The OEA asks Ortega for early elections

He also condemned the Sandinista crackdown violent demonstrations

WASHINGTON (From our correspondent) .- A group of 21 countries condemned to the Organization of American States (OAS) the repression deployed by the government of


Daniel Ortega
to suppress social protests


Nicaragua
and urged him to support a consensual "electoral calendar", a means to lobby for the country to have early elections and come out of one of its worst crises in decades.

After a tense and blocked debate in which Nicaragua and its two main allies, Bolivia and Venezuela, tried to delay the vote on the resolution, the OAS Permanent Council approved in special session a document promoted by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico. Peru and the United States

The text was supported by 21 countries, with seven abstentions and only three against: Nicaragua, Venezuela and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

"Most States Agree with" The OAS's belief has left the Ortega government even more isolated and under intense pressure from the international community, "said the Ambbadador of Argentina, Paula Bertol The United Nations (UN), the European Union and human rights organizations have already expressed their repudiation and rejection the repression of the demonstrations and denounced the abuses committed by the security forces.The official offensive has already killed at least 280.

The Nicaraguan chancellor, Denis Moncada, tried to stop the debate in repeatedly and denounced, again and again, a conspiracy to overthrow Ortega, and accused of "internal and external terrorist groups" to which he linked, indirectly, with the United States. "We are facing a state of coup," said Moncada in one of his speeches

The resolution reiterates the "strong condemnation" and "grave concern" of violence and human rights violations. the demonstrations, "including those committed by the police, paramilitary groups and other actors against the Nicaraguan people", as documented by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. man (IACHR)

. peaceful solutions "and" urges "the Ortega government to" support an agreed electoral timetable in the context of the national dialogue process. "