The Organization of American States voted 29 to 1 on Wednesday to convene an emergency meeting of hemispheric foreign ministers on Nicaragua, after President Daniel Ortega moved to ban opposition parties from future elections.
Brazil cast the only dissenting vote against the resolution, while Mexico abstained. Haiti and Venezuela were absent from the vote. The overwhelming margin marked a sharp reversal from Aug. 5, when a similar U.S.-backed proposal was adjourned without a vote after Brazil and Mexico joined forces to oppose it.
Deadline Before Sept. 1 Constitutional Changes
The resolution, titled “Convocation of a Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs to Consider the Situation in Nicaragua,” was advanced by Argentina, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, and the United States. Washington is pushing for the session to take place before Sept. 1, when Ortega’s loyalist legislature is set to codify constitutional reforms that would formally suspend future elections and bar opposition figures from running for office.
“We are very concerned about the situation of the persecution of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua and the persecution of the faith in general,” said Rosa Maria Paya, rapporteur for Nicaragua at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, speaking at an Aug. 5 OAS session. Paya, the daughter of a Cuban Catholic dissident killed in 2012, added that arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances remain ongoing.
Brazil Shifts Position After Initial Resistance
At the earlier Aug. 5 session, Brazil and Mexico had jointly argued the OAS must prioritize “opening channels of dialogue” rather than imposing punitive measures. Their intervention was decisive in preventing a vote at that time. But by Wednesday, Brazil moved to a lone dissent, suggesting the sheer weight of international pressure may have shifted Mexico’s calculus toward a more neutral posture.
“What’s particularly concerning is that the Mexican government does not appear to have a cohesive answer to this wave of violence,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative, in separate remarks on press conditions across the region.
Nicaragua withdrew from the OAS in November 2023 after the bloc unanimously condemned Ortega’s crackdown on educational institutions and the Catholic Church. The new resolution represents one of the highest-level diplomatic tools available to the hemispheric body, signaling that member states view Nicaragua’s political rupture as a regional concern with direct human rights implications.
Ortega, who first came to power by toppling a U.S.-backed dictator in 1979, has been increasingly criticized as an autocrat who tolerates zero dissent. The planned constitutional overhaul would represent the most sweeping restriction on political competition in the country’s modern history, drawing condemnation from human rights organizations across the Americas.
Sources: EWTN News; Al Jazeera; Buenos Aires Times; Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
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