They ask not to elect candidates from Nicaragua as general secretary of SICA

The opposition Nicaraguan Democratic Concertation (CDN-Monteverde) asked the foreign ministers of Central America on Monday not to elect any of the three candidates proposed by the government headed by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua as the new general secretary of the Central American Integration System (SICA) .

“We are writing to you once again to tell you that the members of the new list of candidates presented by the Ortega Murillo regime to occupy the position of General Secretary of SICA are people who do not represent the values ​​on which this regional institution was founded, and none of them meet the standards established in the founding documents,” said the Nicaraguan opposition movement in exile in a public letter addressed to the Central American foreign ministers.

“After failing in its attempt to place Mr. Valdrack Ludwing Jaentschke (current Nicaraguan foreign minister) as General Secretary of SICA, the Ortega Murillo regime is now proposing three officials who, due to their performance in key positions within the repressive mechanism, are accused by international human rights organizations of perpetrating crimes against humanity against the population and have deserved sanctions from the international community,” it said.

The new list of candidates proposed by Ortega are, in that order, the Sandinista deputy Arling Patricia Alonso Gómez ; the Minister of the Interior, María Amelia Coronel Kinloch ; and the presidential advisor on health issues and former Minister of Health, Sonia Castro.

Who are the three candidates?

The CDN-Monteverde, made up of opponents denationalized by the Nicaraguan authorities, among others, recalled that Castro, during his time at the head of the Ministry of Health, “ordered public hospitals to deny care to opponents injured during the 2018 protests,” which left more than 350 dead, “some due to rejection in health centers, which constitutes a crime against humanity.”

She also “ordered the dismissal of dozens of doctors who refused to follow her orders,” and for these allegations, in 2019, “she became one of the first ministers to receive sanctions” from the United States, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland .

Also, through the General Directorate of Migration and Foreign Affairs, it has expelled and revoked the nationality of more than 400 Nicaraguans , denied passports to hundreds of people, and prohibited entry into the country to hundreds of others “who have been banished, turning them into de facto stateless persons.”

In the case of Alonso Gómez, CDN-Monteverde said she currently holds the first vice-presidency of the National Assembly (Parliament), where, “through repressive laws, promoted and voted by her, she has promoted the persecution of citizens for political and religious reasons and undermined democracy and institutions.”

“This led to the United States including it on the Engel List in 2023 ,” he added.

Consequences for SICA warned

Therefore, the Nicaraguan opposition considered that, “due to their repeated violations of human rights and the international consequences of their actions, if elected, none of them would be qualified to sign financial cooperation agreements in favor of SICA and would harm the performance of the system in favor of Central Americans, with the risk that the effects of their sanctions would be extended to the General Secretariat of SICA.”

They also insisted that choosing an Ortega candidate “will put the security of Central America at risk due to possible involvement in a global conflict, given its declared strategic alliance with the bloc of totalitarian countries headed by Russia and China , in the context of a new Cold War.”

The General Secretariat of SICA has been vacant since mid-November 2023, when Nicaraguan lawyer Werner Vargas resigned from the position for the period 2022-2026, for which he was appointed as a proposal from Nicaragua.

SICA, created in Tegucigalpa in 1991, includes Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic as full members, while Mexico, the United States and other countries have regional observer status.