Nicaragua Cuts Ties with Netherlands, Bars US Envoy Over Meddling

By Staff, Agencies

Nicaragua severed diplomatic ties with the Netherlands over “repeated meddling” by the Dutch government shortly after denying entry to the new US ambassador for his “interfering” attitude.

“Nicaragua, faced with the repeated meddling, interventionist and neocolonialist position of the kingdom of the Netherlands that has offended … with threats and suspensions of works for the common good, communicates to the government of that country our decision to immediately discontinue diplomatic relations,” the Nicaraguan foreign ministry declared in a statement on Friday.

“Those who come to disrespect our people, our homeland, they should not appear again in Nicaragua, and we do not want relations with that interventionist government,” said the nation’s President and founder of its 1979 anti-US revolution, Daniel Ortega, in reference to the Dutch ambassador for Central America, Christine Pirenne, who is based in neighboring Costa Rica.

The Netherlands closed its offices in Managua in 2013 and conducts all its diplomatic work across the Central American region from Costa Rica.

According to Ortega, Pirenne informed Nicaragua’s foreign minister Denis Moncada during a visit on Thursday to the capital Managua that the Dutch would no longer be financing a hospital they pledged to build years ago.

“The ambassador came to speak to Nicaraguans as if Nicaragua is a Dutch colony,” Ortega added.

Prior to Ortega’s remarks, his wife and Nicaraguan Vice-President Rosario Murillo also announced earlier on Friday that Washington’s new ambassador to Managua, Hugo Rodriguez, “will not under any circumstances be admitted into our Nicaragua,” insisting, “Let that be clear to the imperialists.”

The US Senate confirmed Rodriguez’s ambassador posting on Thursday despite his rejection by the Nicaragua government back in July after his insulting and interventionist remarks to senators against the Latin American nation during his confirmation hearing.

Rodriguez had described Nicaragua as a “pariah state in the region” and branded Ortega’s government a “dictatorship.”

“I would support using all economic and diplomatic tools to bring about a change in direction in Nicaragua,” he further vowed during the senate hearing.

One measure, Rodriguez suggested, was kicking Nicaragua out of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement.

Earlier in the week, the Managua also asked European Union Ambassador Bettina Muscheidt to leave the country after she was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and declared "persona non grata," according to anonymous media and diplomatic sources cited in Western press reports.

Also on Wednesday, Ortega slammed the Catholic Church as “perfect dictatorship,” reflecting persisting tensions between his government and the controversial religious institution over its sponsorship of the 2018 riots in Nicaragua.

Back in February, the Vatican's ambassador to Managua, Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, was declared persona non grata and ordered to leave the country.