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A30 world news
Diabierna 25 Maart 2022

Nicaragua’s OAS ambassador: “free” after blasting government

view with The Associated Press. when Nicaragua was shaken by protests, he started
thinking his government could do things different-
The day before, the Nicaraguan official asked for ly. In that moment, however, he was a press attaché
a point of order during an online meeting of the at the Nicaraguan embassy in Washington, he said.
OAS to discuss unrelated topics and started speak-
ing on behalf of “more than 177 political prisoners Last fall, he said, he proposed to his government
and more than 350 people that have lost their lives that it free political prisoners who were sick or old.
in my country since 2018.” He was told that wouldn’t even be considered, he
said.
“To denounce the dictatorship of my country is not
easy but to keep silent and to defend what is in- The “last straw” was Tamara Davila’s case, he said.
defensible is impossible,” said McFields, who until Davila is a Nicaraguan activist who has been in jail
now had defended Ortega’s government when it for the last nine months, “without being able to hug
was criticized by members of the OAS. his 5-year-old daughter.” McFields has a 5-year-old
daughter himself, so he felt “moved” by her case.
His speech was soon on social media. Ortega’s gov-
ernment issued a statement saying that McFields “It broke me,” he said. “I started crying.”
“does not represent us so none of his statements
are valid.” On Thursday, the Nicaraguan govern- Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada an-
ment said that his appointment is “no longer in ef- nounced in November that the Central American
fect.” nation would withdraw from the OAS, complain-
ing of its “repeated acts of meddling” in Nicaragua.
Ortega was elected to a fourth consecutive term in
Nov. 7 elections that were broadly criticized as a McFields, the first Afro-Nicaraguan to represent
farce. Seven likely challengers to Ortega were ar- his country before the OAS, is a former journalist.
(AP) — Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Orga- rested and jailed in the months prior to the elec- He wouldn’t say whether he has asked for asylum
nization of the American States said he had tion. in the U.S. but he said the Ecuadorean government
been feeling a “weight in his heart” for the offered him asylum yesterday and he is considering
last couple of weeks. The OAS General Assembly had voted to con- all his options along with his family.
demn the elections, saying they “were not free, fair
He said he lifted it on Wednesday when he de- or transparent, and lack democratic legitimacy.” He also has a message for current Ortega officials.
nounced his own government as a “dictatorship” in
a break with the administration of President Daniel McFields, who is 46 and has lived in Washington “Lose your fear and don’t lose your hope. Speak
Ortega. D.C. since 2011, said on Thursday that he hadn’t up because you don’t agree. You are tired,” he said.
told anyone what he was about to do except his “There is a tiredness, a profound sadness. There
“I feel free. I feel like I can look at my daughter in wife. are officials who are leaving (the government) but
the eyes. I can look at myself in the mirror,” Arturo they leave in silence.”
McFields said on Thursday during a phone inter- The Nicaraguan official said that around 2018,

Ukraine says Moscow is forcibly taking civilians to Russia

(AP) — Ukraine accused have taken the eastern town cated to Russia and whether them to various distant, eco- and are being offered jobs on
Moscow on Thursday of of Izyum after fierce fighting. they were going willingly — nomically depressed areas in condition they don’t leave for
forcibly taking hundreds as Russia claimed — or were Russia. two years. The ministry said
of thousands of civilians At an emergency NATO being coerced or lied to. the Russians intend to “use
from shattered Ukraini- summit in Brussels, Ukrai- Among those taken, them as hostages and put
an cities to Russia, where nian President Volodymyr Russian Col. Gen. Mikhail Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry more political pressure on
some may be used as “hos- Zelenskyy pleaded with the Mizintsev said the roughly charged, were 6,000 residents Ukraine.”
tages” to pressure Kyiv to Western allies via video for 400,000 people evacuated to of Mariupol, the devastated
give up. planes, tanks, rockets, air Russia since the start of the port city in the country’s east. Kyrylenko said that Mari-
defense systems and other military action were from Moscow’s troops are confis- upol’s residents have been
Lyudmyla Denisova, weapons, saying his country the Donetsk and Luhansk cating identity documents long deprived of informa-
Ukraine’s ombudsperson, is “defending our common regions in eastern Ukraine, from an additional 15,000 tion and that the Russians
said 402,000 people, includ- values.” where pro-Moscow separat- people in a section of Mari- feed them false claims about
ing 84,000 children, have ists have been fighting for upol under Russian control, Ukraine’s defeats to persuade
been taken against their will. U.S President Joe Biden, in control for nearly eight years. the ministry said. them to move to Russia.
Europe for the summit and Russian authorities said they
The Kremlin gave nearly other high-level meetings, are providing accommoda- Some could be sent as far as “Russian lies may influence
identical numbers for those gave assurances more aid is tions and dispensing pay- the Pacific island of Sakhalin, those who have been under
who have been relocated, on its way, though it appeared ments to the evacuees. Ukrainian intelligence said, the siege,” he said.
but said they wanted to go unlikely the West would give
to Russia. Ukraine’s rebel- Zelenskyy everything he But Donetsk Region Gov.
controlled eastern regions wanted, for fear of triggering Pavlo Kyrylenko said that
are predominantly Russian- a much wider war. “people are being forcibly
speaking, and many people moved into the territory of
there have supported close Around the capital, Kyiv, the aggressor state.” Den-
ties to Moscow. and other areas, Ukrainian isova said those removed by
defenders have fought Mos- Russian troops included a
A month into the invasion, cow’s ground troops to a 92-year-old woman in Mari-
meanwhile, the two sides near-stalemate, raising fears upol who was forced to go to
traded heavy blows in what that a frustrated Russian Taganrog in southern Russia.
has become a devastating war President Vladimir Putin will
of attrition. Ukraine’s navy resort to chemical, biological Ukrainian officials said that
said it sank a large Russian or nuclear weapons. the Russians are taking peo-
landing ship near the port city ple’s passports and moving
of Berdyansk that had been Kyiv and Moscow gave con- them to “filtration camps”
used to bring in armored flicting accounts, meanwhile, in Ukraine’s separatist-con-
vehicles. Russia claimed to about the people being relo- trolled east before sending