The socio-political crisis in Nicaragua, as well as the accusations of alleged collusion by Costa Rica, the government of Carlos Alvarado is being asked to reconsider his position about sending a new ambassador to the neighboring nation.
Ambassadors, career diplomats and specialists in foreign policy agree that the current political conditions are not the most suitable to request the approval of a new ambassador to the government of President Daniel Ortega.
A few days ago, Ortega told CNN that the conspiracy to remove him from power ‘extends from Florida to Costa Rica’
The position of diplomats and experts is that, as in Venezuela, the government should maintain a charge of business as head of the diplomatic mission.
Last Thursday, Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Epsy Campbell, said that this week the government will request the approval of the new ambassador. The government is torn, as sending as ambassador to Nicaragua, between the former Minister of Communication, Mauricio Herrera, and the former vice minister of Gobernación y Policía, Carmen Muñoz.
The new ambassador (if one is appointed) will replace Eduardo Trejos Lalli, who left office on July 31 to come to assume the post of chief of the Direccion Intelligence and Security (DIS), Cost Rica’s intelligence and security agency.
Javier Sancho, career diplomat and ambassador to Managua between 2012 and 2016, assures that Campbell must wait to make a decision, not rush it, especially at a time when President Daniel Ortega accused Costa Rica of plotting along with the United States for the aggravation of the crisis in his country, arguments even for which the ambassador considers that the national government should protest and demand an apology.
Sancho recalled that in October 2010, due to the (alleged and later confirmed by the International Court of Justice) invasion of Nicaragua to Calero Island, former President Laura Chinchilla and former Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo decided not to send Melvin Saenz Biolley to replace Antonio ambassador Tacsan Lam, who had returned to San José at the end of his term.
“Two years passed without an ambassador in Nicaragua. A career diplomat was maintained as interim business manager from October 2010 until September 2012. In the current crisis, I do not consider it convenient from the diplomatic political point of view the immediate dispatch of a new ambassador to replace Mr. Eduardo Trejos. In addition to the cold relationship that is maintained with the regime of Ortega and Murillo, who continue to see Costa Rica as his enemy. A few days ago, Ortega told CNN that the conspiracy to remove him from power ‘extends from Florida to Costa Rica.’ We should formally ask for an explanation and apologies to Comandante Ortega before requesting a blessing. This is because although they look like loose phrases, the correct reading indicates that sectors of the Ortega movement would be willing to involve our country in its internal conflict, ” said the diplomat.
Sancho’s position has the support of fellow diplomat Rodrigo Carreraas, who said, “I think that in the current situation coinciding with the departure of Ambassador Trejos in Nicaragua, it is not convenient for the national interest or the support required by Ambassador Rita Hernández who chairs the Permanent Council in the OAS, that the president, Carlos Alvarado, send a nice letter to Ortega full of nice phrases, asking to accredit a new ambassador, while (Ortega) murdering the population.”
Read more: Costa Rican Ambassador in Managua: The Nicaragua I Arrived At No Longer Exists’‘
Political analysts Claudio Alpízar and Alonzo Mora, support the position of ambassadors Sancho and Carreras in their assessments that it is not convenient, at this time, to send an ambassador to Nicaragua.
“It is a terrible moment because any candidate will have to wait for the approval of Ortega, who will leave Costa Rica, without a doubt, representation for several months. In the current crisis, it will be very difficult, by strategy, for the Nicaraguan government to welcome any (ambassador) candidate from Costa Rica, unless he is a fervent supporter of Sandinismo. The change was untimely, Trejos should have stayed on as ambassador,” said Alpizar.
For his part, Alonzo Mora, lawyer and international relations officer, said “it is not the (diplomatic) moment to ask for the insertion of a new ambassador. This crisis is already having a profound impact on relations and economic issue. Rather, it is a good moment to be able to influence how to resolve the crisis, but not to send a new ambassador.”
