OAS Countries Seek October Meeting to Consider Measures Against Nicaragua

A group of five countries in the Organization of American States (OAS) is proposing that the region’s foreign ministers meet on October 2 to examine “appropriate actions” against Nicaragua, according to a draft agenda reviewed on Monday. Member states of the organization will meet this Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. (14:00 GMT) in the Permanent Council to vote on that date, following weeks of internal negotiations. “The Permanent Mission of Paraguay, on its own behalf and on behalf of the Permanent Missions of Argentina, Chile, the United States and Peru (…) proposed Friday, October 2, 2026, as the date” for the extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers, the draft states. The region’s top diplomats are expected to “consider the situation in Nicaragua and appropriate actions,” the text says, referring to the Sandinista government’s announcement that it would prohibit the opposition from participating in elections. The OAS approved holding this “Meeting of Consultation” of foreign ministers on August 19, an unusual mechanism. Nicaragua withdrew from the OAS in November 2023. President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who serves alongside him in the presidency, accuse the opposition of being “traitors to the homeland,” and Nicaragua’s National Assembly voted earlier this month to impose the electoral ban. The last meeting of OAS foreign ministers, representing the organization’s 33 active members, was held at the end of 2019 because of the situation in Venezuela. The United States, which this year has adopted a broad series of economic sanctions against Nicaragua’s presidential couple, the government and key entities in the Central American country, is pressing the OAS to take measures aimed at further isolating the Ortega-Murillo government. The OAS itself does not have the power to impose sanctions. Such measures must instead be implemented individually by member countries.