Nicaragua's former ambassador to the OAS says he can't “eat or sleep”

Arturo McFields, former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), said Monday that he cannot “eat or sleep,” since he rebelled last week against Daniel Ortega's government, and regretted having received criticism from some sectors of the Nicaraguan opposition.

“I am in a very strong emotional process and it hurts me a lot when people who call themselves Democrats tell you that what you have done is not enough and that you have to drag yourself and ask for forgiveness. They don't know what I'm going through,” she told EFE in a telephone interview.

After five months as ambassador to the OAS, McFields rebelled against Ortega on March 23, denounced his country's “dictatorship” and demanded the release of political prisoners, so he was immediately dismissed from office.

McFields noted on Monday that his gesture has received the support of “the vast majority of Nicaraguans,” including figures such as the poet Gioconda Belli and the journalist Lucia Pineda, but he has also suffered a “smear campaign” by members of the opposition who do not forgive him for being part of Ortega's circle.

“Psychological trauma is not enough and I can't eat or sleep. One has to crawl on the ground to be worthy of forgiveness,” reproached McFields, who said that “division has been the great cause of a dictatorship in Nicaragua.”

Following his decision, the former ambassador said he had put his life and that of his family “at risk”, took a “jump without a parachute” and lost “health insurance” in the United States.

To those around Ortega who accuse him of being a CIA sellout, McFields replied that the only financial support he has is from the work of his wife and that of an African-American church in Washington. “What I did I don't regret an inch. I did it for myself, now I feel free, without chains, but I'm still shocked,” he said.

Although he did not explain his plans for the future, he said that the US State Department is helping him to regularize his immigration status, while Ecuador has made him a “proposal for political asylum.”

McFields, a journalist by profession, was appointed in October last year as ambassador to the OAS and, he assured, that at that time he was already “dissatisfied” with the Ortega government, but “he did not know how to raise this disagreement.”

“From the first day I arrived, I wanted to do something for my country, because there comes a time when you get tired of repeating slogans, you get tired of putting on your shirt and defending the indefensible,” said the former ambassador, who maintains that there is great discontent among senior Nicaraguan officials.

In fact, on Sunday, lawyer Paul Reichler, who has represented Nicaragua before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in various international disputes, resigned from the post out of “moral conscience,” denouncing the way Ortega runs the country, days after McFields did so.

In his unexpected plea during a session of the OAS permanent council, McFields said he was speaking “on behalf of more than 177 political prisoners and more than 350 people who have lost their lives” in his country since 2018.

The former ambassador explained on Monday that the cases that prompted him to take a step forward were the arrests of activist Tamara Davila and journalist Miguel Mora; as well as the death in prison of former Sandinista guerrilla Hugo Torres, whom he described as a “national hero”.

Since he rebelled against Ortega, he has not answered “anyone's phone” from the Nicaraguan government, since he claims that “threats are common.”

(With information from EFE)

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