Nicaragua calls for consultations with its ambassadors in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica | After the governments of these countries criticized the arrests of opposition leaders

Nicaragua on Monday called for consultations with its ambassadors in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica over what it called “interference” and “interventionist” accusations., after the governments of those countries criticized the arrests of opposition leaders in the Central American country. The Vice-President of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, denounced the “constant and undeserved, disrespectful accusations of interference, interference and intervention in our internal affairs of the highest authorities of each of these countries. “

Reading a statement from the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry, Murillo said that Daniel Ortega’s administration “called for consultations with the ambassadors in Argentina, Orlando Gómez; in Colombia, Yara Pérez; in Mexico, Juan Carlos Gutiérrez; and in Costa Rica, Duilio Hernández, in reciprocity. similar appeals from the aforementioned governments. The vice president and first lady expressed her “categorical” rejection of what she described as a “caricatural imitation” of those who “have taken on duties that no one has given them”.

On June 15, Mexico and Argentina had expressed their “concern” in particular in the face of “the arrest of political figures of the opposition”.. The two governments, which abstained the same day from voting on the OAS proposal to condemn the Ortega government, summoned their ambassadors to Nicaragua a few days later.

For its part Costa Rica froze the appointment of its representative in Managua, and Colombia followed suit last month amid a wave of arrests of opponents, including seven presidential candidates for the November 7 elections. At least 31 opposition leaders have been detained since June, most of them for “treason” against the homeland.

Ortega, a 75-year-old ex-guerrilla, has been in power since 2007 after two successive re-elections. At the head of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), he aspires to remain in power for another five years alongside Murillo, 70, who has been with him in the vice-presidency since 2017.

European Union (EU) sanctioned with financial and migratory restrictions Murillo, his son Juan Carlos and six other government officials for his responsibility for the “serious violations of human rights” in Nicaragua. The measure joins other taken by the United States and Canada against officials of the Ortega government, in refusal of the repression of opponents since the outbreak of anti-government protests in 2018.