Nicaragua breaks off ties with Netherlands, bars new US envoy

The government of Nicaragua broke off diplomatic relations with the Netherlands on Friday over accusations of interventionism, hours after it said it would deny entry to the new US ambassador because of his “interfering” attitude.

“Nicaragua, faced with the repeated meddling, interventionist and neocolonialist position of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that has offended... with threats and suspensions of works for the common good, communicates to the Government of that country our decision to immediately discontinue diplomatic relations,” the foreign ministry said in a statement Friday night.

Earlier in the day, Nicaraguan President and former revolutionary Daniel Ortega had lashed out at the European nation after learning it would not fund a long-promised hospital.

“Those who come to disrespect our people, our homeland, they should not appear again in Nicaragua. And we do not want relations with that interventionist government,” Ortega said in reference to the Dutch ambassador for Central America, Christine Pirenne, who is based in Costa Rica.

According to the president, during a visit to the capital Managua on Thursday, Pirenne informed Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada that the Dutch would no longer be financing a hospital they promised to build years ago.

“The ambassador came to speak to Nicaraguans as if Nicaragua is a Dutch colony,” Ortega said.

The Netherlands closed its offices in Managua in 2013 and conducts all its Central American diplomatic work from Costa Rica.