Venezuelan government says it will send Sandinista fighters if civil war breaks out — MercoPress

Venezuelan government says it will send Sandinista fighters if civil war breaks out

Ortega claimed that Lula’s “government is not very clean.” “I can say a lot more,” he added.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has told his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro that his “Sandinistas” will help him if civil war breaks out in the South American country. The Nicaraguan opposition refuses to recognize the July 28 announcement by the National Electoral Council (CNE) that the incumbent president had been re-elected.

Moreover, earlier this month, the Supreme Court Electoral Chamber approved the results at Maduro’s request, despite the fact that there was no documentation to support them. Still, Ortega criticized Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s decision not to recognize Maduro as the winner, at least for now.

“You can trust the Sandinista fighters,” Ortega told Maduro at the 11th Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State of the Bolivarian Alliance for Our America (Alba), an online meeting also attended by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora.

Ortega also foresaw that if a full-scale armed conflict broke out, “Colombian mercenaries, Colombian killers, Colombian drug traffickers” would be involved.

“Nicholas, they have to be ready, they have a long border with Colombia, they have to be ready to fight Colombia and defeat them because I am sure that if there is a fight, they will defeat them,” added the former rebel leader, who has remained in power following a disputed election while all his opponents are either in exile or in prison.

Ortega insisted that “tens of thousands of Latin American and Caribbean fighters will join in the defence of the Bolivarian Revolution… just as tens of thousands of fighters joined the fight against Somoza in Nicaragua in the 1970s”.

In addition to Lula, the Nicaraguan president also slammed Colombian President Gustavo Petro for not recognizing Maduro’s victory. “Poor Petro, I saw him competing with Lula to see who would be the leader representing Latin America.”

“If you want me to respect you, you respect me, Lula. If you want the Bolivarian people to respect you, you respect the victory of President Maduro and don’t let (the United States) drag you down,” Ortega said in a letter to the leaders of the Workers’ Party. Ortega also recalled Lula’s ignominious past in connection with the Car Wash corruption scandal. “That was not a very clean government, Lula, you have to remember that, because I can still say a lot,” he continued.

Brazil has responded to Managua’s expulsion of its ambassador for failing to attend celebrations of the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution.

Ortega insisted that “groveling” Lula was “groveling” to the imperialist United States and denounced “a groveling government, traitors … who (had been) so progressive, so revolutionary and now (are suggesting) that new elections must be held.”

The Sandinista leader also admitted that he rejected a call from Lula, who wanted to convey a message from Pope Francis about the Nicaraguan government’s persecution of Catholic organizations. Ortega argued: “We don’t need an intermediary, and we didn’t ask Lula to act as an intermediary,” while calling the Vatican a “tool of fascism.”

Nicaragua expelled the Brazilian ambassador from Managua for failing to attend the 45th anniversary celebrations of the Sandinista Revolution, and Brasilia did the same.