“Hand? It’s been a while since he left” Ortega, Mujica said, in response to a question from the press about the situation in Nicaragua.
The Nicaraguan government detained hundreds of opponents in the climate of repression that followed the political and social crisis in 2018 of street protests against President Daniel Ortega, a former guerrilla in power since 2007, reelected successively in contested elections.
On Wednesday, Nicaragua declared 94 exiled opponents “traitors to the homeland,” including writers Sergio Ramirez and Gioconda Bellistripping them of their nationality and disqualifying them for life from holding public office.
José “Pepe” Mujica, who was also a leftist guerrilla in the 20th century before converting to Uruguayan democratic politics and becoming president (2010-2015), made the comment about Ortega at the exit of an act in the University of the Republicin which he was honored by the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombiafor “his contribution to the peace building process” in that country.
“We didn’t do anything other than what we had to do,” Mujica said of his facilitating role. “I feel part of Colombia, because it is our America.”
The 87-year-old former president, retired from parliamentary life, commented that now his role “is to sow ideas so that new generations can pick them up.”
Source: Ambito
