MINISTRY
OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Managua, Nicaragua
Managua March 18th 2021
MRE/DM/DMC/0020/01/2021
TO THE OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (OHCHR)
(OHCHR)
My name is Dr. Paul Oquist. I was born and raised in the U.S. I have been a Nicaraguan citizen since 1981 and exclusively since 1983. I am author of the book, “Equilibra: The Philosophy and Political Economy of Existence and Extinction.” I serve the Nicaraguan people as Minister-Private Secretary of National Policy in the Presidency of the Republic of Nicaragua.
Last year I had my civil, political and human rights violated by an illegal, unilateral coercive measure by which the U.S. Treasury by administrative edict without judicial recourse made me a permanent economic untouchable for having served in the Nicaraguan Cabinet beginning in 2007, a cruel and unusual punishment.
In this century there have been eight coups d'états and coup attempts in Latin America and the Caribbean, namely: Venezuela (2002), Haiti (2004), Honduras (2009), Ecuador (2010), Paraguay (2012), Brazil (2016), Nicaragua (2018) and Bolivia (2019). Each and every one of these coups and attempts were against democratically elected, leftist or progressive governments. This represents a massive interference in Latin American and Caribbean politics and violation of the civil, political and human rights of the affected peoples and of Latin America as a whole.
In the case of Nicaragua, the slogan most used by the coup plotters was, ¡que se vaya ya!, Go Now!, and when inaugurating the negotiating table the coup perpetrators considered it a surrender table asking for the resignation of President Daniel Ortega Saavedra who had been elected with 72% of the vote in 2016 in elections whose results were congruent with all polls of all tendencies.
The entities linked to the coup have been financed by U.S. agencies for years, and they visited US officials at the highest level, who explicitly stated that they not only wanted to overthrow the Government of Venezuela but also the Governments of Cuba and Nicaragua.
The pre-coup, attempt and post-attempt have been accompanied by a campaign of fake news and disinformation, of Goebbelsian Big Lie proportions that repeated thousands of times becomes a media fact, no matter how far from reality it may be. This type of campaign is very common these days in the media and social media, but it is unfortunate to see it in human rights reports, weaponized in favor of coup plotters who seek to disrupt democratic institutions. We denounce this proposal as politicized, and if approved, it will politicize this Council.
This resolution is based on the Big Lie about Nicaragua and is a faithful copy of the narrative and fictitious positions of the coup plotters, making this Council an accomplice that distributes punishment from the so-called international powers.
Therefore, Nicaragua hereby expresses its non-acceptance and absolute rejection of this proposal that constitutes an aggression against the people of Nicaragua.