MANAGUA – President Daniel Ortega this week reportedly reversed his decision to name longtime Sandinista militant and analyst Oscar René Vargas to the post of Nicaraguan Ambassador to France, following a recent interview in the daily La Prensa in which Vargas mildly criticized the Ortega administration.
Vargas, an academic and loyal Sandinista from the early 1970s, said that Foreign Minister Samuel Santos called him at home Aug. 2 and told him to unpack his bags because President Ortega had canceled his appointment to the embassy in Paris. When Vargas asked why, he said he was told “because of the interview.”
In a recent interview with La Prensa, Vargas said he though that the new government was going to create adversity – a comment that apparently cost his his job.
Vargas, however, said, that he wasn’t sure what the problem was over his statements, which he said occurred during a “light interview.”
The Foreign Ministry has not yet made any official comment on the on the issue.
