no trade relations and no possibility of establishing them.

It is also no coincidence that in view of the closing of the sources of financing by the International Financial Institutions (IFI), as many African countries, the country is now indebted to China. In less than a year the National Assembly approved loans for approximately US$ 800 million with that country.

In exchange for this financing, Nicaragua handed over to Chinese companies dozens of mining concessions that already cover 52,000 hectares. In addition, the country is now invaded by Chinese stores that are displacing small Nicaraguan merchants.

All this happens while the democratic international community continues to do exactly the same since 2018.

From the Nicaraguan Democratic Concertation (CDN), we believe that it is time to rethink this strategy and act to support the struggle of the Nicaraguan and Venezuelan peoples and protect regional democracy and security, including from the United States.