While Daniel Ortega talks about normalization, protests continue and neighboring governments are already preparing for a possible wave of immigration

While the students, who lead the protests, expressed their discontent against the Ortega government and demanded his departure, the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, delivered surprise statements to the FOX network. In the interview, which took place on Tuesday, August 24, Ortega said that the situation in the country was normalizing during the last week. The president also made it clear that for now, the elections will not be advanced. However, in the countries of the region there is fear of an immigration crisis.

Leer en español: Nicaragua: entre la crisis nacional y la fantasía presidencial

An interview unrelated to reality

The journalist Bret Baier of the Special Report program was in charge of interviewing the Nicaraguan president through a teleconference, the result: a denial of the situation in the country. For Daniel Ortega, who during his interview assured that the situation of the country was normalizing, he also affirmed that he will not leave power until 2021 when his term is fulfilled. Paradoxically, at that moment, students chanted "they are leaving, they are leaving", in Managua, León, Matagalpa and Boaco, according to the newspaper El Mundo.

Since 2009, Ortega did not give an interview to a foreign media and he surprised accepting Fox's invitation, since in the style of the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, Ortega accepts only invitations from media that support his government. Ortega took the opportunity to say that the problem with the Catholic Church arises with Monsignor Silvio Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua, because his long season outside the country does not know what the country lived in his war period.

Also read: What is behind the demonstrations in Nicaragua?

"I have not said that we have to advance elections. Rather, advancing elections would create instability and insecurity, even worse in these conditions", said the president, who came to power in 2007.

A migratory crisiscould arise

Not only the statements of US Senator Marco Rubio, to CNN, talk about the possibility of a migration crisis as a result of what is experienced in Nicaragua. Rubio also says that a civil war is possible in Nicaragua, due to the repression of the protests that have left between 277 and 351 dead according to various human rights organizations, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

On the other hand, the Costa Rican Foreign Minister Espy Campbell, at the recent meeting of foreign ministers of the member countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA), held in Santo Domingo on June 30, spoke of an imminent wave of Nicaraguan migrants, they are already working in a contingency plan. According to Campbell and considering data from the Costa Rican migration directorate, more than three thousand people per week have entered the country fleeing the situation in Nicaragua.

Due to this situation, Campbell assured that he is already working with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Among its tasks is the establishment of two shelters near the border, which during 2015 and 2016 served to attend the arrival of Haitians and Cubans.

LatinAmerican Post | Carlos Eduardo Gómez Avella
Translated from “Nicaragua: entre la crisis nacional y la fantasía presidencial”