Daniel Ortega rules out negotiations to ensure fair elections in Nicaragua

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A day after the latest arrest of an opposition presidential hopeful, Noel Vidaurre, Daniel Ortega reappeared in public alongside the first lady and vice president Rosario Murillo after taking part in the electoral verification day.

In his brief address he attacked the U.S., mentioned Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela, and categorically blocked any negotiations to reach the November elections under a democratic framework, as demanded by the opposition, the international community and human rights organizations.

According to La Prensa, Ortega accused “the empire” (the U.S.) of not wanting elections. “The empire wants to boycott them, to sow terrorism again in our country. But, God willing, we are going to hold those elections and the people and youths will go out to vote.” “The Yankees have no respect, for them elections are only valid when their minions win, that is, those they put forward as candidates. If they win, the elections are valid, if not, then the election is defective and they do everything possible to destabilize the country, to destroy the country, as they have done with Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil,” he said.

In his address he made reference to Venezuela, a country that “has suffered brutal attacks” by the United States and referred to Juan Guaidó, albeit not by name, recognized by the United States and a large part of the international community as the president of Venezuela.

“How many elections have there been in Venezuela, cleanly won, but as the Yankee’s puppets do not win they don’t recognize them and have gone as far as fabricating a puppet walking around and making a fool of himself by presenting himself as the president of Venezuela.” In addition, he labeled Latin American countries in the Lima Group, the bloc that denounces the abuses of Nicolás Maduro, as “puppet governments.”

However, Ortega said nothing about the serious human rights violations in Venezuela as documented by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who in her latest report reveals that the system of abuses and tortures applied by the Chavista regime against dissidents in Venezuela is still in force.

In his address, Ortega slammed the doors to any type of negotiation with the United States, an issue that his own base had mentioned weeks before. “There is no room for negotiation and understanding with the empire, those with such illusions are simply forgetting the history of their own people who have suffered the most brutal attacks and humiliations by the empire.”

To make it clear that neither would he agree to a negotiation led by other countries, as once suggested by Argentine President Alberto Fernández, he stated: “Let our Argentine brothers remember how the empire, which had its commitment in the OAS to defend any Latin American country from being attacked by extraterritorial powers, allied itself with the British to consolidate imperialist policy and crush the resistance of the Argentine people in the Falklands.”

And, much more directly, he attacked Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador government. “How many barbarities Trump openly said, disrespecting the dignity of the Mexican people and no government spoke out on behalf of that people,” he accused, still stung by López Obrador’s intervention last June when he rejected the repression of the Nicaraguan regime.

The reference to Mexico and Argentina is not random, Ortega still does not forgive that both governments, considered leftist, recalled their ambassadors to Nicaragua for inquiries regarding the brutal repression.

Although neither Fernández nor López Obrador endorsed the UN resolutions condemning the regime, the Nicaraguan president expected more explicit support from them.

Source: Infobae