Nicaragua announced this Friday that it will break diplomatic relations with Israel, a country that Daniel Ortega’s government had been criticizing for its war against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza.
The decision is mostly political and symbolic, as exchanges between both countries are almost non-existent and Israel does not have a resident ambassador in Managua.
“Our President has instructed the Foreign Ministry of the Republic to […] proceed with the rupture of diplomatic relations with the fascist and genocidal government of Israel,” declared Vice President Rosario Murillo, wife of the leftist ruler, to pro-government media in Managua.
She stated that the government made the decision “complying with a request from the National Parliament,” controlled by Ortega’s followers, which earlier this Friday approved a motion calling for the severance of ties with the Hebrew state.
“It is most likely that in the coming hours the decree that guarantees compliance with that instruction” to break bilateral relations will be known, Murillo added. Israel and Nicaragua had reestablished diplomatic relations on March 28, 2017, after Ortega broke ties in 2010.
Managua had also cut diplomatic ties with Israel in 1982, during the Sandinista revolutionary government led by Ortega after the 1979 revolution. Israel does not have a resident ambassador in Managua, but a concurrent one based in San José.
