MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — The Nicaraguan government has confiscated Taiwan’s former embassy and diplomatic offices, saying they belong to China.
President Daniel Ortega’s government broke ties with Taiwan this month, saying it would recognize only the mainland government.
Before departing, Taiwanese diplomats attempted to donate property to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Managua.
But Ortega’s government said late Sunday that any such donation would be void and that the building in an expensive area of Managua belonged to China.
The attorney general’s office said in a statement that Dan’s attempt was “maneuvering and trickery to take things that don’t belong to him.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Relations condemned the “severely illegal actions of the Ortega regime”, saying the Nicaraguan government violated standard procedures by giving Taiwanese diplomats only two weeks to leave the country.
It said that Taiwan also “condemns the arbitrary obstruction by the Nicaraguan government to the symbolic sale of its assets to the Nicaraguan Catholic Church.”
Vicar Carlos Aviles of the Archdiocese of MSGR Managua told La Prensa newspaper that a Taiwanese diplomat offered the church the property, saying “I told him there was no problem, but the transfer was still in the legal process.”
The Central American country said in early December that it would officially recognize only China, which claims self-governing Taiwan as part of its territory.
“There is only one China,” the Nicaraguan government said in a statement announcing the change. “The People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government representing the whole of China, and Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory.”
The move increased Taiwan’s diplomatic isolation on the international stage, even as the island increased official exchanges with countries such as Lithuania and Slovakia, which formally recognized Taiwan as a country. do not give. Now, Taiwan has 14 formal diplomatic allies left.
China has been hunting Taiwan’s diplomatic allies over the past few years, reducing the number of countries that recognize the democratic island as a sovereign nation. China is against representing Taiwan in global forums or diplomacy. The Solomon Islands chose to recognize China in 2019, breaking diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Taiwan refers to itself as a defender of democracy, while Ortega was re-elected in November in what the White House called a “pantomime election”.
US President Joe Biden said in a statement in November, “The arbitrary imprisonment of nearly 40 opposition figures since May, including seven potential presidential candidates, and the barring of political parties from participating in the results before election day.” I was rigged.”
Nicaragua established diplomatic relations with Taiwan in the 1990s, when President Violet Chamorro took power after defeating Ortega’s Sandinista movement in elections. Ortega, who was elected back to power in 2007, had so far maintained ties with Taipei.
