Nicaragua: EU ambassador expelled, relations with Netherlands broken off
By Laura Gonzáles
EU Ambassador Muscheidt at an event in Managua in May. On 1 October, she left Nicaragua as an "undesirable person".
Brussels/Managua. European Union (EU) Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell has rejected the "unjustified and unilateral" decision by the Nicaraguan government to expel the EU ambassador and declare her "persona non grata". The EU would react "firmly and appropriately".
The government of Daniel Ortega had declared the German diplomat Bettina Muscheidt undesirable for "interfering with national sovereignty". Foreign Minister Denis Moncada asked Muscheidt to leave the country quickly during a meeting at the Foreign Office. She did so last Saturday.
Muscheidt had been appointed EU ambassador to Nicaragua on 20 September 2021, replacing Spaniard Pelayo Castro Zuzuárregui. During Zuzuárregui's tenure, the EU, similar to the US government and some European countries, had imposed sanctions on members of the Nicaraguan government, family members and close associates of Ortega and several of his children.
The central accusations were that the government was undermining human rights and democracy. After her appointment, Muscheidt had stressed that she would continue to "promote and defend EU values and principles such as respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights".
In a text published in May 2022, the now expelled EU ambassador had presented the conflict in Nicaragua as a purely internal dispute between democratically oriented youth and an undemocratic government, without mentioning foreign interference and declared interests.
The Ortega government also broke off diplomatic relations with the Netherlands last week. Years ago, the Dutch government had promised to support the construction of a hospital on the Atlantic coast, but then delayed it because of sanctions, so that the clinic needed has to be paid for out of the state budget and other funding.
Nicaragua is also currently engaged in a dispute with the US government over succession at the US embassy. Last Thursday, the US Senate approved the nomination of Hugo Rodríguez to represent the US, although in July Nicaragua's government withdrew the authorisation given to candidate Rodríguez because of the diplomat's "disrespectful and disruptive remarks" to Managua (amerika21 reported). Rodríguez had declared his intention to campaign for a change of government and against Nicaragua's membership in the DR-Cafta (Tratado de Libre Comercio entre Estados Unidos, Centroamérica y República Dominicana) free trade agreement.
Since the 2018 attempted uprising against the Sandinista government with foreign support and the prevention of pro-U.S. candidates in the last presidential elections, U.S. and EU relations with the Nicaraguan government have been strained and marked by extensive sanctions.
The Nicaraguan government, which refers to the liberation fighter Augusto César Sandino, rejects the policies of the "Western countries" as interference in the internal affairs of the country.
Foreign Minister Moncada's diplomatic note on the severance of relations with the Netherlands states: "The permanent offensive of undiplomatic and undiplomatic representation of this neo-colonial and pro-imperial government, in violation of the Vienna Convention, forces us to take this measure, which we defend with the honour, dignity and sovereign spirit that distinguishes us. We know the empires and colonialists of the world, and nothing and no one can make us forget their crimes against humanity".