AMERICA/NICARAGUA - Bishop Mata Guevara: "dialogue is blocked, no political prisoners have been released, there is no will to resolve the crisis"

Tuesday, 14 May 2019 area crisis   democracy   politics   dialogue   bishops   youth  

Twitter

Esteli (Agenzia Fides) - "We have said several times: this regime does not have the political will to reach an agreement for the good of the country. For the regime, the people are only the small group that supports it. It has its own program: to remain in power at all costs and create a scenario that will allow it to continue acting in political life", with these words, in a note sent to Agenzia Fides, Mgr. Abelardo Mata Guevara, Bishop of the Diocese of Esteli (Nicaragua) and spokesperson of the Bishops' Conference of Nicaragua (CEN), describes the situation in the country, deploring the attitude of President Daniel Ortega who "has no intention of seeking a peaceful solution to the socio-political crisis that the country has been experiencing for a year".
The Bishop points out that "Ortega is the only person responsible for the crisis in the country, and also responsible for international sanctions", measures that he has decided to attribute to the opponents and has only provoked a reaction: the blocking of national dialogue.
"The civic alliance has been firm in its fundamental points: Ortega must do what was agreed and stop blaming others for their mistakes", the religious leader said.
"He is responsible for all the strikes in the country, for the violation of freedom of expression, for not allowing the necessary changes for the sake of citizenship and international sanctions", concluded Mgr. Mata.
Mgr. Mata pronounces these words after the brutal government repression against the citizens who took to the streets to ask the presidential couple to leave office.
Currently the negotiations between the regime of Daniel Ortega and the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy are at a standstill. For two weeks now, the regime has removed its delegates and canceled the agreement to speed up the release of political prisoners for the month of May.
Faced with this attitude by the government, the apostolic nuncio, Mgr. Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, and Luis Ángel Rosadilla, representative of the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS), international witnesses of this process, at the national dialogue table, expressed their concern and bitterness.
President Ortega promised to release all political prisoners within ninety days, ie by June 18, on the eve of the evaluation of the Nica Act (Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act) and of the OAS General Assembly, to be held in Medellin, Colombia, at the end of June. If the regime does not release political prisoners, the gesture would be understood as revoking the negotiating table. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 14/5/2019)


Share: