US says it will use regional body to isolate Nicaragua

The move comes after Nicaragua’s lawmakers change the constitution to ban most political opposition.The United States will use the Organization of American States (OAS) to isolate the Nicaraguan government over constitutional changes that have “gutted what was left” of democracy there.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the move in a statement on Wednesday, saying Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife and co-President Rosario Murillo were waging a “war on democracy” that “threatens our hemisphere’s stability and prosperity”.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Ortega insists no more elections for Nicaragualist 2 of 3Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega aims to bar ‘traitors’ from future electionslist 3 of 3International body votes to convene emergency meeting over Nicaraguaend of listThe US would use an upcoming meeting of the OAS to urge countries in the hemisphere to stop doing “business as usual” with Nicaragua, he said.Rubio’s comments come after Nicaraguan lawmakers on Tuesday passed a constitutional reform ‌package that largely ⁠bans opposition parties from participating in elections and extends the presidential term from six ⁠to seven years, an initiative that had previously drawn criticism ⁠from the US and other countries ⁠in the region.Last month, the OAS decided to convene a meeting over the situation in Nicaragua, declaring that it was “a problem of an urgent nature and of common interest to the American States”.Nicaragua said it had withdrawn from the regional body in 2022, after it repeatedly criticised the Ortega government’s human rights record. At the time, Nicaragua’s foreign minister lauded the withdrawal by saying the country was no longer part “of all the deceitful mechanisms of this monstrosity, the so-called Permanent Council, so-called commissions, so-called meetings, so-called Summit of the Americas”. The withdrawal fully went into effect in 2023.