Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, yesterday defended the Spanish ambassador to Nicaragua, María del Mar Fernández-Palacios, from accusations of “interference” launched by the country’s president, Daniel Ortega, and asked the Nicaraguan leader not to use “excuses of that kind to hide human rights violations”.
“All Spanish diplomats scrupulously comply with their obligations” in accordance with the Vienna Convention and international rules and “always in a framework of respect for the countries in which they represent Spain”, González Laya assured during a joint press conference with Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, at the Viana Palace in Madrid.
“I would like to emphasize that no such excuses can be used to hide human rights violations or persecution of political leaders”, continued González Laya, who made “a new appeal to the Nicaraguan authorities to release political prisoners and allow full participation in the electoral process” and to guarantee “respect for the rights and freedoms not only of politicians, but also of the press, businessmen and civil society in general”.
Daniel Ortega declared last Thursday that several European ambassadors, among them the representative of Spain, have met at the U.S. Embassy to defend opposition candidates in view of the presidential elections next November. “They had been meeting at the U.S. Embassy and demanding that they choose a candidate, and suddenly they took him to the Spanish Embassy”, said the president, as reported by the local newspaper La Prensa. These events, he added, are “an interference directed by the United States which the Europeans serve”. A month ago, Ortega accused U.S. Ambassador Kevin K. Sullivan of “selling candidates”.
González Laya assured last Thursday during a press conference with Panama’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erika Mouynes -who invited Spain to lead within the EU the international community’s response to the wave of political arrests in Nicaragua- that in “the last few weeks” she herself has initiated “a discreet dialogue with the authorities to reverse these measures that threaten Nicaraguan citizens, their rights, their ability to be political actors and the very basic functioning of Nicaragua”.
