The U.S. Department of State (DOS) revealed that Nicaragua's withdrawal from the Organization of American States (OAS) Charter has become effective. This abrupt exit is viewed as an attempt to evade international accountability for numerous human rights abuses within the country.
President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo made the decision as another attempt to distance themselves from the international community and attempts to hold them accountable for human rights violations, according to the news release. The reported abuses include unjustly detaining, convicting, and mistreating political prisoners, attacking journalists, and supressing civil organizations and educational institutions.
"The Department of State is taking steps to impose visa restrictions on 100 Nicaraguan municipal officials for their role in supporting the Ortega regime’s attacks on human rights and fundamental freedoms and repression of civil society organizations," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a September statement. "Since August, President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo have shut down and seized the Central American University and the Central American Institute of Business Administration, two of the country’s most renowned centers of higher learning, under arbitrary and unfounded pretenses."
Despite Nicaragua’s actions in leaving the Charter, the country is still held to human rights and governance obligations cemented by other existing treaties, such as the American Convention on Human Rights, according to the media release.
Still, international efforts are continuing in earnest, with the release from the DOS announcing their continued efforts with OAS partners to hold the Nicaraguan leaders accountable, as well as their call for authorities in the country to fulfill their sworn obligations to human rights.
According to the news release, the OAS is a multilateral organization in the Western Hemisphere with a focus on supporting democratic advancement in all countries. The DOS maintains their commitment to this ideology, including the rights and freedoms of all residents in Nicaragua.
