Daniel Ortega's regime expelled the delegate of the Red Cross from Nicaragua

Daniel Ortega's regime expelled resident delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Thomas Ess, from Nicaragua, although the reasons for the order are unknown so far, a spokeswoman for the entity told AFP.

In a letter sent to the ICRC on Monday, “the Nicaraguan government has notified that it decided to withdraw the approval of our head of mission” in Managua, Maria Cristina Rivera, Red Cross communications coordinator for Mexico and Central America, said via telephone. The entity's offices in Managua continue to operate.

The measure is part of a process of closing the country and rejecting international organizations that denounce institutional irregularities and human rights violations.

On Thursday, Ortega also officially dismissed journalist Arturo McFields Yescas as the country's ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) on Thursday, the day after the diplomatic representative denounced a “dictatorship” in his country and demanded the release of imprisoned opponents.

Through a presidential agreement, Ortega rescinded the appointment of McFields Yescas as permanent representative of the Republic of Nicaragua, with the rank of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to the OAS, in which he was appointed on October 26 of last year and published a day later in the Official Gazette The Gazette.

“This agreement takes effect from March 23, 2022″, according to the document published in the Official Journal.

Instead, Ortega appointed Francisco Obadiah Campbell Hooker, who is also the Nicaraguan ambassador to the United States.

During a virtual session of the OAS Permanent Council on Wednesday, McFields Yescas decided to stop “keeping silent” and called the Ortega regime a “dictatorship”.

McFields Yescas, a journalist by profession, denounced that Nicaragua “became the only country in Central America where there are no printed newspapers” and “there is no freedom to publish on social networks.”

Nor, he assured, “are there independent human rights organizations”, no opposition “political parties”, “no credible elections” and “there is no separation of powers, but rather powers that be”.

It is a country, he added, where “private universities have begun to be confiscated and 137 Catholic, evangelical and environmental NGOs have been canceled, Operación Sonrisa and the list continues to grow.”

McFields Yescas said he was taking the floor “on behalf of more than 177 political prisoners and more than 350 people who have lost their lives” in his country since 2018, when several demonstrations broke out in Nicaragua against Social Security reforms that turned into a protest movement against Ortega.

Also “on behalf of the thousands of public servants at all levels, civil and military, of those who today are forced by the Nicaraguan regime to pretend to fill places and repeat slogans, because if they don't, they lose their jobs,” he said.

With information from AFP

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