The role of Mexico in the Nicaraguan crisis – Spanish

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MEXICO – More than 350 people, mostly students and protesters, have died since April in Nicaragua, where a pension reform, finally repealed, launched a vast social movement the resignation of the president Daniel Ortega

The number of dead, imprisoned and missing is surprising for a country with a little more than six million inhabitants. Nearly forty years after Ortega and the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew the corrupt and bloody Somoza dynasty – which has ruled Nicaragua for nearly half a century – students and activists require the end of what they consider as a historical repetition. unforgivable Their cry of protest is: "Ortega and Somoza, they are the same thing."

Without distinction, peasants, activists, the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua and the historical and current leaders of the opposition are attacked; Protesters and even children have become the victims of Daniel Ortega's thug squads. The regime is becoming a dictatorship, a situation that the Latin American and international communities should stop at all costs. Nobody wants another Venezuela in the region.

Although in the beginning the response of regional and international organizations to the repression in Nicaragua has been slow, it has recently begun to play a more active role. Last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a statement condemning violence and the Organization of American States (OAS) also approved a condemnatory resolution and called for "free, fair" presidential elections and in a timely manner. "An ad hoc group of Latin American nations, including Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, denounces the Managua mbadacre and the iconic Masaya city, home to the most heroic resistance against Somoza in the 1990s. Seventy

A group of countries is working behind the scenes with the church and the business community – as well as with the United States – to negotiate an agreement that requires three crucial elements.First, the end of the repression and the use of paramilitary squads or thugs who beat or kill students.Second, the resignation of the wife of Rosario Murillo -Ortega, vice president and power behind the throne- and his promise that he will not hold the presidency in the next elections.Third, call the elections with international observers early next year and the prior resignation of the President This ef strong intermediation and the resulting agreement may or may not succeed, but at least something is done to stop the bloodbath.

Contrary to the situation in Venezuela – a country that, in addition to the repression and violations of other human rights, has faced a humanitarian, economic and migratory crisis for several years, the junctions of Nicaragua could be solved through regional and international cooperation. Nicaragua does not have what Venezuela has: oil and Russian and Chinese support. However, there are two important obstacles on the way

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The first is the continued support of much of the Latin American left to the Ortega regime. Last week in Havana, the more than 430 participants of the São Paulo Forum – the annual meeting of left-wing political parties and other organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean that began in 1990 – expressed their solidarity with Ortega and have condemned terrorist groups the right to blow "who are trying to overthrow him with, of course, the support of US imperialism.In addition to the Cuban president, the presidents of Venezuela, Bolivia and El Salvador attended the meeting, in the presence of a Brazilian president and representatives of influential center-left organizations linked to Ortega, Colombia and Ecuador.It is not what that it was only five years ago, but it continues to be powerful, while being well organized and connected.Although in the current Ortega clique there remains little of the old mystic Sandinist, she still has the traditional interna support This support was decisive in bringing him to power in 1979 and may be just as fundamental to maintaining him today.

The second obstacle is Mexico. This country played a key role in 1979, since it led the regional opposition against Somoza and the government's intention Jimmy Carter to maintain a "Somocismo sans Somoza". Therefore, he supported the Sandinista regime, just like the negotiated peace in Central America.

In 2000, Mexico abandoned its traditional non-intervention foreign policy and emphasized the collective defense of human rights and democracy in the region. Between 2007 and 2015, there was an unenthusiastic attempt to return to the position of the past. With Luis Videgaray, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the country attributed a much greater importance to universal values ​​than traditional introversion and isolationism

It was like this until the 1st July of this year. On that date, Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected president in a landslide victory that will give a radical turn to politics in Mexico, and so will foreign policy. A broad coalition of center-left moderates, conservative Protestants, far-left radicals and traditional nationalists gave him the victory with 53 percent of the vote, 32 points above the second, Ricardo Anaya. One of his most repeated proposals was to create a new foreign policy for Mexico

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Among the guidelines that López Obrador outlined is the stubborn return to Mexico's traditional position of not engaging in the politics of other nations or expressing views on the human rights situation. the man in other countries. His future Foreign Secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, said the mere discussion of the Nicaraguan and Venezuelan cases at the OAS was tantamount to interfering in the internal affairs of those countries. As a result, the new government, baduming power on December 1, will refrain from carrying out these initiatives. López Obrador sent his party's Morena president to the Sao Paulo Forum in Havana, where he signed the final declaration. Another of his envoys made a strong speech in favor of left-wing Latin American governments, including that of Nicaragua.

In other words, Mexico, the second largest nation in the region, will no longer be part of the Latin American alliance. , unsuccessfully so far, a solution to the Venezuelan nightmare and the Nicaraguan crisis

In the best of cases, from the point of view of human rights and the defense of democracy, the Mexico will look inward in a thoughtful way and will simply distance itself from any regional challenge. At worst, it will align with regimes such as Nicaragua and Venezuela that invoke the principle of non-intervention, but in reality, they sympathize with them politically and ideologically.

Thus, the current effort to find a solution in Nicaragua succeed, must give results before December, while the government of Peña Nieto remains in power and remains active on this front.

Although López Obrador should condemn the bloodshed in Nicaragua and support the efforts of President Enrique Peña Nieto and the OAS to find a solution and defend human rights in the region , are unlikely to do so. After December 1st, do not count on Mexico.