With this decision, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his Nicaraguan counterpart, Daniel Ortega, “they have another strong clash again.”
Former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) Arturo McFields Yescas confirmed Wednesday that the government presided over by Daniel Ortega ordered the expulsion of Brazil’s ambassador to Nicaragua, Breno de Souza Brasil Días da Costa, for not attending the event celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution on July 19, to which he was invited.
McFields Yescas, who rebelled against the Ortega government during a virtual OAS session in March 2022, said on X that “the dictatorship” launched an “ultimatum to Brazil’s ambassador to leave” Nicaragua.
The diplomat and journalist denationalized by Ortega, who was part of the Sandinista government from 2011 to March 2022, commented that with this decision Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and his Nicaraguan counterpart, Daniel Ortega, “they have another strong clash again.”
He recalled that Lula and Ortega have a friendship of more than 40 years, and that precisely on the first anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, in 1980, during one of his visits to Nicaragua, Lula met the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
“Years later Lula and Castro would form the infamous Sao Paulo Forum. Today Ortega expels ambassador from Brazil with ultimatum and insults,” he added.
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According to McFields Yescas, “for many years Lula and Ortega had maintained close friendship” both personally and politically.
“Today the honeymoon breaks. Ortega expels Lula’s ambassador vulgarly and ordinary. Lula had asked his ambassador not to participate in public events with the Nicaraguan dictator,” said the diplomat and journalist.
The news was revealed by the Brazilian newspaper Folha De S.Paulo, and the Nicaraguan platform Divergents, who cited diplomatic sources from their countries.
Neither the Government of Nicaragua nor the Government of Brazil have confirmed or denied this information.
Ortega doesn’t answer Lula’s phone.
On July 22, Lula revealed that Ortega has not been listening to him on the phone since Pope Francis asked him to advocate the situation of a bishop in that country.
“I talked to the pope and he asked me to talk to Ortega about a bishop who was in prison,” Lula said in an interview with foreign correspondents, regarding the religious Rolando Álvarez, imprisoned for his opposition to the Nicaraguan government.
“The concrete thing is that Ortega didn’t answer me the phone and didn’t want to talk to me. So I never spoke to him again,” he added.
Lula regretted that this happens with “a guy who made a revolution like the one Ortega made to defeat (Anastasio) Somoza” Debayle and said that today he doesn’t know if that revolution was “because he wanted the power or because he wanted to improve the lives of his people.”
The Brazilian president said that in every country “there is an alternation in power,” because it is “the healthiest” for a democracy.
According to Lula, “when a leader puts in his head that he is indispensable or irreplaceable, that is where the spirit of the dictator begins to be born.”
This article has been translated after first appearing in El Salvador