The Diplomat
The new Nicaraguan Ambassador to Spain, Maurizio Carlo Alberto Gelli, has presented the Copies of his Letters of Credence to the Ambassadors’ introducer, María Sebastián de Erice.
The presentation of the Copies took place last Monday at the historic headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Gelli conveyed to the head of protocol the greetings of the Nicaraguan President, Daniel Ortega, and the Vice-President, Rosario Murillo, and the desire to work to strengthen the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, according to Nicaraguan sources.
Nicaragua thus once again has an ambassador to Spain, nine months after the government of Daniel Ortega withdrew Carlos Midence, who had held the post since September 2016, at a time when tension between the two countries was at its highest.
Maurizio Gelli, an Italian citizen who became a naturalised Nicaraguan citizen in May 2009, had been Nicaragua’s ambassador to Canada since 2017, after having previously held the same post in Uruguay.
The Spanish government gave the go-ahead for Maurizio Gelli’s appointment in an attempt to normalise relations with Nicaragua, after criticisms of Daniel Ortega’s attitude towards opposition parties and the media critical of the Sandinista regime caused a major rift between Madrid and Managua.
Spain recalled its ambassador in Managua, Mar Fernández-Palacios, for consultations in August 2021, in response to a communiqué published the previous day by the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry which contained, according to the Spanish Foreign Ministry, ‘gross falsehoods about Spanish judicial and electoral processes’.
When Spain subsequently decided to return the ambassador to her post, the Nicaraguan government opposed this and, in order to avoid the expulsion of its ambassador in Madrid, Carlos Midence, decided to recall him on 10 March this year, leaving the embassy in charge as Chargé d’Affaires, the Minister Counsellor, Milagros Urbina.
Despite the estrangement, last July, the Spanish government asked Nicaragua to give its approval for the appointment of Pilar Terrén as the new ambassador to Nicaragua. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by José Manuel Albares, responded to requests from relatives of opponents repressed by the Sandinista regime, who expressed their desire to have witnesses on the ground about what is happening in the country. The Ortega government swiftly granted authorisation for the appointment of Pilar Terrén, who immediately took up her post.
