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What do we do about Nicaragua? That'll be the subject of discussion among the foreign ministers of the Americas when they meet at the beginning of next month. It's a rare meeting called by the United States, though, as NPR's Eyder Peralta reports, it's unclear what will come of it.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Nicaragua hadn't been much of a focus for the U.S., but then in July, co-President Daniel Ortega dropped a bombshell.
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PRESIDENT DANIEL ORTEGA: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: He promised that the country would have no more elections. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the government's leaders cowards, afraid of democracy. Ortega and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, shrugged and they rammed through a constitutional amendment that would legally end competitive elections. The United States responded by calling an extraordinary meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organization for American States (ph), or OAS, to, quote, "stop business as usual with Nicaragua." To Orlando Perez, who has studied Nicaragua for decades and teaches at the University of North Texas at Dallas, this episode is full of ironies.
ORLANDO PEREZ: And, to some extent, we're in, you know, "Alice In Wonderland." I mean, we've gone through the looking glass, if you will.
PERALTA: First of all, says Perez, the U.S. has had few problems acting unilaterally lately. In January, U.S. troops deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Then they put up an oil blockade in Cuba, and in February, they went to war with Iran. Now, he says, they want the OAS which has, for decades, been just a talking shop to do something.
PEREZ: So it's ironic, I think, that in Nicaragua, we are now calling for multilateral action.
PERALTA: What's more, says Perez, the two countries trade barbs, but they actually have a pragmatic relationship.
PEREZ: The irony is, is that even when the rhetoric is anti-U.S. and anti-imperialist, the fact is this regime has been working with the United States.
PERALTA: They work with each other on migration, and the U.S. and Nicaragua have a free trade agreement. Perez says there's another big irony. Outside Nicaragua, the political leaders in exile who once literally fought a civil war against each other are now united in calling for an international intervention.
DORA MARÍA TÉLLEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: Dora María Téllez was known as Commander No. 2 when she led socialist guerrillas to power in the 1970s. Nicaragua, she says, isn't facing problems of left and right.
TÉLLEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "Our problem in Nicaragua," she says, "is between a dictatorship and democracy." In the '80s, her government fought against U.S.-backed contras. But today, she wishes every world leader was as belligerent as the Trump administration has been.
TÉLLEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "This government is killing us. They're throwing us in prison and banishing us." Téllez was in jail for almost two years. She was one of the 222 political prisoners who were stripped of their citizenship and exiled to the U.S. A U.N. report this week found there was ample evidence the Nicaraguan government had committed crimes against humanity.
TÉLLEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "We have the right," she says, "to ask for help." Perez says when the foreign ministers meet, they're likely to release a statement condemning Nicaragua's authoritarianism.
PEREZ: But beyond that, I don't think there's a consensus on what further to do.
PERALTA: The Central American countries would worry economic sanctions could disrupt the textile supply chain. The U.S. would worry sanctions could lead to a migrant crisis. So the most likely scenario, says Perez, is the status quo. Eyder Peralta, NPR News, Mexico City.
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ALEX FERREIRA: (Singing in Spanish). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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