Washington, Jul 28 (EFE) .- Nicaragua could face in the next few days the creation of a “special commission” within the Organization of American States (OAS) or the freezing of loans from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) ), diplomatic sources informed Efe today- Textureaustin.
These are two of the actions that eight of the 34 countries that are active members of the OAS are considering: the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina.
For the time being, the option that has gained most strength is the creation of a “special commission” that would depend on the permanent council of the OAS and that would follow the crisis in Nicaragua, the bloodiest since the 1980s, with 448 deaths, According to figures from the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (ANPDH).
The creation of that “special commission” would be done through the adoption of a resolution, which could be voted on next week and would require the support of 18 countries.
If the creation is approved, the commission would be composed of a maximum of 12 member states and could designate a mission to visit Nicaragua; what would need the consent of the Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega, increasingly critical of the OAS.
According to diplomatic sources, another alternative is to increase the economic pressure against Ortega by blocking IDB loans, which currently have an active portfolio of 624 million dollars (535 million euros) for Nicaragua.
The executive board of the IDB, where its 48 members are represented, has the last word to suspend disbursements to a borrowing government and, so far, that issue regarding Nicaragua has not been discussed, said Efe, one of the spokesmen of the agency.
The last time the IDB temporarily froze the funds to a country was in 2009, after the coup in Honduras that ousted Manuel Zelaya as president.
Apart from these two options, there is a third “tougher” way, which is being promoted by the United States and consists of the approval of a resolution to determine that in Nicaragua there has been “an alteration of the constitutional order”, which “seriously affects its democratic order “.
That declaration would initiate the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which contemplates a gradual process in its articles 20 and 21, which goes from diplomatic efforts to, in case of failure, the suspension of Nicaragua from the OAS, which would stop participating in its programs and activities.
The OAS has already tried to suspend Venezuela from the organization but failed to achieve the 24 votes that are necessary.
The Colombian ambassador to the OAS, Andrés González Díaz, was the first one to allude in public the idea of the application of the Democratic Charter to Nicaragua, due to the possibility that one of its “backbones” has been violated, which is “the guarantee and respect for Human Rights”.
González Díaz made those declarations on July 18, when the OAS passed a resolution condemning the violence in Nicaragua; and since then Washington has picked up the baton, although, with a tougher stance, diplomatic sources said.
Several countries fear that the application of the Charter will end up “cornering” Ortega and cause him to deny entry into Nicaraguan territory of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), an autonomous body of the OAS that is playing a very important role in the national dialogue mediated by the Church.
“The feeling among some countries is that we do not want to be the ones who close that door,” summarized one of the sources consulted by Efe.
The suspension is the highest form of punishment that the OAS has and has only been applied to two nations: Honduras, in 2009, after the coup against Zelaya; and Cuba after the triumph of the Revolution of Fidel Castro, in 1959.
This week was one hundred days since the start of the protests against Ortega, a movement that began with failed social security reforms and that has become a demand for his resignation, after 11 years in power. EFE