The absence of Brazilian Ambassador Breno de Souza during a recent official ceremony in Nicaragua caused “discontent” among Nicaraguan authorities, “although he was not the only diplomat absent,” according to the Brazilian diplomatic source.
It was the celebration, on July 19, of the anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, according to the exiled Nicaraguan opposition media. Faced with Managua's reaction of wanting the Brazilian diplomat to leave, “Brazil responded by saying that it is not a productive way to lead to positive results,” according to the same source.
But Nicaragua overruled and expelled the Brazilian diplomat, prompting Brasilia to expel Nicaraguan Ambassador Fulvia Patricia Castro as a measure of reciprocity, it added. The authorities in Managua have not made any statement in this regard.
Missed call
The Nicaraguan head of state had ignored Lula's attempts to mediate, at the request of Pope Francis, for the release of an imprisoned cleric. “Daniel Ortega didn't answer the phone and didn't want to talk to me. So I haven't spoken to him since then,” the Brazilian president said on July 22 during an interview with international news agencies.
Accusing the Catholic Church of supporting the anti-power demonstrations, the Nicaraguan government has imprisoned around thirty clerics since late 2023, before sending them back to the Vatican. Daniel Ortega ruled in the 1980s after the triumph of the revolution, returned to power in 2007 and was re-elected in polls not recognized by Washington, the EU and international bodies.
The 78-year-old former guerrilla leader is accused of establishing an authoritarian regime in the Central American country of seven million people. In 2018, three months of protests against the Ortega regime were harshly repressed, leaving more than 300 dead, hundreds detained and forcing thousands more into exile, according to the UN.