Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores
Managua, 19th december 2018
MRE/DM-DMC/00572/12/18
Mr. Secretary General
1. I hereby refer to the acts of violence which took place from 18th April onwards which constituted an attempted coup d'état that affected the peace, security and stability of the Nicaraguan people.
2. Within the framework of these events, the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity convened a National Dialogue inviting the Conference of Bishops of the Catholic Church as mediator and witness, with the aim of advancing toward solutions that would restore tranquility for all Nicaraguans.
3. In this context, the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights was invited to conduct a work visit in order to observe the human rights situation in Nicaragua, which was communicated on 13th May 2018 to Mr. Paulo Abrao, Executive Secretary and yourself.
4. Likewise, following the recommendations of the ICHR, we agreed on the creation of an Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), to contribute to and support the investigations carried out by the State of Nicaragua regarding the violent events occurring during the period from 18th April to 30th May 2018.
5. Similarly, regarding the National Dialogue agreements, our Government extended an invitation to the OAS General Secretariat to accompany the Verification and Security Commission and the ICHR in installing the Follow-up Mechanism to Its Recommendations (MESENI).
6. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR), in attention to the invitation of our Government arrived in Nicaragua on 17th May, 2018, with the aim of observing "in locus" the situation of human rights in our country.
7. During the visit, which took place between 17th and 21st, the ICHR held bilateral meetings with the National Police, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Supreme Court of Justice, the Ministry of Health, the Nicaraguan Army and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In these meetings our institutions reported extensively and provided documentation to the ICHR on the events that had resulted in deaths and injuries of civilians and police officers, as well as substantial material damages to public and private property, which were a direct result of the acts of vandalism and armed attacks by the coup terrorists.
8. The ICHR was also provided with the means to visit the National Penitentiary System, the Directorate for Judicial Assistance of the National Police and the Institute of Legal Medicine, in it was able to verify that the information of some media outlets regarding illegal detentions, torture and disappearances were unsubstantiated.
9. In this context, on May 19, 2018, the "Jorge Navarro" National Penitentiary System received the visit of Joel Hernández García, Commissioner of the ICHR, Soledad García Muñoz, Rapporteur, Andrés Pizarro, ICHR lawyer and Federico Blanco, Press Officer, all of whom were allowed to conduct a tour of the penitentiary system and found that there were no individuals detained related to the attempted coup.
10. Despite multiple evidence of the violent nature of the alleged peaceful protests, including police officers and citizens killed with high-caliber weapons, the ICHR continued to characterize the protests as peaceful, reflecting this position in its Preliminary Report.
11. Despite the lack of fairness and objectivity, as well as the bias nature of this preliminary report, our Government acting in good faith and following up on the National Dialogue agreements sent communication on 20th June to the ICHR Executive Secretary, Paulo Abrao in the Framework of the Follow-up Mechanism (MESENI), to provide support and assistance to the Verification and Security Committee.
12. The first team of the MESENI/ICHR arrived in our country on 24th June 2018 remaining until this date in Nicaragua. During this period the Government of Nicaragua has provided the means and security to the officers of the IACHR/MESENI, as well as abundant information on each of the violent events, including kidnappings and murders that the perpetrators of the failed coup had been conducting against members of the National Police and the general population.
13. In this context, on Monday, 2nd July 2018, the Directorate for Judicial Assistance (DAJ) of the National Police held a meeting with delegation of the MESENI/IACHR, headed by Commissioner Antonia Urrejola, allowing for a tour of the facilities, interviews with detainees and legal officers, access to records and files and the detainee control area.
14. For the sake of creating the conditions for dialogue and understanding and despite serious disruptions to public order, property damage and the hindering of public services, police authorities agreed to requests from the Conference of Bishops to release several detainees that were being investigated for these offences. The delegates of the MESENI/ICHR acted as witnesses to these acts.
As example of the above we quote:
15. 30th June 2018, 10 detainees were handed over, signing as a witness María Claudia Pulido, of the ICHR.
16. 2nd July 2018, at the request of Commissioner Antonia Urrejola, Jonathan de Jesús Aguinaga Gonzales, arrested for illegal carrying of firearms, is released.
17. 4th July 2018, 03 detainees were handed over, signing as witnesses Commissioner Antonia Urrejola, Pablo Abrau, and Fernanda dos Anjos, of the ICCHR.
18. 7th July 2018, 08 detainees were handed over, signing as a witnesses Marlene Alejos Representative of (OHCHR), and Pablo Abrau, of the ICHR.
19. 16th July 2018 the National Penitentiary System received a second visit from the ICHR/MESENI, represented by Roberto Luis Bravo Figueroa, Legal Adviser of the ICHR and Alexandro Rodolfo Álvarez Alarcón, Legal Adviser of the ICHR.
20. On this occasion the delegates of the ICHR/MESENI requested an interview with 8 detainees. The authorities of the penitentiary system informed the ICHR delegation that 3 had been released since 12th July and 5 remained in prison, whose names corresponded to Julio José Ampié Machado, Jaime Ramón Ampié Toledo, Reinaldo Antonio Lira Ruques, William Efrain Picado Duartes and Guillermo Alberto Sovalbarro Oporta.
21. The authorities of the Penitentiary System facilitated a tour of the pavilion where 48 detainees were located, related to crimes committed in the context of the attempted coup d'état, in order to ascertain the conditions of their imprisonment.
22. In another order, on 30th May 2018, the State of Nicaragua, expressing its vocation for peace and ensuring access to justice through the elucidation of all the criminal acts that occurred during the attempted coup d'état, signed the "Agreement with the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR) and the Government of Nicaragua to support the investigation of the events of violence occurring in the period of 18th April 2018 to the date in Nicaragua.”
23. Following this agreement on 2nd July 2018, the Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Nicaragua, the Inspector General of the National Police, the President and Vice-President of the Supreme Court of Justice, the Minister of Health, the Ombudsman for the Defense of Human rights, the Director of the Institute of Legal Medicine, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and a representative of the Nicaraguan Army, met with the members of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI). At this meeting, the communication and coordination mechanism for the exchange of information was addressed.
24. Paragraph 9 of the Agreement which literally states: "On the basis of this Agreement a Protocol of Action shall be signed once the parties comply with their respective legal facilities and internal procedures." This proposed protocol of action was forwarded on 3rd July 2018 by note of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro and the Executive Secretary of the IACHR, Paulo Abrao. On 5th July, the ICHR forwarded observations made by the GIEI to the proposed protocol. On 9th July the Ministry of Foreign Affairs forwards counter proposal to the Secretary General of the OAS and to the Executive Secretary of the ICHR, however, the State of Nicaragua has not received a response to the date.
25. The members of the GIEI, operating outside of the limits of the Protocol of Action which was expected to be agreed between the State of Nicaragua, the ICHR and the General Secretariat of the OAS, proceeded to carry out a series of actions in violation of the terms of the agreement and without having signed the protocol of action, moving away from the provisions of numerals 1.Ac, and 1.C that states they are to act as a group that "... helps and supports the investigations carried out by the Nicaraguan authorities."
26. On 3rd July 2018, in an interview with the media, the members of the GIEI confirmed that they were unilaterally conducting interviews with victims and relatives, circumstances and actions that they corroborated in their communiqué of 16th August, in which the GIEI expresses to have prioritized the collection of information through direct interviews with family members. Likewise, in interviews given to the media, the Group confirms having requested information from local human rights organizations (NGO´s).
27. In this regard, according to Nicaraguan legislation, all actions related criminal investigations are the exclusive competence of the Public Prosecutor and the National Police, and in this instance the actions of the GIEI, contravene our Political Constitution, the Nicaraguan Penal Procedural Code and the organic laws of the Office of the Public Prosecutor and National Police.
28. The Government of the Republic of Nicaragua has acted in good faith, expecting impartiality and objectivity and maintaining expectations of true and real contributions that will assist our efforts to restore peace and security to the Nicaraguan people, however, these processes have been characterized by interventionist behaviors, echoing the policies of the Government of the United States of America against Nicaragua.
29. On another matter, our government cannot overlook your irresponsible intervention at the 15th Latin American political Marketing and Governance Summit, held in Miami from 5th to 7th September 2018, in which you, Mr. Secretary General Luis Almagro expressed in an accusing and threatening way the following: "It is completely unacceptable for another country of the continent to go down the precipice of dictatorship. We must also be aware that we cannot allow it and that international community must respond in each case to suffocate the dictatorship that is being installed in Nicaragua." This statement reflects your participation in the criminal escalation; interventionist, promoting terrorist actions in the political, economic and military order and that violates the human rights of the Nicaraguan people, as well as international law in an openly interventionist manner that threatens the sovereignty of Nicaragua.
30. In the same manner, you continued your irresponsible, infamous and libelous campaign against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, by expressing falsehoods on 16th October 2018 in the United Nations where you Mr. Secretary General Almagro stated: "We have always said that bad practices spread. And the worst practices we see today in our hemisphere, which we see today in the case of Venezuela and Nicaragua, come from Cuba. Venezuela and Nicaragua did not become dictatorships overnight. It was a slow process, of democratically elected governments that, desperate to cling to power, dismantled one by one the democratic institutions with the active support and impulse of Havana. Now, as in Cuba, they continue in power through brute force and fear."
31. Similarly, at the Conference on Cuba on 7th December at the OAS, you affirmed another falsehood about the "existence of mechanisms of terror and repression that Cuba uses against its people and exports to Venezuela and Nicaragua." Your lies and slanders respond to your performance as an instrument and political agent of the American Empire, interested in re-electing you as Secretary General of the OAS.
32. With your statements, you violated the Charter of the Organization of American States, which points out that the Secretary General must promote, with impartiality, economic, social, legal, educational, scientific and cultural relations among all Member States of the Organization. Your performance is an affront to the countries of the hemisphere. Your deceitful and violent words show that you have neither the capacity nor the merits to continue to serve as Secretary General, much less to be re-elected in the same position.
33. Not even your fellow countrymen want you as you are a liar, a slanderer, a violent and irrational; all of which is clearly reflected by, among other things, your support for an invasion and military aggression against Venezuela. All this disqualifies and delegitimizes you to continue in the office and provide much more reason against your pretentions for reelection.
34. The aforementioned explains the behavior of the ICHR, MESENI, GIEI and OHCHR, all of which have constituted a platform for the disclosure of false information against Nicaragua, seeking to promote sanctions against our country in the international arena, as reflected by the ICHR Official Maria Claudia Pulido´s visit to the United States Congress on 27th September, promoting from the outside the rupture of the Constitutional Order and the attempted coup d'etat against the legitimate Government of Nicaragua, thereby violating yet again the impartial nature required for the OAS in its Charter.
35. Mr. Almagro, as mentioned above, your own statements prove that the actions of the OAS and UN agencies are responding to your strategy of suffocating the people of Nicaragua, as demonstrated by the report launched against Nicaragua by the UN High Commissioner on 24th August 2018, creating and preparing the conditions for the call that the United States would then make to include Nicaragua at the UN Security Council Briefing on 5th September and in the OAS Permanent Council, with the adoption of the resolution "On Recent Events in Nicaragua" CP/RES. 1110 (2182/18), in which Member States and observers are encouraged to implement measures that are detrimental to the conditions of life for the Nicaraguan people.
36. Such threats constitute an express violation of the OAS Charter and the Charter of the United Nations by breaking the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of each State, by promoting actions that threaten the peace, security, stability and progress achieved by Nicaragua.
37. For the above reasons, I communicate the temporary suspension from this date forward of the presence and visits of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR) and the Follow-up Mechanism (MESENI). Likewise, I inform you that is in accordance with point 2 of the Agreement between the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR) and the Government of Nicaragua, to support the investigations of the acts of violence which occurred during the period of 18th April 2018 and 30th May 2018. Having elapsed 6 months since the signature of this agreement we communicate the expiration of the deadline, objectives and mission and therefore we conclude the mandate for the visit and permanence of GIEI in our country. This temporary suspension of the ICHR, MESENI and the Independent Group of Interdisciplinary Experts (GIEI) will remain in place until the conditions of respect for sovereignty and cessation of interference in the internal affairs of Nicaragua are restored.
I take this opportunity to express the highest assurances of my consideration and esteem.
Denis Moncada Colindres
Minister
Mr.
Luis Almagro Lemes
Secretary General
Organization of American States (OAS)
Washington, D. C.
Cc:
Mr.
Paulo Abrao
Executive Secretary
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Washington, D. C.