Nicaraguan Congress asks president to withdraw country from OAS

BOGOTA, Colombia

Nicaragua’s Congress asked President Daniel Ortega on Tuesday to withdraw the country from the Organization of American States (OAS) after the organization voted last week to condemn the country’s Nov. 7 presidential vote, which has been widely questioned by the international community.

Congressional Speaker Gustavo Porras said the decision to withdraw from the organization was approved “in view of the repeated interference actions of the OAS in the internal affairs of Nicaragua.”

Lawmakers asked Ortega to reject the OAS charter, which is the formal process to leave the organization. The Congress, controlled by Ortega’s left-wing Sandinista National Liberation Front, approved the motion.

Ortega, 76, who has been in power since 2007, was declared the winner of the election alongside his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, after nearly 40 of his opponents were arrested by government security forces months before the country's vote.

Last Friday, the OAS declared that the elections "were not free, fair or transparent and lacked democratic legitimacy."

The US on Tuesday imposed an entry ban on Ortega, his wife and his government.

US President Joe Biden has called the elections a "pantomime."

"What Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, orchestrated today was a pantomime election that was neither free nor fair, and most certainly not democratic," Biden said.​​​​​​​

"Long unpopular and now without a democratic mandate, the Ortega and Murillo family now rule Nicaragua as autocrats." ​​​​​​

Other countries, including the UK and Canada, have also announced sanctions against Nicaraguan officials.

The Central American country’s exit from the inter-American system must still be approved by the president and notified to the OAS.