Kevin Sullivan, US ambassador to Nicaragua, will leave the country amid a tense relationship with the Ortega y Murillo regime

US Ambassador Kevin Sullivan, last February. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS (AFP)

The relationship between the United States and the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has not only become more tense this Tuesday, but has also acquired a nuance of uncertainty with the announcement that the Washington ambassador in Managua, Kevin Sullivan, will leave the country " In the next weeks".

The delegation will be in the hands of a "long-term" charge d'affaires named Kevin O'Reilly, a "high-ranking Foreign Service official and a seasoned expert on the relationship between the United States and Latin America."

"Ambassador Sullivan will return to Washington on May 19, 2023, after directing the United States Embassy in Managua for four and a half years," says a small statement released by the Embassy in Managua.

In September 2022, Washington announced that Sullivan would remain "indefinitely" at the head of the legation, after the Ortega-Murillo regime rejected the nomination of the new ambassador Hugo Rodríguez in July of that same year.

The veto on Rodríguez has been maintained and was endorsed in September of that same year: the regime's Ministry of Foreign Relations made clear its position of not accepting the approval of the new representative of the North American country, whom it once again described as "interfering and not at all diplomatic." ”.

"Mr. Hugo Rodríguez will not be admitted to Nicaragua under any circumstances, much less as an exponent of the worst forms of relations between States, which contravenes all the postulates of the Vienna Convention," said Vice President Rosario Murillo.

“Sullivan's departure is not simply downgrading the mission, but also indicates the fact that it has come full circle and basically the United States is entering a new stage.

And this new stage has new actors”, Eliseo Núñez, an exiled political analyst in Costa Rica, explains to EL PAÍS.

“We will see what happens in the following months.

Let's see what is the strategy of the United States and the international community.

We must not lose sight of the fact that they may be acting together… The European Union already had a favor for a new ambassador”.

An ambassador under attack

In Sullivan's departure, together with the appointment of the "long-term" charge d'affaires, the appointment of a new ambassador in Managua is not in sight.

“Due to the importance and complexity of our diplomatic mission in Nicaragua, the Secretary has appointed career diplomat Kevin O'Reilly as our long-term Chargé d'Affaires.

Mr. O'Reilly will join the United States Embassy in Managua in June, where he will work closely with Minister Counselor Carla Fleharty to lead our bilateral relationship with Nicaragua and continue our collaboration with the people of Nicaragua,” the statement reads. US.

For his part, on his Twitter account, Sullivan said that "the time has come, after more than 4 years in Nicaragua, to start saying goodbye."

“It will not be easy for us after all that we have experienced together, and all the support and affection that we have felt from Nicaraguans.

Our commitment to always be close to the Nicaraguan people, to their aspirations and their well-being, will continue stronger than ever,” she added.

Sullivan has been an ambassador who has been under attack by the Ortega-Murillos, especially after 2018, when the presidential couple constantly lashed out at the United States, accusing that country of being behind the alleged "coup d'état" attempt.

In May 2021, Ortega accused Ambassador Sullivan of intervening in the Nicaraguan electoral process.

Months later, in October, the Sandinista Foreign Ministry issued a press release suggesting Sullivan's resignation.

The ruling party accused the diplomat in a furious tone of maintaining a "continuous meddling in the country's own affairs."

"Sovereignty, which is not discussed, nor is it delivered to 'fierce barbarians,' cannot continue to be violated or violated by the same invaders," he read in the communication.

media outlet through his Twitter account

for its 25th anniversary "defending the democratic values ​​of press freedom and independent journalism."

The regime told Washington's ambassador to "cease your covert attacks, the hypocritical salutations of him, disguised as a diplomatic courtesy that he abandoned long ago."

"That rather it has been and is, an example of the continuous, perverse, detestable invasive interference of the United States in Nicaragua," they added.

The Ortega-Murillo dispute is such that even in the propaganda song called Soberanía they implicitly attacked Sullivan.

“Here all the countries have their ambassadors, and all these gentlemen must respect diplomacy, and there is one with his arrogance who opens up in the corridors beyond the White House, and that is if he wants to speak, he should remove his investiture, and You will see that your stay on this earth does not last long ”, says the letter.

Ambassador Sullivan played a fundamental role in the operation to release 222 political prisoners last February.

He was key to putting together the logistics that allowed the prisoners to leave the country by air, from whom the dictatorship later stripped them of their nationality.

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