Boric: “You can’t be silent” about Nicaragua’s prisoners

The tour that Chilean President Gabriel Boric is making through Mexico involved a controversial incident related to the Nicaraguan crisis, when a group of senators took advantage of the South American leader's appearance in the Senate to protest against the political and diplomatic support of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) to the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

The Mexican opposition political faction called Grupo Plural were responsible for the protest, when some of its members passed in front of the legislative tribune and unfurled a banner reading: "Boric does not protect murderers in Nicaragua like AMLO".

According to newspaper reports, the legislators who displayed the banner are Emilio Alvarez Icaza and Gustavo Madero. Senator Álvarez Icaza on Twitter expanded his reflections on AMLO's political support to the Ortega regime.

The statements of the 36-year-old president and representative of the new Latin American left, contrast with the silence regarding the situation in Nicaragua from the also leftist Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Lopez Obrador received Boric Wednesday at the National Palace, in the first official meeting between the two leaders.

Mexico has not joined the denunciations from the majority of the international community at various organizations, such as the Organization of American States (OAS), about political repression in the Central American country.

Nicaragua has been going through a serious political and social crisis since April 2018, which has worsened after the controversial general elections of November 7, 2021. On that day, Daniel Ortega re-elected himself for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with his main contenders in prison.

Ortega has been in power for nearly 16 consecutive years, amid accusations of authoritarianism, nepotism and electoral fraud.

The senator said on Twitter that "the electoral fraud that López Obrador talks about so much was committed by Daniel Ortega in the recent municipal elections when he 'won' the 153 mayoralties with opponents imprisoned or forced to flee. Five times president, Ortega is supported by López Obrador".

President Boric has been a strong critic of the international community's indifference to the crisis of human rights violations in Nicaragua. BioBio Chile reported that in his speech before the Mexican Senate, Boric insisted on the urgency of addressing the situation in the country.

"We cannot look the other way in the face of the crisis that Haiti is experiencing, we cannot look the other way in the face of the political prisoners in Nicaragua", added Boric.

In an interview with the influential U.S. magazine TIME, Boric expressed that "I prefer telling Daniel Ortega that I disagree with him and I want him to free the political prisoners -(such as) Dora María Téllez- to tell him in his face and confront him".

The Chilean president also questioned via Twitter the results of the municipal electoral farce of November 6, 2022 with which the Sandinista Front awarded itself the 153 mayoralties of Nicaragua.  "An electoral process that takes place without freedom, reliable electoral justice and imprisoned or banned opponents, is not democracy anywhere in the world," he wrote in his account on the social network.

Mexican website Aristegui Noticias reported that Boric arrived in Mexico this week to, originally, participate in the Pacific Alliance meeting, but due to the fact that the president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, was not authorized by his country's Congress, the event had to be postponed.

AMLO's foreign policy has been complacent with the outrages of Daniel Ortega's regime. He was even an advocate of the boycott of the Summit of the Americas due to U.S. President Joe Biden's decision not to invite the dictatorships of Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela to the regional meeting. "How is it that we call a Summit, but we do not invite everyone?", questioned the Mexican president.

In addition, he maintains a position of supposed "neutrality and non-interference" in the Nicaraguan crisis during the sessions of the Organization of American States (OAS).

López Obrador expressed this Friday that he "respects" Boric's statements in the Mexican Senate. "We respect President Boric very much, as we respect all presidents, even more in his case, who comes from a leftist movement, and of course he is completely free to demonstrate, to express himself," commented the Mexican president.

This article was originally published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times