China and Russia try to block US from leading UN talks on Nicaragua violence

Several member nations of the UN, including Russia and China, tried Tuesday to block an effort by the Trump administration to push the UN Security Council to confront the deadly violence that has consumed Nicaragua and left more than 300 dead.

The governments of Bolivia, China and Russia are leading the opposition against US Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is seeking to use her first meeting as this month’s president of the 15-nation UN Security Council to warn the international community that the region could face economic, immigration and security consequences if steps are not taken to stop Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s increasingly authoritarian rule.

Haley opened to the public a normally closed meeting at which the Security Council sets the agenda for the next day’s full meeting. Bolivia’s representative to the UN, Sacha Llorenti and other members questioned the role of the Security Council in Nicaragua’s sovereign affairs. Llorenti, who was also joined by five other members, said the Security Council should restrict its work to “cases that threaten international peace and security.”

Haley cited the crisis in Venezuela and argued that all the explanations against having the meeting on Nicaragua, such as peace and security, being a regional issue, and more an issue for the human rights council, are the “exact same responses” that were given in opposition to holding a meeting on Venezuela.

“How many people have to die before it becomes a matter of peace and security?” Haley asked the Security Council on Tuesday when scheduling the full session on Wednesday. “I think we’ve already reached that point. It’s why the United States felt it was very important to have this meeting on Nicaragua. Because we don’t want another Syria. We don’t want another Venezuela.”

The issue of whether to hold a full Security Council meeting on Nicaragua now comes up for a vote. Haley will need nine members of the council to support the agenda item for the full meeting to continue Wednesday. If all the countries who expressed some concerns, including Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea and Kuwait, vote against the agenda item it won’t occur.