Friction between Nicaragua and El Salvador over nationalization of fugitive Sánchez Cerén

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The nationalization as a Nicaragua citizen of former Salvadoran President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, a fugitive from justice in his country, has caused friction between Nicaragua and El Salvador, according to the letter sent by Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada to his counterpart Alejandra Hill, published on Monday.

“We have received your letter today (yesterday) which we consider unacceptable since you refer inoffensive and insulting terms to Nicaraguan citizens by nationalization, a right that all civilized states in the world have,” Moncada told Hill, in defense of Sanchez Ceren and the also fugitive Salvadoran ex-president and naturalized Nicaraguan Mauricio Funes.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Nicaragua

The Nicaraguan government did not reveal the content of Hill’s letter; however, in his response, Moncada affirmed that the Salvadoran foreign minister “has interfered in internal affairs of our Nicaragua”.

According to Moncada, Hill “took advantage of her status as chancellor of El Salvador, exerted pressure, and made claims about the situation of her ex-husband, Arturo Cruz Sequeira, who is under investigation for treason, money laundering, and other crimes.”

Cruz is one of seven opposition presidential hopefuls arrested in the midst of a wave of arrests against opposition leaders and leaders which began last May 28, and which has led to the imprisonment of more than 30 people, with three months to go before the elections in which President Daniel Ortega will seek his third consecutive reelection.

ACCUSES HER OF MIXING PERSONAL INTERESTS

The Nicaraguan foreign minister accused his counterpart of carrying out “pressures, threats and blackmail (that) have extended to the Sica (Central American Integration System), whose General Secretariat corresponds by right to Nicaragua, preventing you with personal, inappropriate, incorrect and illegal conduct, the regulatory consensus, in flagrant violation of the Treaty of Tegucigalpa”.

The Secretary-General of SICA’s election remains inconclusive because the countries of the region have not accepted the slate proposed by Nicaragua, composed of Sandinista representatives.

Moncada also accused Hill of “mixing personal interests, blackmailing, threatening and obstructing the management between States, for reasons unrelated to his official representation, (which) constitutes a crime of usurpation that should be investigated in his country. You well know what we are referring to”.

Read also: Check out our coverage on El Salvador

The foreign minister maintained that Hill has demanded “unacceptable preferences for her ex-spouse Cruz and that “she has even ‘threatened’ to involve the United States in these matters that are of national sovereignty of Nicaragua.” “That constitutes an unusual and unjustifiable interference in our affairs,” he added.

WITH A “GLASS CEILING”

“Madam Foreign Minister: when there is a glass ceiling, the smart thing to do is not to throw stones,” he continued.

Moncada said he was sure that “the Salvadoran State will open the corresponding investigation for these crimes, as abuse of power, threats, intimidations, blackmail and overreach, including the boastful reference to its own links with extra-regional governments seeking, precisely, to put pressure to achieve its interference objectives.”

Finally, Moncada emphasized that the Salvadoran Foreign Minister incurred “crimes for which her ex-husband (Cruz) is subject to judicial investigation in Nicaragua.”

Since the anti-government demonstrations that broke out in April 2018, Nicaragua has been experiencing a socio-political crisis that has been accentuated in the current election year.

In the elections of next November 7, Ortega will gamble 42 years of almost absolute domination of Nicaraguan politics.

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