Nicaragua to bar new US Ambassador from entering country
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Nicaraguan authorities decide to prevent newly-appointed US Ambassador Hugo Rodriguez from entering the country owing to his previous hostile statements towards Managua.
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Nicaragua to bar new US Ambassador from entering the country
Nicaraguan authorities have decided to prevent newly-appointed US Ambassador Hugo Rodriguez from entering the country owing to his previous hostile statements towards Managua, according to a statement from the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry.
"The government of Nicaragua, in use of its powers and in exercise of its national sovereignty, immediately withdraws the approval granted to the candidate Hugo Rodriguez," the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Hugo Rodrigues was nominated by US President Joe Biden on May 6, 2022, to be the next US ambassador in Nicaragua, succeeding Kevin Sullivan.
Rodrigues previously stated that as US ambassador to Nicaragua, he would support the use of all economic and political measures to shift Nicaragua's political orientation.
Last month, the United States excluded Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from the summit of the Americas, claiming that the authorities in those countries we "not democratic".
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega had been banned from the summit, despite being democratically elected as president for the fourth term in his country.
US foreign intervention
Nicaragua's elections last year sparked disapproval from the White House.
Biden said, "What Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, orchestrated today was a pantomime election that was neither free nor fair, and most certainly not democratic."
He accused Nicaragua's government of imprisoning nearly 40 opposition figures, including potential presidential candidates, since May.
On November 8, Nicaraguans voted for a new president and legislature for the next five years. Simultaneously, the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front confirmed longtime President Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, as candidates and running mates.
After Ortega's election, the US and European Union sanctioned Nicaraguan officials including the defense minister, officials in the military, the state-owned Nicaraguan Mining company, and the company responsible for telecommunications and postal services.
It is worth mentioning that Washington and the European Union have already imposed sanctions on Ortega in June of 2021 as part of its pressure campaign to subdue the South-American country. A month later, the US imposed visa restrictions on 100 members of Nicaragua's National Assembly and judicial system.
