Press Briefing with Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Juan Pablo Segura

MODERATOR: Good afternoon. I am Natalia Molano, director of the U.S. Department of State's Miami Media Hub. This is an on-the-record press briefing in English with simultaneous interpretation in Spanish and Portuguese.

We are privileged to have Juan Pablo Segura, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, joining us from Washington, D.C., to discuss the U.S. position regarding the resolution on Nicaragua discussed today at the Organization of American States meeting of foreign ministers. We will begin this hub call with opening remarks, and then I will moderate questions from journalists.

Assistant Secretary Segura, you may begin your remarks.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SEGURA: Perfect. Good afternoon and happy Friday to everyone. I will just start with a statement. I think it's very important to highlight what's happened today. Nicaragua's democracy, as we all know, is a fiction, as every member of the OAS just made clear. Just last month, the regime rewrote the constitution to deprive Nicaraguans of free and fair elections and indefinitely - and let me say that again, indefinitely - entrench their illegitimate dynasty.

As we all know, and many of you have reported on, co-dictators Murillo and Ortega violently repress peaceful protests and unjustly detain, torture, and kill political opponents. This has been going on since 2018, as all OAS member-states made clear today that enough is enough. The dictatorship persecutes Catholic clergy and has opted to silence and banish independent media and civil society organizations.

The democratic crisis in Nicaragua is not just a problem for Nicaraguans. The dictatorship endangers our hemisphere's peace and security, which was a topic that was discussed quite a bit today in the OAS, by facilitating illegal immigration and embracing non-hemispheric security services which support Murillo and Ortega's repression. Murillo and Ortega give no opportunity for productive dialogue on these issues, which we have highlighted time and time again. Just yesterday, the dictators rejected agrément for our highly qualified senior diplomat, Natasha Franceschi, who is a career State Department diplomat, illustrating their unwillingness to accept even-handed professional diplomatic engagement. And for those that say this is only this administration's narrative or rhetoric, I will remind those on the line that they also rejected the Biden administration's career ambassador.

Like I said, everyone knows it - knows this. That's why earlier today, every country in our hemisphere - some like to report that there's disagreement, challenges, et cetera. Let me say again: Every country in our hemisphere spoke with one voice to demand the dictatorship release unjustly held prisoners, protect religious freedoms, return confiscated property, and reverse the anti-democratic constitutional changes that fly in the face of democracy and hold free and fair elections.

I would like to applaud the important update on the dictatorship's human rights violations in Nicaragua offered by Commissioner Rosa María Payá of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The Trump Administration was proud to have nominated her last year - a breath of fresh air - and who as rapporteur for Nicaragua, her remarks today provided an important perspective of the dictatorship's continued repression and human rights violations.

We seek a free, fair, and democratic Nicaragua, one that fully cooperates with all of our immigration goals, adequately protects U.S. citizens and businesses, and allows U.S. prosperity to expand, rejects adversarial alliances, and respects human rights and sound governance.

Thank you.

MODERATOR: We will begin to take questions from journalists. As a reminder, today's briefing is on the record, attributable to Juan Pablo Segura, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

We will start with a question received in advance from Jordi Zamora from AFP. The question is: "Is the U.S. ready to join the negotiating group with Nicaragua? Do you know who else is willing to join?"

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SEGURA: So I think this is very important that the United States is obviously a member of the coalition, the unanimous coalition of countries that have voted to travel to Nicaragua to really see what's happening on the ground and to report on the ground, and to then be able to come back and work in a coalition, and again, hopefully in a unanimous manner, to then act on a set of consequences for what's already been reported on, what we already know is true, but to act on the change that we all know needs to happen.

And let me reiterate this again: This is a brutal dictatorship that is stealing, that is lying, that is killing. And we want to make sure that there is no space amongst the countries in the OAS, like we saw today, that this dictatorship is on notice. And I'm very proud of what happened today. This is a great example of what diplomacy can achieve.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Now we're going to go to Natalia Cabrera from NTN24.

QUESTION: Hello and thank you for taking my question. We certainly celebrate these actions taken - taking forward from the - from the U.S. and the OAS, but we will also like to know if the United States is also taking the same approach with the dictatorship in Venezuela. President Trump has said that he's working very well with Delcy Rodríguez, but the situation is that they are still political prisoners, even though they are having these conversation with the assembly of 2015. So regarding the return of María Corina Machado to Venezuela, is the U.S. supporting the return of her - her return to Venezuela? Or is it blocking it?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SEGURA: Well, first and foremost - and I thought it was made very clear at the beginning of the press conference that this is focused on Nicaragua, not Venezuela. I will say, and the Secretary has talked about this dozens if not hundreds of times, that we are very focused on a three-phase plan to stabilize, to create political reconciliation, and to then have transition. There are structural differences with what's happening in both countries. We recently saw the release of an additional 50 political prisoners over the weekend in Venezuela on top of the more than thousand political prisoners that have been released by the interim government.

Let me highlight what's happened in Nicaragua, a place where we want to have dialogue. But what happens in Nicaragua? The dictatorship rejects a career bipartisan diplomat in order to send a message that they think that they exist with impunity. And so I think that we are obviously very focused on the conversation in Nicaragua. We believe that the time for ratcheting up the pressure - and it's not just the United States. It is every country in the hemisphere is agreeing to ratchet up the pressure, as you saw with the vote that happened in the OAS. And a dictatorship in Nicaragua that refuses to acknowledge the brutal things that they have done to their own people needs to obviously have a hemispheric-wide response. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Now I will call on Lucía Pineda Ubau from Canal 15, Nicaragua.

QUESTION: (Via interpreter) Hello. Thank you. Can you hear me?

MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Yes, go ahead. Proceed.

QUESTION: (Via interpreter) Yes. I just simply wanted to dig a little regarding the agreement with the regime to be able to accept the Ambassador Franceschi and at the end for them to reject her. They had already given their approval and the deadline before she was nominated for the Senate of the United States.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SEGURA: (Via interpreter) As many of you know, there is a process in - to be able to get the approval for the ambassadors. We at this moment are following this process, and they had not given us the agrément before the process that we began with the U.S. Senate, which, as you know, you need to be confirmed by the Senate for you to be able to be appointed as ambassador to a country.

We wanted to show we wanted a dialogue, a structural dialogue. We wanted a real dialogue. I think that the fact that we presented an ambassador to be able to represent the United States in their country - again, not a political ambassador again, because sometimes people say, oh, it's a political ambassador. That person has a message, the typical message, this and that. And actually what we did - what the President did - nominated an ambassador, a career ambassador from the State Department, not a political ambassador, not a partisan one. And they still rejected - rejected the agrément of Natasha Franceschi, and that shows that the Nicaraguan Government today does not want this dialogue, and they - and I want to repeat this again: They do not want to dialogue.

MODERATOR: Thank you so much. Now we're going to a question from Patricia Vasconcellos from SBT.

QUESTION: Hello.

MODERATOR: Go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi. Thank you so much for taking my question. Mr. Segura, how does the United States intend to work with other countries in the region to ensure that the commitments reflected in the resolution translate into concrete actions? What concrete steps does Washington believe should follow from it?

And if I may, a second question. As I am from Brazil, I represent SBT, a Brazilian media outlet. I know this - this is regarding Nicaragua, but if you could address any - the security concerns behind the decisions to close the diplomatic representations in Brazil following the elections that are happening in Brazil this Sunday, if you can address this matter too. Thank you.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SEGURA: You're talking about the security incident that occurred last night and today in Brazil?

MODERATOR: There was a notice about closures of the consulates in Brazil.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SEGURA: Yeah. I mean, like I mentioned, we took security steps, which are very clear in our message and in our - and what happened in Brazil, and so we worked with the security services to deal with a security issue. And so, I mean, that's all I can share about what happened there.

As it relates to the Nicaraguan resolution, let me kind of highlight what we did today, what all these countries did today. We agreed on a set of demands on the dictatorship to release political prisoners, restore civic space, restore nationality to persons the dictators arbitrarily deprived of citizenship. We demanded that they restore freedoms of expression, allow private-sector organizations to operate, allow independent state institutions, and, most importantly, reverse the illegitimate constitutional changes.

We also adopted and agreed and established a voluntary high-level group determined by foreign ministers to travel to Managua to demand these changes directly to Murillo and Ortega.

Lastly, the resolution proposes reconvening in 90 days following the return of the delegation, keeping all options on the table for holding Murillo and Ortega to account.

Thank you.

MODERATOR: All right. The last question from Uriel Velasquez, Despacho 505 from Nicaragua. Go ahead.

QUESTION: (Via interpreter) Hello, can you hear me?

MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Go ahead.

QUESTION: (Via interpreter) Hello. Thank you. Well, I wanted to ask regarding how are you - how is the United States going to respond to this refusal of the regime to grant the approval of the ambassador? I was looking for background, and it's only a very few governments who have dared to reject this appointment.

And another question that has to do with the processes that we are experiencing in the last days regarding the tension against some opposition in Nicaragua. In 2023 it was 222 political prisoners in Nicaragua that were there in the United States, and now some of them are being detained. I wanted to ask if the Trump Administration is considering granting any status to these people so that it can be avoided, we can avoid the return of them to Nicaragua, and see if some of the Congress can be able to assist on this?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SEGURA: (Via interpreter) If you are regarding all of the deportations of ICE - and this is some of the things that we do.

But regarding your question about what happened with the approval, I can tell you that there is not much precedence of what has happened here. Again, as I said previously, the government and Ortega and Murillo, they don't want to have a serious dialogue. They are not serious people.

And when it comes to talking regarding the future of the country, we see - we saw, we see - the actions that have taken place with what they have done with the agrément, of the approval. And this is also part of how we are responding. As you have seen, it's not only the United States; it's more than 20 countries together exclaiming and giving a direct message that this needs to change. And we are here. I am very proud of what happened in the OEA, in the AO - in the OAS this morning, and there's a lot more to do, and thank you so much for the question.

MODERATOR: All right. That concludes today's briefing. Thank you, everyone, for your participation. We will have an audio recording available and a transcript in English with Spanish and Portuguese translations on our website. If you have any questions, you may contact the Miami Media Hub at [email protected]. So thank you, everyone, and goodbye.

# # #