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Daniel Ortega threatened to expel from Nicaragua any “ambassador who wants lecture us” or “meddle” in the country’s internal affairs.
The threat to foreign diplomats came after he mentioned that the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Cuba had been summoned by the island’s Foreign Ministry because, according to Ortega, he “started trying to boss Cuba around. He acted like a delegate of the empire… like a consul of the North American empire, and that he had Cuba under his control.”
“Here, we are very clear about our position toward ambassadors who want to meddle. As the song ‘Sovereignty’ says: ‘Let them say whatever they want out there, but on Nicaraguan soil, where the blue and white flag flies — the same flag defended by Sandino’s red and black flag — anyone who tries to interfere: out! As the song ‘Sovereignty’ says.”
“They can go say those things outside, but here we respect the blue and white flag, and the red and black flag,” he reiterated.
Ortega also criticized the raids and deportation of thousands of Latin American migrants from the United States, calling the Trump government “fascist” — without naming it directly — and compared those actions to the Nazis.
The U.S. government’s actions “are like the Nazi persecutions, looking to capture the Israelites in the occupied European countries: wherever they found them, they forcibly removed them and beat them to take them to concentration camps,” he said during the ceremony promoting Bayardo Rodríguez and Marvin Corrales to the rank of “general colonel” of the Army.
In an apparent reference to critics who question the creation of this new rank, Ortega assured that “this is not inventing a rank for the sake of it, but to strengthen the Nicaraguan Army, Sandino’s army, the army that arose from the Revolution to guarantee peace and to strengthen relations with the other armies of Central America.”
Nicaraguans Have “Open Doors”
In his monologue, Ortega said that “what is happening in the United States,” [referring to the deportation of immigrants] is brutal, with nothing democratic or Christian about it. It’s fascist behavior. They keep separating mothers from their children. They keep doing it. Families are fleeing, and wherever they catch them, they detain the mothers and take the children somewhere else,” he stated.
He also referred to the U.S. government resolution “that approves the expulsion of a little over 500,000 Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Salvadoran citizens, and those poor people are fleeing, persecuted. It’s something terrible, terrible!” he exclaimed. He also pointed out that the work of thousands of Nicaraguans, Salvadorans, Mexicans, Guatemalans, and Haitians “enriches the United States,” because they do jobs that Americans no longer want to do.
Expressing his “solidarity with all those persecuted brothers, especially with the Nicaraguan brothers,” he assured that the compatriots being expelled from that country “have open doors.” Ortega again admitted that an unknown number of Nicaraguans “have been arriving on flights, and here we receive them very well. Migration officials treat them well. Their health is checked, they are fed, and they are transported to their homes—even if they are in Waspam or Quilalí, the Ministry of the Interior takes them there,” he said.
Ortega recommended that “they don’t dare return to the United States again, because that’s terror. This is your land. This is your homeland, and here you will be able to work in peace,” he promised, even though more than 350,000 citizens were forced to leave the country fleeing the persecution and repression carried out by the Ortega government and his wife, Rosario Murillo.
Although he mentioned migration motivated by economic reasons, Ortega limited it to the era of the Somoza dictatorship, ignoring that it is during his two administrations—the 1980s and since 2018—that the most Nicaraguans have left the country seeking employment or safety.
Speaking of those migrants “who went to the United States looking to improve their living conditions during Somoza’s government,” the dictator mentioned his father’s sisters, “who went to San Francisco—territory stolen from Mexico—to work. They were already older, and they went to care for children, and when they could, they sent my father 20 or 30 dollars out of that sense of cooperation that we Nicaraguans have,” he recounted.
Ukraine, SICA, and CELAC
The rest of Ortega’s speech touched on familiar topics like the war in Ukraine, the delay in electing a new secretary-general for the Central American Integration System (SICA), and the ineffectiveness of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Regarding the attacked European nation, he said it was “the same Nazis who have been coming to power in Germany, England, and France who are talking about investing billions to arm the fascists in Ukraine.” Although he acknowledged that the stalled peace talks at least served to exchange prisoners and bodies, he said, “Volodymyr Zelensky [president of Ukraine] has already passed his term. He should have called elections, but no one questions that.”
Despite the Nicaraguan Constitution prohibiting consecutive re-election and barring a third presidential term, Ortega has been president since January 2007. His latest re-election came after imprisoning opposition pre-candidates who could have defeated him in a free election.
The dictator also recalled his administration’s failure at SICA to appoint another Nicaraguan to the post of secretary-general, in accordance with the regional body’s rules.
“There has been a certain weakening of SICA. We are still awaiting the appointment of the secretary of SICA, which corresponds to Nicaragua, but beyond that appointment, we are managing to maintain the exchange in the region” in the economic field, in the field of security, in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime, he said.
Ortega also had words of praise for the military entity, assuring that “the Army has managed to establish an instrument where Central American armies can make plans and programs to defend the security of our countries. We are not thinking of attacking anyone, but of defending all of us,” he said.
In the case of CELAC, he said that this continental organization “was born with a strength and spirit of Latin American and Caribbean unity. I would say that we Central Americans are more harmonized than CELAC, because in CELAC there are governments that simply do not respect the other Latin American countries and peoples”, he accused without naming any of them, describing that in CELAC “there is no way to reach any agreements”. The meetings do not generate results, because “in the face of proposals to unite us, right-wing, fascist governments appear, hurling insults against those who present these proposals. This does not mean that we give up. The time will come when the peoples with right-wing governments will understand that development can only be achieved united”, he said.
