18.03.2023
The decision would have been taken unilaterally by the government of Daniel Ortega in what marks one more step towards the definitive break in relations between the Vatican and the Central American country.
The Apostolic Nunciature in Nicaragua closed its headquarters in Managua, after the government of the president Daniel Ortega will ask the Vatican suspend diplomatic relations last week after the declarations of the Pope Francis, who described the Sandinista Executive as a “rude dictatorship”reported this Saturday (03.18.2023) diplomatic sources.
“The Nunciature was closed after the Nicaraguan government unilaterally decided to suspend relations,” said the German Embassy in Nicaraguathrough their social networks.
The German ambassador in Nicaragua, Christoph Bundscherer, together with his colleagues from France, Brieuc Pont; from Italy, Simone De Santi; and a representative of the European Union (EU) delegation in Nicaragua, said goodbye to the Vatican’s charge d’affaires in Managua, Monsignor Marcel Diouf, “before he left the country.”
According to the Nicaraguan website Confidencial, Diouf left Nicaragua on Friday afternoon by land to Costa Rica, where he is. The outlet, which cites diplomatic sources in Rome, reported that the headquarters of the Nunciature in Managua was left under the protection of the Government of Italy, through its embassy in Managua.
Vatican sources explained to EFE that Nicaragua made a request to the Holy See for the closure of the respective diplomatic headquarters, although there is not yet a break in diplomatic relations. The request has been for the closure of both the Nunciature, the Vatican representation in the Central American country, and the Nicaraguan embassy to the Holy See, they specified.
Nicaragua has not had an ambassador to the Holy See since September 21, 2021, when Ortega canceled the appointment of Elliette Ortega Sotomayor, and it only has a counselor minister for negotiations. Likewise, in March of last year, the Government also expelled the apostolic nuncio, Monsignor Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag.
mn (efe, afp)