International body votes to convene emergency meeting over Nicaragua

The Organization of American States (OAS), a regional human rights body, has voted to convene an urgent meeting of foreign ministers over Nicaragua, declaring that representative democracy “no longer exists” in the country.

On Wednesday, the OAS Permanent Council approved a resolution calling for the meeting by a lopsided vote of 29 to 1, with one abstention and two countries absent, according to a post on the social media platform X.

The resolution calls developments in Nicaragua “a problem of an urgent nature and of common interest to the American States”.

It invokes some of the OAS Charter’s heaviest tools – Articles 61, 62 and 63 – whose provisions are often reserved for emergencies that demand a collective response.

The council’s president has also been instructed to draft a meeting agenda “as soon as possible”.

The vote was held in response to developments under the co-presidency of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, a husband-and-wife leadership team.

Ortega, who led Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, returned to power in 2007, and in the years since, he has been accused of consolidating power at the expense of human rights.

In July, for instance, his government unveiled a new set of constitutional reforms that would extend his presidential term from six to seven years.