Media Center

Press Release

OAS Secretary General Met with Government, Opposition and Civil Society during His Visit to Nicaragua

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, during his two-day visit to Nicaragua, held numerous meetings with representatives of the Government, opposition and civil society.

Accompanied by the director of the Department for Electoral Cooperation and Observation (DECO), Pablo Gutiérrez, Secretary General Insulza met this morning with two presidential candidates, Arnoldo Alemán (Constitutionalist Liberal Party) and Fabio Gadea (Independent Liberal Party), as well as with the Latin American Electoral Experts Council (CEELA), with the National Council of Universities (CNU) and with the organization “Hagamos Democracia” (“Let’s Do Democracy”), a NGO that conducts national electoral observation.

The head of the OAS said he left with a broad vision of how the electoral process proceeds, and signaled his conviction that the Mission of Accompaniment for the general elections of November 6, to be directed by the former Argentine foreign minister Dante Caputo, will conduct its work with full freedom and in the conditions imposed by the agreements signed yesterday by the OAS with the Nicaraguan Government and the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE).

“We have not a single limitation and the agreements signed yesterday with Foreign Minister Samuel Santos and with the President of the CSE, Roberto Rivas, are exactly the same as all those we have signed in all countries where we have observed elections when we have been invited by their respective governments,” Secretary General Insulza said.

The Secretary General of the OAS said he received perspectives from the different sectors and that these will be reviewed in a more systematic way by the Mission to be installed in Managua during the first ten days of October. He explained that all the issues raised by the organizations in the meetings held during this visit will be shared with the CSE and will be part of the report that the Mission of Accompaniment will subsequently present to the OAS Permanent Council.

Secretary General Insulza asserted that he perceives, following the conversation held, that there are background issues to be discussed, as happens in all campaigns, and that he hopes these will be discussed, but that he sees in the campaign until now that a peaceful environment predominates. “I think it is important that the electoral process go forward in a peaceful way,” he said. “The way of the vote is the best way to solve problems,” he added.

The Mission the OAS will send for the elections of November 6 will be made up of 80 members led by Dante Caputo, to be distributed among the 15 departments of the country and the two autonomous regions in the Atlantic Coast.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-859/11