Nicaragua denounces repression of Catalan and Basque pro-independence movements in diplomatic crisis with Spain

MadridA new diplomatic crisis in Spain, this time with the Nicaraguan government, on the eve of elections on 7 November, marked by the arrest of opposition leaders. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has summoned its ambassador to the Central American country for consultations after a harsh communiqué from the Nicaraguan executive in which it denounces Spanish interference in internal affairs and warns that it cannot give lessons in democracy. At this point, he refers to Catalonia and the GAL, "which forever and ever stained Spain with responsibility for crimes against humanity that have never been investigated or tried".

The response of Daniel Ortega's government has come in the wake of a first Spanish pronouncement on the pre-electoral context in Nicaragua. For months, arrests of student leaders and pre-candidates opposing the regime have been accumulating, linked to the wave of protests that began in 2018, heavily repressed with more than 300 deaths. Spain issued a statement questioning the "guarantees and credibility" of the election results and has called on Nicaragua to "comply with its international commitments on human rights and its own constitutional precepts, to guarantee the rights of all citizens and free political participation", as Europa Press explains.

The Spanish position has aroused the indignation of the Nicaraguan government, which has harshly criticised the state. "[Spain] has the obligation to respect and assume without delay the ways to respond to the just claims of the inhabitants of this so-called Iberian peninsula. [...] We challenge them to allow free participation in voting and elections, without threats, intimidation, or imprisonment for pro-independence leaders, and without persecution beyond their borders, whom they have only demanded respect for their beliefs, wills and rights", Nicaragua says.

In a long communiqué, it adds: "The Spanish state, the one that criticises, accuses and demands what they themselves do not give, history will never absolve! Infamy cannot be hidden with boastfulness, disguising themselves as judges that they are not and cannot be, nor has anyone summoned them, because they lack moral authority or respect in the face of so many fallacies, cover-ups, lies, crimes, hate crimes and crimes against humanity that they do not confess, but that everyone knows about and condemns". Managua uses this "hypocrisy" to reject the ministry's communiqué and urges it to "assume full responsibility for its ferocious and brutal colonial and neocolonial history, as well as its fascism disguised as socialism".