This is a translation of the statement the Nicaraguan Ambassador to the OAS Arturo McFields made to the Permanent Council where he denounced the Ortega regime and said that many within the government are fed up with the abuses of the regime, especially the way it is treating political prisoners. The link in the title below is to the original video statement which was done in Spanish.
Translation of the Statement of Nicaraguan Ambassador to the OAS, Arturo McFields Yescas, to the Permanent Council of the OAS
March 23, 2022
I take the floor today in the name of the more than 177 political prisoners and more than 350 people who have lost their lives in my country since 2018. I take the floor in the name of thousands of public servants, at all levels, civilian and military, who today are obligated by the regime of Nicaragua, to pretend, fill plazas and repeat slogans, because if they do not, they will lose their jobs. To denounce the dictatorship in my country is not easy. Continue staying silent and defending the indefensible is impossible.
I must speak, Mr. President, even though I am afraid. I must speak, even though my future and that of my family is uncertain. I must speak, because if I don´t, stones themselves will speak for me.
Days before announcing our withdrawal from the OAS, we had a meeting in the Foreign Ministry with a team of Presidential advisors. I suggested in that encounter that they consider freeing at least 20 elderly political prisoners and another 20 common prisoners whose health deserve special attention. I said this would be something humanitarian and politically intelligent because no one should die in jail, and even less being innocent, or for lack of adequate medical attention, or for not receiving any medical attention at all.
No one paid attention to me. Mr President, at that time I was told, “we are not even going to note down that comment, because you know what can happen. And remember, with the right, the more you give them the more they want.” That is what I was told at that moment.
In the government, no one, no one listens, and no one talks. I tried several times, for several months, but all the doors were closed on me. As a member of the Peace Corps of Norway, I always believed that dialogue, diplomacy, were not that important in times of peace and tranquility and robust democracies, diplomacy is needed in difficult moments, in complex times of democratic crises, like the one my country is experiencing.
Nevertheless, what I have found in these months is that what is happening in Nicaragua goes beyond my limited diplomatic capacities. In the year 2018 Nicaragua became the only country in Central America, and probably in Latin America [interruption by point of order from the Ambassador of Barbados, McFields asks to finish his statement: “I would ask to be able to finish, I am about to finish, it will be short.]. In the year 2018 Nicaragua became the only country in Central America and probably in Latin America where there are no printed newspapers, no freedom to publish a simple tweet or comment on social networks. There are no human rights organizations, they do not exist, there is not even one. All of them were closed, expelled, or shut down. There are no independent political parties, no credible elections. There is no separation of powers, but only de facto powers.
This year they began to confiscate private universities, and 137 NGOs have been eliminated- Catholics, Evangelicals, ecological, Operation Smile, Mr. President, and the list continues to grow. 170,000 Nicaraguans have left the country, and others continue to leave, as I am talking to you at this moment.
Mr. President, to finish, even though it might seem that everything is lost, and that the panorama is cloudy as it is today, I firmly believe that, as I said to Secretary Almagro, that there is hope. And I have said this to many people, there is hope. I want to tell you that people within the government and people outside of it, are tired, tired of the dictatorship, and its actions. And there are going to be more and more people who are going to say “enough”. Because light, light always is stronger than darkness, because love is stronger than hate. Because you can fool people for a time, but not all the time.
But at times God takes his time. But God never, never Mr. President, does he forget. Thank you very much.