San José.– The Government of Nicaragua lashed out this Wednesday against the Dominican Republic, after the Caribbean country condemned “in the strongest terms” the recent statements by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who stated that in Nicaragua “there will be no more elections.”
In a statement, the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs described it as “incredible” that a people like the Dominican people, “who have suffered dictatorships, invasions, and imperial interventions,” have “vassal voices and shameful servitudes installed in their highest institutions.”
“We have experienced the same miseries, and the people are not to blame for the dishonorable conduct of certain figures who believe they are authorities,” added the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry.
Likewise, Managua remembered the Dominican hero Gregorio Urbano Gilbert, highlighting his struggle alongside the Nicaraguan leader Augusto C. Sandino. “As we well know, Dominican brothers, respect for the rights of others is peace,” expressed the Ortega Government.
Dominican Republic’s Response
The Dominican Foreign Ministry maintained that the Nicaraguan president’s statements constitute an “open disregard for the essential principles of representative democracy and the right of the Nicaraguan people to freely choose their leaders through periodic, free, fair, transparent, and pluralistic elections.”
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In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled that Article 1 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter establishes that “the peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy and their governments have an obligation to promote and defend it.”
The Dominican Republic also stated that “no government” can claim the right to deprive its people of periodically expressing their sovereign will through the vote, nor unilaterally close the electoral path as a legitimate mechanism for the alternation of power.
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Furthermore, he urged the Nicaraguan authorities to rectify their position and fully guarantee the political rights and fundamental freedoms of citizens, including their right to participate in authentic, competitive, and democratic elections.
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Ortega’s statements
During the commemoration of the 47th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, held this past July 19th, Daniel Ortega asserted that in Nicaragua “there will never be elections again” to prevent the opposition from “seizing the government” or “power.”
However, this Wednesday the president of the National Assembly of Nicaragua, Gustavo Porras, clarified that the country will indeed hold elections, although under a new constitutional framework that, as he stated, will prevent foreign interference and the participation of those he described as “coup plotters” and “traitors to the homeland”.
“The important thing is that we establish in the constitutional range that in this country we cannot accept elections where coup plotters, traitors to the homeland, parties and organizations financed with foreign money or by foreign powers participate,” Porras maintained.
