The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during his morning conference this Wednesday. José Méndez (EFE)
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has broken his silence on Wednesday on the political crisis in Nicaragua.
The president has affirmed that his government is open to offering asylum or Mexican nationality to Nicaraguans who request it, although he has avoided criticizing Daniel Ortega's authoritarian drift.
López Obrador's decision comes one day after his Chilean counterparts, Gabriel Boric, and Argentina, Alberto Fernández, offered the nationalities of their countries to Nicaraguans exiled and forced into exile by the Managua regime, more than 300 people who, in addition, have been stripped of their nationality.
“The instruction is that all [Nicaraguans] who want to be in our country have the doors open and are well received.
Asylum, nationality, whatever they want."
López Obrador has stated.
"Nationality cannot be lost by decree," he said in the only open criticism of Ortega's decision.
In this way, the Mexican president resists the criticism that opposition sectors in Mexico and Latin American intellectuals have made of him, by not speaking out openly about the repression and political persecution against opponents in Nicaragua.
López Obrador has justified his silence by stating that his government has opted for a dialogue within the Central American country to find a solution to the deep political crisis that has affected it since 2018, when massive demonstrations broke out demanding the end of the Sandinista regime and that Ortega harshly repressed.
Human rights organizations estimate that more than 360 people were killed by the official repression.
“We are respectful and what we want is to seek, through dialogue, to resolve the differences.
López Obrador has reported that his government has followed the Nicaraguan crisis and advocated on several occasions for the release of political prisoners.
The president made public this morning, during his daily press conference, a letter that he sent to Ortega on December 1, 2022, in which he asked the Nicaraguan for the release of the mythical guerrilla Dora María Téllez, Commander Two of the revolution Sandinista, to whom his government offered asylum and protection.
“Recently we have received various expressions of discomfort over the situation of Nicaraguan citizens, members of different political organizations, who are currently in prison in their country.
Among them, we are particularly concerned about the case of Mrs. Dora María Téllez, whose state of health, according to what we are informed, is delicate.
Consequently, we want to reiterate to you the willingness and will of our people to receive Mrs. Téllez in Mexico, avoiding leading purposes, with the sole purpose of receiving the necessary medical attention and being able to remain in our country, if requested and it is will ”, reads the letter.
López Obrador has reported that he did not receive a response from the Nicaraguan regime.
The letter in which López Obrador asks Ortega for the release of Dora María Téllez.
"I had not wanted to talk about this, because what should be sought is reconciliation and unity," said the president.
According to López Obrador, his government has advocated for a peaceful solution to the Nicaraguan crisis to be achieved, although he has not reported whether there has been a more direct approach on the subject with the Ortega Executive.
“You have to insist on that, because it is possible to dialogue.
Everyone talks, even the staunchest enemies ”, he affirmed.
The president has reiterated that “Mexico has always been open to providing protection and asserting the right to asylum.
If you request, if it is requested, if you consider it possible, we are in the best disposition”.
López Obrador has said the Sandinista crisis "is a very complicated issue for us."
The president has affirmed that in Mexico, "everyone, in one way or another, lived what the Sandinista movement was and the division that occurred makes us very sad."
The president has said that the poet Ernesto Cardenal —a key figure in the Sandinista revolution and Liberation Theology, persecuted by the Ortega regime until his death in March 2020— sent him a congratulatory letter on his presidential victory in 2018 "I was happy," said the president.
"Some of my Sandinista friends are in jail, others in exile, and others in power," López Obrador said.
“We always look for an agreement to be reached and for the prisoners to be released.
"Hopefully things will be resolved well in the sister town of Nicaragua and we will continue to act responsibly and prudently.
We cannot get away from helping in the possibility of reconciliation”, the Mexican president stated.
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