U.S. demands action on Nicaraguan decision to end elections

0:00Today on State of the World, Nicaragua grabs attention with its move to end national elections, and the U. The U.S. calls for action.

0:13You're listening to State of the World from NPR, a human perspective on global events. It's Tuesday, September 29th. I'm Christine Arismeth. The U.S. is calling a rare meeting of the Organization of American States this week, after Nicaragua's president announced the country's elections were a thing of the past. While the foreign ministers of the Americas are meeting to discuss exactly what to do, it's unclear what will come of it. Here's NPR's Ada Peralta. Nicaragua hadn't been much of a focus for the U.S. But then in July, co-president Daniel Ortega dropped a bombshell. He promised that the country would have no more elections.

0:58Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the government's leaders cowards, afraid of democracy. Ortega and his wife and co-president Rosario Murillo shrugged, and they rammed through a constitutional amendment that would legally end competitive elections. The United States responded by calling an extraordinary meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organization for American States, or OAS, to quote, stop business as usual with Nicaragua. To Orlando Perez, who has studied Nicaragua for decades and teaches at the University of North Texas at Dallas, this episode is full of ironies. To some extent, we're in Alice in Wonderland.

1:35I mean, we've gone through the looking glass, if you will. First of all, says Perez, the U.S. has had few problems acting unilaterally lately. In January, U.S. troops deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Then they put up an oil blockade in Cuba. And in February, they went to war with Iran. Now, he says, They want the OAS, which has for decades been just a talking shop, to do something. So it's ironic, I think, that in Nicaragua, we are now calling for multilateral action. What's more, says Perez, the two countries trade barbs, but they actually have a pragmatic relationship. The irony is, is that even when the rhetoric is anti-US and anti-imperialist, The fact is this regime has been working with the United States.

2:23They work with each other on migration, and the U.S. and Nicaragua have a free trade agreement. Perez says there's another big irony. Outside Nicaragua, the political leaders in exile, who once literally fought a civil war against each other, are now united in calling for an international intervention. But without Nicaragua, our problem is not between right and left. Dora Maria Tellez was known as commander number two when she led socialist guerrillas to power in the 1970s. Nicaragua, she says, isn't facing problems of left and right. Our problem in Nicaragua is between dictator and democracy.

2:58Our problem in Nicaragua, she says, is between a dictatorship and democracy. In the 80s, her government fought against U.S.-backed Contras. But today, she wishes every world leader was as belligerent as the Trump administration has been.

3:19This government is killing us. They're throwing us in prison and banishing us. Deyes was in jail for almost two years. She was one of the 222 political prisoners who were stripped of their citizenship and exiled to the U.S. A UN report found there was ample evidence the Nicaraguan government had committed crimes against humanity. We have the right, she says, to ask for help. Pérez says when the foreign ministers meet, they're likely to release a statement condemning Nicaragua's authoritarianism. But beyond that, I don't think there's a consensus on what further to do. The Central American countries would worry economic sanctions could disrupt the textile supply chain.

4:04The U.S. would worry sanctions could lead to a migrant crisis. So the most likely scenario, says Pérez, is the status quo. Ada Peralta, NPR News, Mexico City.

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