In a drastic move that reflects growing tensions between the two countries despite the historic relationship between their presidents Daniel Ortega and Lula da Silva, the Nicaraguan government has expelled Brazil’s ambassador, Breno Sousa da Costa. According to the press in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, the local government has given the Brazilian diplomat 15 days to leave the country.
The expulsion, one of the harshest measures in relations between the countries, was retaliation for the absence of the Brazilian ambassador at the party that marked the celebration of the so-called “Sandinista Revolution” on July 19, marking the seizure of power by the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which Daniel Ortega led for decades after the overthrow of the government of dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Breno Sousa da Costa missed the event on orders from Lula da Silva himself, as a form of protest by the Brazilian government against the dictatorial positions of its ally and friend Daniel Ortega, especially towards religious people.
Over the past two years, the Nicaraguan government has intensified its repression of those who challenge the ruling party’s radicalism, and has made the Catholic Church one of its main targets. Bishops and priests have been harassed, arrested or expelled from the country, and there are reports that some of these religious people have been tortured, otherwise ill-treated, or even killed.
Lula da Silva, who has defended Daniel Ortega several times, one of whose few allies he is or was in Latin America, protested to the Managua government against these arbitrary actions and demanded an end to the political and police persecution of religious and other critics of the local executive. Ortega simply ignored Lula’s calls, and the Brazilian responded by freezing diplomatic relations between Brazil and Nicaragua for a year as part of the ambassador’s absence from the Sandinista celebrations, angering the former guerrilla.