Arturo McFields, the ambassador who dared to denounce Daniel Ortega: “I felt that I removed an anvil from my soul”

Before denouncing the dictatorship at the OAS plenary where he represented it as its ambassador, Arturo McFields spent 15 days in anxiety and silence. He could not discuss his plan with any co-worker because, not only did he run the risk of being ratted out and fired as an ambassador before executing it, but he put whoever listened to them at risk, because he would be taken as an accomplice.

“I spent the 15 most horrible days of my life,” tells Infobae, this 46-year-old man of African descent, who was appointed Nicaragua's ambassador to the OAS last October and this Wednesday dropped a “bomb” at a session of the organization. “I am taking the floor today on behalf of more than 177 political prisoners and more than 350 people who have lost their lives in my country since 2018, ″ he said, leaving everyone speechless.

McFields is a journalist and wants to clarify in this interview that his foray into diplomacy did not begin with Daniel Ortega's regime, but with the Norwegian Peace Corps, in 2007, and that last year he finished a master's degree in international relations at the Seneca Institute in Spain.

It also explains how Rosario Murillo functions as the de facto “Chancellor” in the Nicaraguan foreign service and the role of Vice Chancellor Arlette Marenco as “agorera of bad news”.

- How do you feel now after dropping that “bomb” at the OAS?

I felt like I took an anvil out of my soul. I spent the most horrible fortnight of my life, because it just so happened that the OAS was not having a Permanent Council, but rather special sessions, where only one topic was being addressed. Those last 15 days I couldn't talk to anyone because the person I opened my mouth to immediately I'm putting them in danger. Because they would tell him: you knew and said nothing. I had to keep a sepulchral silence, because if I communicated to someone what I was thinking of doing that person could fall prey or make their life complicated. Anything I said could ruin the plan I already had. One bad comment and they take away my position as ambassador and it's over, I didn't do what I had to do.

- Why did you decide to do so, just as you did, publicly, in a session of the OAS?

Because I think that somehow my example can help motivate thousands of public servants who are still in government, who are afraid. They don't say it, but they talk about it in the hallways, in private meetings. And I'm talking about civilian, military and police servants. Don't think it's just diplomats.

I understand that you have an old friendship with Rosario Murillo.

No, I'm not old enough to have an old friendship with her.

- How is it that you come to make a report on the house of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo? They are closed with their house.

-I wrote an email to the Secretariat (of the FSLN) requesting an interview with a Christmas proposal, something fresh, novel. I only asked for it, but at the time of arrival she invited 20 journalists. I was late and said: I had made you a proposal for an interview, but you invited all the media. It doesn't matter, he told me, here you can do the interview. I'll give you two minutes because we have to go to the candle of Monsignor's father (Leopold) Brenes who died that night. Those two minutes became thirteen minutes.

- Was your father a friend of Rosario Murillo?

-My father was a friend of Carlos Mejía Godoy, he was a friend of Rosario, and he was a friend of other painters and at that time (70s) they founded the Gradas movement. But my father is much older than Rosario and Rosario is much older than me, so I can't have an old friendship with her.

- Did you keep in touch with Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo?

-From the day of that interview I never spoke to Rosario again until the day I was appointed ambassador, which was in October last year.

- Who proposed you for ambassador?

They didn't propose to me, but the conditions were met because the ambassador (Luis Alvarado) was dismissed and when the ambassador was dismissed they told me: “We are going to appoint you interim, just like your predecessor, who was acting”. But somehow I gained Rosario's trust with my performance and he told me that he was going to appoint me extraordinary ambassador, not just interim.

- How do you get into the diplomatic service then?

-In November 2010, Ambassador (Francisco) Campbell summoned me because he knew that I was coastal and he had the vision of transforming the embassy that Arturo Cruz had led into an embassy with a more Afro-descendant look to make a connection with the new US president, Barak Obama, who was also Afro-descendant. Ambassador Campbell is Nicaragua's first Afro-descendant ambassador to the United States.

- How did you see the 2018 protests from your position?

-The outbreak of the crisis in Nicaragua occurs while I am in Washington. So I am not fully aware of what is happening, although one thing that impressed me was the death of journalist Ángel Gahona. I spoke at the time and told Ambassador Campbell: this is not right. But then he told me: no, if Ángel Gahona was a Sandinista. He was not killed by the police, it was the others who did it because he was a sympathizer of Sandinismo. Well, I said, it was like that. And since I'm here I don't have first-hand information, all I have is the party information that is handled. In 2018 my mother dies, in September. When I go to Nicaragua to bury my mother, I only stayed three days and I returned. However, I heard the personal stories of many people I knew and that changes my perspective, because it is no longer the news I see in the United States, but people I know and people that I have respected a lot. The repression was by levels. There were levels that you explained to yourself, and I said: Ok, maybe. I don't think so, but it can be. But the latest round of repression included the closures of NGOs, universities and arrests around the world. They started arresting everyone already shamelessly, for no reason.

- At what point do you go into crisis and say “I can't go on anymore”?

-The crisis began since 2018 but it was very mild. After the FSLN won (the November elections) there was a promise that there was a dialogue coming, that all political prisoners would be released, that a new time was coming, and when that promise is not fulfilled, I said, this has already lost ideological sustenance. There is no ideology that supports the death of a person. After a moral beating before the OAS, we are called to an emergency meeting in the Foreign Ministry with three presidential advisers and a legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry. I thought it was to make amends, but what it was all about was leaving the OAS. That is, not to change, but to bring radicalization to a level of “I don't care about anything”. I said: why don't we look for a more diplomatic situation? Why don't we release some 20 prisoners with chronic diseases and release some 20 ordinary prisoners and somehow give the feeling of a government that is sensitive to human causes? We do not lose anything by releasing them because they are in poor health, rather it is an act of political intelligence. We're not going to look weak, we're going to look wise and strong. And they tell me that they won't even take note of my comment because I can get unemployed and because on the right the more you give it, the more you want. And after that day I was afraid, because I said: I screwed up because this means that I became a suspect. What I said, is now having consequences because they are claiming why they did not take note of what Arturo said, if from that moment on he was a suspect.

- Are those people likely to be punished for not reporting it?

-Oh yeah, yeah. They are going to tell you: you saw that the man gave signs of what was inside and you did not report it.

- Were your interventions at the OAS written by you or someone else?

-What I said in my speech was to put on our shirts, pretend and repeat slogans.

-The speeches are repetitive. Is there any order for that?

-Nothing happens randomly.

- Does Rosario Murillo have to do with those speeches?

-Yes. Yeah, yeah, she's the one in charge of the foreign service. There's no one else in charge of the foreign service.

- Is she calling directly?

I spoke to Rosario when I was appointed ambassador. I never spoke to the chancellor. In my working relationship my chancellor is Rosario. And Arlette (Marenco), the vice-chancellor, is responsible for carrying out the tasks of political execution. She is the hand of the companion. She is the one who gave the message directly to the cardinal (Nuncio), the pope's envoy. When Arlette speaks, Rosario is speaking. That's not in question, she's the messenger. When you talk to Rosario, everything is going well. When Rosario doesn't want to talk to you anymore and sends you to Arlette, things are starting to go wrong. Having a close relationship with her is not good news. She is an agorera of bad news.

- What will happen to Arturo MacField's life from now on?

-I'm not important. What we have to ask is what will become of the lives of those who are imprisoned in the Chipote. I am speaking what I am talking about because there are some people in prison who touched my soul. I was touched by the girl Tamara Davila. The story of your daughter made me cry because she is five years old just like my daughter. Nine months without being able to hold her! What ideology, what political strategy, is going to support that? He broke me.

There are already those who, after his complaint, have begun to say that there is payment involved, that this is an intelligence work of the CIA, and things like that.

I can only tell you that tomorrow we will see how we pour more water into the soup to make it fit. As of today I am an unemployed person who does not have a work permit in the United States. I don't have permission to make a living. I am in a kind of legal limbo because, although the government has already said it has a new ambassador to the OAS, that ambassador has not presented credentials. For someone to become an ambassador to the OAS, there has to be a process. It arrives with the credentials and La Gaceta, the official newspaper. Then they have to discredit me at the State Department and they credit the new person. To this day I am on the OAS website and I am in the State Department

-Technically he is still Nicaragua's ambassador to the OAS.

-Technically. But in reality I'm an unemployed person who doesn't even have the ability to go to work because I don't have a permit. What helps me is that my wife has a job, she works in her profession at Washington Hospital Center. I am now a domain husband and maintained.

- Are you afraid that something will happen to you or your family?

I was afraid when I spoke, and I'm afraid now. I'm afraid because I know what it's like. But one cannot let fear be greater than the desire to see change in Nicaragua. I was inspired by political prisoners. These people are Nicaragua's remaining moral reserve. They're giving us all lessons. The people in the government are leaving, they're on the run. Why are they quiet? Why don't you make a firm statement? They are people who have goods. I don't have anything. There are a lot of big officials who have left the government and have quietly left so as not to lose their property and be able to return to the country.

-Another claim that critics make of his action is why only now.

“I stayed in the government because I had the distant hope that things would change, but the doors closed to me. I had to speak to 34 states and to the rest of the world there. And I put my life and my family's life at risk. I am very sorry for Mexico's attitude at the OAS. Their silence makes them complicit. President López Obrador is being a great accomplice.

- ¿Argentina?

There were countries that were silent today at the OAS and that was an act of cowardice. Large countries have a great moral commitment. They are not poor countries, they are countries that produce oil, gold, they have resources and their silence makes them complicit. Today they had a luxurious opportunity to break the silence and have a position. The countries that were silent in the OAS are not only complicit, they are willing to become dictatorships and that is why they kept silent.

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