MANAGUA (Dispatches) –
Nicaragua said it had completed its withdrawal from the Organization of American States (OAS), a group which is known for following a pro-Western line and pressuring countries opposed to U.S.
Nicaragua’s government also said it had closed the local OAS office and revoked the credentials of several OAS representatives as part of an “unwavering decision” to leave the organization.
Nicaragua began the process to leave the 35-member OAS in November, shortly after President Daniel Ortega’s election to a fourth consecutive term.
However, the OAS said Nicaragua’s rejection of the group could not go into effect until the end of 2023 given the country’s status as an active member.
Nicaragua has frequently described the Washington-based OAS as interventionist and controlled by the United States.
“Nicaragua is not a colony of anyone,” the government said in a statement announcing its withdrawal.
Denis Moncada, Nicaragua’s foreign minister, announced his country’s immediate split with the multilateral regional body.
Reading a statement in an official broadcast, Moncada said the bloc’s “local headquarters has been closed” and the “infamous organization” would no longer have any offices in Nicaragua.
From Sunday onwards, he asserted, that Nicaragua would no longer be part “of all the deceitful mechanisms of this monstrosity, the so-called Permanent Council, so-called commissions, so-called meetings, so-called Summit of the Americas.”
The foreign minister added that his country would not participate in any of the entities of “the diabolical instrument of evil called the OAS.”
In May last year, Ortega used the opportunity of the 126th anniversary of the birth of national revolutionary hero General Augusto Sandino to blast U.S. interference in the country.
“The Yankee Ambassador is all over the place selling their candidates as if he were Nicaraguan. He’s not Nicaraguan… Don’t get involved here, Ambassador Yankee. Don’t meddle here like you have been up until now,” he said, referring to the U.S. envoy, Kevin Sullivan.
Later, Nicaragua’s Vice President Rosario Murillo warned against foreign intervention in her country’s affairs, stating firmly, “We are not anyone’s colony.”
The OAS was founded in 1948 with a declared mission of boosting regional solidarity and cooperation among its member states. However, the organization has been active in interfering in the internal affairs of the other states, such as Cuba and Venezuela.
Back in 2018, the organization had called for a “military intervention” to overthrow Venezuela’s government days after reports of a U.S.-led coup plot against President Nicolas Maduro.