Amnesty International criticizes Mexico and Argentina for their vote on Nicaragua at OAS

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “The principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of a state does not apply to human rights violations and crimes under international law,” said in a report Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s director for the Americas.

Amnesty International (AI) on Thursday lamented that the governments of Argentina and Mexico failed to support the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States’ (OAS) resolution condemning the arrests of opposition politicians in Nicaragua.

“AI regrets the recent joint statement by the Governments of Argentina and Mexico where they point out that, despite rejecting the arrests made by the Nicaraguan authorities in recent days, they would not follow the resolution of the Permanent Council of the OAS condemning the arrests and requesting the immediate release of those detained for exercising their rights,” the NGO said in a statement.

Argentina and Mexico expressed on Tuesday their “concern” over the “detention of political figures of the opposition” in Nicaragua but expressed their opposition to intervening in the country’s internal affairs, which led them not to support a resolution debated in the OAS Permanent Council.

“The principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of a state does not apply to human rights violations and crimes under international law,” Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s director for the Americas, said in the report.

Guevara Rosas called it “unacceptable that the governments of Alberto Fernández in Argentina and Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico decide not to accompany the many victims of the human rights crisis in Nicaragua,” which began “three years ago.”

From 2018 to May 2021, AI explained, more than 100 people continued to be detained “just for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.”

“Over the past few weeks the list has grown rapidly. The international community has reported the recent arbitrary arrests of four presidential hopefuls, nine public figures in national politics, two former workers of a non-governmental organization and a businessman,” Amnesty said.

The NGO denounced that in some cases there are no judicial orders and the detainees are being held incommunicado and with no conditions, and alerted to a “repressive strategy” of Daniel Ortega’s government.

Despite the position before the OAS, Mexico expressed on June 14 its “concern” over the arrests perpetrated by the Nicaraguan government against opposition leaders and Sandinista dissidents with five months to go before the elections in which President Daniel Ortega seeks reelection.

“Mexico has followed with concern the recent actions of the Government of Nicaragua,” the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at the time in a Twitter message thread.

This week, a broad majority composed of 26 countries joined at the Organization of American States (OAS) to demand that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega “immediately” release the detained presidential hopefuls.

The OAS approved a resolution which, without mentioning Ortega by name, calls for “the immediate release of the presidential pre-candidates and all political prisoners.”

The initiative, promoted by Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the U.S., Paraguay and Peru, easily passed the 18-vote hurdle it needed to be passed by receiving the backing of 26 of the 34 countries active members of the OAS (Cuba belongs to the organization but has not taken part since 1962).

Only Nicaragua and two other countries voted against the measure, while five countries, including Mexico and Argentina, abstained.

Source: Infobae