There are 26 former Presidents from Spain and Latin America, belonging to the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA-Democrática).
Newsroom (19/08/2022 8:28 PM, Gaudium Press) Twenty-six former presidents of Spain and Latin America, belonging to the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA-Democrática), published a “DECLARATION ON THE ORTEGA-MURILLO REGIME AND THE EXTREME PERSECUTION OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION IN NICARAGUA”
The argument they use in their strong criticism of the Ortega regime is within the scope of Constitutional Law, particularly in defense of “freedom of conscience and religion” which, they claim, “is a structural part of human rights and the development of the personhood of each individual.”
These former presidents plead, for such defense, the American Declaration of Human Rights and the 1945 San Francisco Declaration, which sought to lay the foundations for an international order of peace after World War II.
They call the current regime governing Nicaragua, “the primitive Ortega-Murillo dictatorship,” which, after persecuting the civilian leadership that opposes it, now “moves forward in persecuting Catholic episcopal leaders, priests and religious, even expelling them – as in the case of the emblematic Missionaries of Charity – from the national territory.”
The declaration of these former presidents urges public opinion in Spain and Latin America to continue to reject this regime and to express their disapproval of all its abuses.
This was the fourth statement by former presidents of the IDEA group on the dire situation in Nicaragua.
The Signatories are:
Oscar Arias, Costa Rica; José Maria Aznar, Spain; Nicolas Ardito Barletta, Panama; Felipe Calderón, Mexico; Rafael Angel Calderón, Mexico; Laura Chinchilla M., Costa Rica; Alfredo Cristiani, El Salvador; Iván Duque Márquez, Colombia, Vicente Fox Q., Mexico; Federico Franco, Paraguay; Eduardo Frei R., Chile; Lucio Gutierrez, Ecuador; Osvaldo Hurtado L., Ecuador; Luis Alberto Lacalle H., Uruguay; Mauricio Macri, Argentina; Jamil Mahuad W., Ecuador; Mireya Moscoso, Panama; Carlos Mesa G., Bolivia; Andrés Pastrana, Colombia; Sebastian Piñera, Chile; Jorge Tuto Quiroga, Bolivia; Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Costa Rica; Julio Maria Sanguinetti, Uruguay; Luis Guillermo Solis, Costa Rica; Álvaro Uribe V., Colombia; Juan Carlos Wasmosy, Paraguay.
Compiled by Florence MacDonald
