Ortega demands Taiwan's expulsion from SICA and Russia's membership

Daniel Ortega demanded that Guatemala and Belize facilitate the expulsion of Taiwan from the Central American Integration System (SICA), on the grounds that it is “a military base of the United States” and insisted that Russia become an observer of the organization.

During a meeting with Luo Zhaohui, president of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (Cidca), Ortega said that only Guatemala and Belize oppose Taiwan's exit, ignoring the opinion of the presidents of El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic.

“It’s absurd that a majority of countries have relations with the People's Republic of China, 

and that in the Central American Integration System, Taiwan is still included, when it’s only recognized by two countries. On the other hand, they want to block the integration of  nations like Russia which has relations with all of Central America. There is no alternative here, and we make it clear to Guatemala and Belize that SICA cannot continue to admit Taiwan into its system,” Ortega stated.

In his speech, Ortega accused Taiwan of sending arms to Nicaragua in 1980 during the civil war to arm the Contra, by orders of the United States and therefore considered that it should be out of SICA.

"Only Guatemala and Belize have a relationship with a Yankee military base, there is no State, no government,” he said. “That military base called Taiwan (...) has to be withdrawn, expelled from SICA”, he insisted.

New attack on the United States

Ortega also accused the United States of financing what he called a coup attempt against him, in reference to the April Rebellion.

“The United States has always wanted to control Nicaragua, to take over Nicaragua, to occupy Nicaragua. They continue with their plans, they continue conspiring, financing with a billion dollars the instruments of aggression and war. They are preparing to try a coup d'état again, but the people are convinced that this cannot be allowed, it cannot be repeated”, he said.

Ortega also pointed to the countries of the European Union as being part of that coup attempt but made no reference to the brutal repression of the protests nor to the crimes against humanity committed by his regime.

“The historical imperialists, the Europeans, joined in, but thanks to the people, that coup was aborted,” Ortega said.

Concern about China

Ortega's meeting with Cidca head Luo Zhaochi was held behind closed doors. It is the first visit by the Chinese official since the reestablishment of relations in December 2021.

The visit comes days after a leak of Pentagon documents published by The Washington Post confirmed US concerns about the active role played by Chinese diplomacy in Latin America, especially now that Russia has almost all its attention focused on its inability to fulfill its military objectives in Ukraine.

According to the same document, the dictatorship “would probably consider offering naval access to Beijing in exchange for economic investment”, which has been at the center of its unsuccessful interest since the decision was made to break off relations with Taiwan in order to establish them with the People's Republic of China.

The US newspaper - which had access to the leaked documents - details the existence of a third document that reveals “secret negotiations between China and Nicaragua to build a deep-water port in Bluefields, on the country's Caribbean coast. Citing signals intelligence, the report said China Harbor Engineering Company had been negotiating to conduct initial site studies and discuss future operations since mid-2022.”

As part of the Cidca head's visit, Nicaragua and China signed an agreement for a 150-megawatt thermal power rehabilitation project in the country.

Another agreement was also signed for the feasibility study of the second phase of the housing program called “Nuevas Victorias” (New Victories) to be developed over three years.

The first phase of this housing program, which consists of building 920 houses, will be inaugurated next Sunday and will be attended by the head of Cidca.

“New Victories”, according to the official information of the regime, is a program that includes the construction of 12,034 houses in 84 municipalities of Nicaragua.

The head of Cidca said that China and Nicaragua have also “discussed other projects in the fields of education, agriculture, and infrastructure”.

This article was originally published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by our staff.