The Nicaraguan regime backed on Monday the military exercises of China’s People’s Liberation Army, launched near Taiwan. Dictators Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo said in a statement that these maneuvers are “a necessary action to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity” of their Chinese political ally.
The tyranny reestablished diplomatic relations with China in 2021, just as the international community denounced Ortega’s reelection, carried out through a process marked by repression and the lack of democratic guarantees. In doing so, they discarded the historic relationship with Taiwan; a generous cooperation that until then had been characterized by donations and concessional loans.
According to a report by the U.S. newspaper The New York Times, China began deploying its air, naval, and ground forces one month after the government of Donald Trump announced the sale of weapons worth $11 billion to Taiwan. The operation was named “Justice Mission 2025” and sought to demonstrate Beijing’s recent capability to “encircle Taiwan.”
They oppose sales of weapons to the island
“The Government of Nicaragua opposes the announcement by the United States of a massive arms sale to the Chinese Region of Taiwan, and considers it an act that undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, sending the wrong signals to secessionist forces for ‘Taiwan independence,’” Ortega and Murillo stated, while reaffirming their adherence to the principle of “one China.”
The relationship with China has yielded few economic benefits. This makes it impossible, independent analysts say, to think that it could compensate for the trade conducted with the United States. Despite Ortega’s hostility, the United States remains Nicaragua’s main trading partner. The regime has also been questioned for opening the doors to Chinese mining companies and granting concessions in a sector in which the Ortega–Murillo family has interests.
At the public level, the signing of debt agreements with the Asian power has also been criticized. Opposition figure and academic Félix Maradiaga said this month that the country could end up paying more than two billion dollars for Chinese financing packages.
«Servile mafia bosses»
Economist and former opposition lawmaker Enrique Sáenz stated that the official communiqué reveals several facets of Ortega and Murillo. The first is the servility of the family in power. “It is a portrait of how groveling the ringleaders of the mafia in power are; (…) now that they have crawled before the Chinese, they appear as if they never had relations with Taiwan. I say this with regard to the one-China principle,” the economist questioned.
For Sáenz, the dictator couple assumes a stance with “pretensions of global leadership,” despite being one of the most discredited regimes in the world, from every point of view.
Another criticized aspect is the defense of Chinese interests. For that, Ortega uses the concept of sovereignty. However, when he shows support for Russia, Ukraine simply has no right “to self-determination, to its sovereignty, and in their language—referring to Ortega and Murillo—(Vladimir) Putin appears as the standard-bearer of peace. The one who started the war is the standard-bearer of peace,” he reiterated.
Domestically, the dictator has also used the same concept to justify the campaign of internal repression with which he seeks to silence critical voices of his administration.
