The Nicaraguan government, through one of the sons of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, said in Managua that the Central American country should be considered “Russia’s regional platform in all matters.”
“We want to reiterate that Nicaragua is Russia’s strategic ally in Central America and we should be considered Russia’s regional platform in all matters,” said Laureano Ortega Murillo in statements published Tuesday by the official platform El 19.
President Ortega, in power from 1985 to 1990 and since 2007, is the main ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Central America.
Ortega Murillo, whom his father appointed presidential advisor for the promotion of investment, trade and international cooperation, highlighted the “important meeting” held with the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, General Nikolai Patrushev, during a visit to Moscow by a Nicaraguan delegation in Moscow last week.
The meeting “allowed us to synchronize actions, strengthen cooperation and define mechanisms to confront and counter the destabilization attempts caused by our common adversaries: the United States, Canada and Europe,” Ortega Murillo said.
He also declared that he views with “great hope” the birth of a new world order and expressed his “optimism and joy at the news and nomination of comrade Vladimir Putin for the presidential elections in 2024.”
Ortega Murillo is sanctioned by the United States and the European Union for “serious violations of the human rights” of Nicaraguans and for supporting the “fraudulent” November 2021 elections.
Russia, a former Sandinista ally
The president’s son made these statements during a reception held Monday evening at the Russian Embassy in Managua on the occasion of the Day of Friendship between the Republic of Nicaragua and the Russian Federation, in the framework of the 79th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Russia is a long-time ally of Nicaragua, having provided the Nicaraguan armed forces with Soviet weapons during the first Sandinista government (1979-1990) led by Ortega.
After the Sandinista National Liberation Front toppled dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, Ortega became a member of the five-person Junta of National Reconstruction and later the country’s first democratically elected president through free and fair elections, ruling from 1985 to 1990.
Recently, the Nicaraguan government has expressed its support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and is one of the few countries, along with Venezuela and the small island nations of Nauru and Tuvalu, that joined Russia in recognizing the independence of the Georgian separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. (EFE)
